Healthy democracies do no burn legal documents. This recent and disturbing trend when confronted with an issue that took place during Covid policy approaches should be considered as an attempt to hide serious crimes from the public at a time when the public is at its weakest. When such options are available to a […]
China tried to save face last week, by lashing out at those critical of its human rights record during a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council.
Last Monday, in a ceremony at Bangui airport, about 1,800 additional peacekeepers and police joined a mission under U.N. control in the battle-torn Central African Republic CAR), along with the previous contingent of 4,800 African troops and 1,000 international police. The new reinforcements have come from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Morocco and Bangladesh, joining others […]
Police detained this supporter of Xu Zhiyong who had gathered with other activists outside the court Human Rights Watch accused China on Tuesday of failing to meet its people’s demands for political reform and for its pursuit of anti-corruption activists — despite its declared crackdown on graft. The New York based organization accused the Chinese […]
NGO Human Rights Watch is saying that fighting on both sides of the November 2012 Gaza-Israel conflict violated the laws of war. In two different reports with data and information collected post-fighting, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that militants in Gaza targeted civilian, non-enemy combatants. They also say that Israel made unlawful attacks on Palestinian […]
One of the uprisings in the Middle East that has failed to garner a lot of attention is the situation in Bahrain. Even though Bahrainis took to the Lulu Roundabout much the same way Egyptians did in Tahrir Square just days after Mubarak’s ouster and before major protests broke out in Libya, the story itself […]
The disillusioned community of journalists in Pakistan is directly blaming the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI), a spy agency of the Pakistan army, for the killing of a renowned investigative reporter, Syed Saleem Shahzad, who worked as the Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times. The reputed correspondent went missing on May 29th on his way to […]
Young women beside a fountain in a park, Tajikistan, July 2009. © Amnesty International I am a huge fan of the BBC World Service and have been following their Extreme World series of programs – a collection of TV, radio and online coverage that examines the extremes of our planet from education and corruption to attitudes […]
Human Rights Watch reported on Tuesday that it was forced to shut down its operation in Uzbekistan after a 15 year presence in the country. For an unspecified reason, the Uzbek Justice Ministry moved to revoke HRW registration earlier this week which necessitated the organization to close its offices in Tashkent, the country’s capital. “With […]
The media is often used by those with competing messages to disseminate information or dis-information. Sometimes, though, the message is a lie. Vietnam is an unfortunate example of manipulating the media and choking free speech for their own destructive ends. Just yesterday, several Vietnamese writers were given honors for their work under severe pressure from […]
According to two of Human Rights Watch’s top Latin America experts, the way forward in the largely stalemated US-Cuba relationship is for the Obama administration to drop pursuit of the regime change clauses of Helms-Burton in favor of a one-issue focus on human rights, then team with international partners to push for one simple goal […]
Yesterday Human Rights Watch released their annual World Report for 2010, detailing the state of human rights affairs around the world for the previous year. Many of the stories they focused on were also covered and editorialized here throughout 2009, from government abuses in Eritrea and Sri Lanka to increased civilian casualties in the Democratic […]
Overview This past year was another interesting one for Venezuela, and it is a country where one never knows what will happen next. Overall, Chávez continued to advance his “Bolivarian revolution”. This effort included a number of laws passed by the National Assembly, a body that typically rubber stamps initiatives proposed by the Venezuelan president. […]
Human Rights Watch has landed back in the news, though not in the way that it likes. For the last few months the organization has endured controversy over its coverage and position on Israel. First, news broke in July of a fundraising trip that Human Rights Watch undertook to Saudi Arabia where the representatives allegedly highlighted […]
It remains possible to disagree with the Venezuelan government over its policies. It appears more difficult to do so within the country. Yesterday one more opposition leader sought asylum from what he considers oppression from the Chávez administration. Oscar Pérez, who is part of the Alianza Bravo Pueblo (ABP) party, is now charged by the […]