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What Rights?

What Rights?

Written by: What Rights
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 What Rights? is a podcast that explores how borders, laws, and politics shape—and often deny—the rights of individuals in Italy, the UK, and beyond.

Hosted by Pierluisa Maligno, a social scientist and activist living between nations, this show dives into citizenship, migration, justice, and democracy with a critical yet personal lens.

From referendums in Italy to the UK's immigration white papers, each episode tackles legal and political questions that affect real lives.

🎧 In English, with occasional bilingual content.

Because if rights are granted, they can also be taken away. So... What Rights?Copyright What Rights Science Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 🎙️Gaza and the Media: Who Decides What Matters?

    🎙️Gaza and the Media: Who Decides What Matters?
    Jul 7 2025
    In this episode, we look at how the international media have covered the conflict in Gaza — and how narrative itself becomes a tool of power.
    We examine the differences between two broadcasters in their reporting of violence, humanitarian crises, and the lives affected, through the lenses of framing theory, the propaganda model, and an anti-colonial perspective.
    We will examine how language, omissions, and rhetorical techniques, such as card stacking and labelling, build consensus and silence, legitimise injustice, and determine which lives matter.

    🎧 At the end of the episode, we preview the following topic: the devastating impact of Shell’s oil spills in the Niger Delta. Who pays the price of profit?

    🎧 Host: Pierluisa Maligno What Rights? – Because rights are not negotiated, they are defended.

    🎵 Music credits:"Jazz at Mladost Club – Balkan Improvisation"Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Jazz at Mladost Club - Balkan improvisation - Free Music Archive
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    16 mins
  • 🎙️Beyond the Border: The Italy-Albania Protocol and the Suspension of Rights

    🎙️Beyond the Border: The Italy-Albania Protocol and the Suspension of Rights
    Jul 3 2025
    What happens when borders move, but rights remain unchanged? In this episode, Pierluisa Maligno analyses the controversial Italy-Albania Protocol, signed by the Meloni government to manage migrants rescued at sea. An agreement that moves reception outside of Europe's borders, but brings with it profound implications on colonialism, racism, legality and human rights.
    🎙️ Topics covered:
    • What is the Italy-Albania Protocol, and how does it work
    • The push-pull theory applied to sea migration.
    • Externalisation of borders: a new form of colonialism?
    • The role of media narrative and the spectacularization of rescues
    • The silence of the institutions and the action of the Italian judiciary
    • Why MEPs contest it
    • The legal and humanitarian risks reported by Amnesty International

    🎧 Host: Pierluisa Maligno What Rights? – Because rights are not negotiated, they are defended.

    🎵 Music credits:"Jazz at Mladost Club – Balkan Improvisation"Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Jazz at Mladost Club - Balkan improvisation - Free Music Archive

    🎙️ Listen to the episode to discover how the Albania Protocol becomes a symbol of an increasingly widespread model: externalising borders to dehumanise people.
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    13 mins
  • 🎙️ “Are You Settled?” – When Dignity Becomes a Condition and Not a Right

    🎙️ “Are You Settled?” – When Dignity Becomes a Condition and Not a Right
    Jun 17 2025
    What does it mean to be “settled”?

    In this episode, we unpack the UK’s 2025 Immigration White Paper and ask:
    Is migration being reduced—or are rights being restricted?
    From public policy to personal story, from statistics to silence, this is a deep dive into the politics of belonging.

    ✊ Sign the petition: https://chng.it/zMx4QdnJkG

    We open with an update from our first episode on Italy’s failed citizenship referendum, where abstention became a form of privilege. And we close with a preview of our next episode: the Italy–Albania Protocol and the politics of externalised borders.

    🎙 Hosted by Pierluisa Maligno

    🎵 Music credits:
    "Jazz at Mladost Club – Balkan Improvisation"
    Licensed under CC BY 4.0
    Jazz at Mladost Club - Balkan improvisation - Free Music Archive
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    10 mins
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