Main theme: Advancing Social Rights Protection for Future Crises
Editors of the volume: Anna Drabarz with Guest Editor Łucja Kobroń-Gąsiorowska

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Social Charter, which took place last year, The Eastern European Journal of Transnational Relations (EEJTR), published by the Faculty of Law, University of Białystok, Poland, is pleased to announce a call for papers for the upcoming volume focused on the future of social rights in Central and Eastern Europe. The crises induced by the Covid-19 pandemic not only exacerbated existing inequalities across the countries in Central and Eastern Europe and around the world, but also magnified the effects of public funds mismanagement, decreasing overall trust in politics and institutions and often generating social unrest and turmoil. It provided grounds for civil society and organised workers to push for new topics to be added to governments’ agendas, as it violently forced public authorities to think about and deal with urgent issues that had not been prioritised before. At the same time, other challenges appear on the horizon - returning migrant crisis and natural social developments in human behaviour and expectations. While societies are trying to recover from the crisis, there is a great momentum for making social justice a priority through a just transition and for pushing progressive ideas into law and policymaking at both the regional and national levels. Investing efforts in projecting job-rich growth, social protection and a just transition to a net-zero emissions future, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, could prevent further deepening of the inequalities between developed and developing economies that have been exacerbated during the COVID19 pandemic. Can the efforts make us immune to future crises?

This volume continues and expands upon discussions which took place during a seminar on “Current challenges and opportunities for social rights protection in the light of the Revised European Social Charter” organised by the Polish Section of the Academic Network on the European Social Charter and Social Rights (ANESC) in collaboration with the University of Bialystok, Poland and with the support of the Department of the European Social Charter of the Council of Europe (November 23, 2021). During the seminar, academics with different background and expertise discussed topics such as children’s rights, labour rights, health, social security and education, analysing how to reinforce the European Social Charter system and its relevance in Europe.

The authors of the manuscripts submitted to this issue are encouraged to (1) analyse and reflect on specific aspects of social rights in selected CEE countries; (2) discuss emerging broad issues, challenges, urgent problems concerning social rights protection in the whole region, such as labour rights in the era of gig economy and digitisation, migrants’ rights, the right to sustainable environment and many more; and (3) discuss how to tackle them in the context of present and future crises.

Due to this journal’s mission to provide a forum for sharing knowledge and research between Eastern European countries (including post-Soviet states) and Western European countries, as well as North America, submissions are welcomed, not only from authors representing CEE countries, but also from authors beyond this region, who would like to contribute to the academic debate on in this part of Europe.
I
MPORTANT DATES:
Papers’ submission: May 10, 2022
Initial acceptance decision: May 17, 2022
Reviews: June 20, 2022
Submission of revised papers: July 4, 2022
Publication: July 31, 2022

Editorial requirements for the Authors available at: http://eejtr.uwb.edu.pl/submissions/
Proposed papers should be submitted to the editors:
Anna Drabarz (University of Białystok): a.drabarz@uwb.edu.pl
Łucja Kobroń-Gąsiorowska (Uniwersytet Pedagogiczny im. Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w
Krakowie): lucja.kobron-gasiorowska@up.krakow.pl
Additional information and requirements: www.eejtr.uwb.edu.pl