By: EU Business, December 14, 2009
The European Union does not recognise the presidential election in the breakaway region of Abkhazia and continues to back Georgia’s territorial integrity, the Swedish EU presidency said Monday. “The European Union does not recognise the constitutional and legal framework within which these elections have taken place,” the EU presidency said in a statement on behalf of all 27 member states.
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Turkey: Kurdish legislators set for boycott
By: Al Jazeera, December 14, 2009
Kurdish legislators have said they will boycott the Turkish parliament after the main Kurdish party, the Democratic Society Party (DTP), was banned by the country’s constitutional court. Ahmet Turk, the DTP chairman, has said party legislators have already “pulled out from parliament” and would boycott all further work. The constitutional court outlawed the DTP on Friday, saying it had links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which the government has listed as a “terrorist group”.
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Denmark: World’s largest climate justice demonstration draws massive crackdown
By: Bryan Farrell, Waging Nonviolence, December 14, 2009
As many as 100,000 took part in a four mile march on Saturday from Copenhagen’s Parliament Square to the Bella Center, where climate negotiators from 192 countries are meeting. It was reportedly the largest demonstration for climate justice in world history. It seems a large segment of those arrested include anarchists participating in a black bloc, a tactic, according to Wikipedia, “whereby individuals wear black clothing, ski masks and motorcycle helmets with padding, steel-toed boots and often carrying their own shields and truncheons.” As with most large actions, these are the news items that tend to dominate, stealing attention away from the positive power of the protest and “legitimizing” state force.
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Denmark: Protests in Copenhagen- rights groups press for inquiry into police tactics
By: Bibi van der Zee, The Guardian, December 13, 2009
Denmark may be breaching European law, Danish human rights groups claimed tonight as they called for their government to launch an immediate inquiry after police in Copenhagen used controversial kettling and mass preventative arrest tactics for the third day running. Following the arrest of 68 people on Friday, and 958 yesterday on Saturday, police today arrested 257 demonstrators, “kettling” a section of a march near Osterport station, and as they had done on Saturday, cuffed the protesters and put them onto buses transporting them to a detention centre.
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Denmark: Protesters call for more from UN Climate Summit
By: Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones, December 12, 2009
Tens of thousands of protesters marched from downtown Copenhagen to the United Nations climate summit on Saturday, a public display of support for measures to address climate change. The protest included both those simply looking to urge negotiators toward a better deal at the summit and others from anarchist and anti-capitalist groups, though the unifying message was that world leaders have not done enough about climate change. Organizers estimated that the crowd numbered 100,000, while other observers said it was closer to 60,000. They came dressed in in polar suits, painted blue to symbolize rising sea levels, and wearing masks of world leaders.
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Belarusian cartoons at human rights film fest
By: Adam Schrader, Bikya Masr, December 12, 2009
Pavel Yahoravich Marozau is a Belarusian activist that has been involved in the politics and diaspora community for the last 5 years. He created a cartoon called “Lukashenko”, named after the current president of Belarus, that details the politic workings of his home country and the government’s infringements on their citizens’ human rights. The short cartoons, each is around a minute long, are available on Youtube and several will be screened at this year’s Cairo Human Rights Film Festival that opens December 20.
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Armenia: Yerevan’s anti-corruption campaign going nowhere fast
By: Marianna Grigoryan, Eurasia Insight, December 12, 2009
Amid civil society calls for Armenia to take part in the United Nations’ December 9 International Anti-Corruption Day, some local observers contend that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s anti-corruption strategy has so far proven to have more bark than bite. The government’s official corruption crackdown began under the late-prime minister Andranik Margarian, who kicked off the campaign in 2003. Since his election in 2008, President Sargsyan has made the “transparent and continuous fight against bribery” an administration priority.
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CENTRAL ASIA
Kazakh court rejects appeal by jailed journalist
By: Spero News, December 14, 2009 The Zhambyl regional appeals court in southern Kazakhstan has upheld the verdict against jailed independent journalist Ramazan Esergepov, RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service reports. Esergepov’s wife, Raushan Esergepova, told RFE/RL that her husband intends to appeal to Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court. Esergepov, the owner and chief editor of the Almaty-based weekly “Alma-Ata Inform,” was sentenced to three years of jail this summer for revealing state secrets in an article printed in his newspaper in November 2008. Read full article… Azerbaijan: The simple power of writing a letter
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EAST ASIA
Chinese dissident to face trial for subversion
By: China Economic Review, December 14, 2009 A Chinese dissident arrested 12 months ago after publishing an appeal for multi-party democracy in China has been indicted on charges of incitement to subvert state power, the Financial Times reported. Liu Xiaobo, a 53-year-old former literature professor, faces up to 15 years in jail if he is found guilty. Liu was arrested after he co-authored Charter 08, an appeal to the government to “end the practice of treating words as crimes. A prominent activist, Liu entered the spotlight during the Tianamen student movement two-decades ago and has been actively calling for government reform since then. Read full article… China blocks Sun TV signal in content crackdown China: Government shuts down BitTorrent sites, netizens distressed Democracy “referendum” plan heats up Hong Kong politics No respite for China’s human rights dissidents Tibetans take to the streets over “terrorist” monk China: Rights defense and nonviolent noncooperation |
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SOUTH ASIA
India: Mining company’s scare tactics against human rights NGO
By: Survival International, December 14, 2009 Metals giant Vedanta Resources’ Indian subsidiary has launched an unprecedented attack on Survival International, apparently to drive its researchers out of an area where the company is planning to mine. The mining company has falsely accused Survival of ‘forcedly interacting’ with the Dongria Kondh tribe who live around the area earmarked for mining, and of causing ‘unrest.’ Survival researchers were in the Niyamgiri area of Orissa, east India, to talk with members of the Dongria Kondh community whose future is threatened by a proposed Vedanta mine on their sacred mountain. Read full article… India: Demonstration planned in Delhi for separate Mithila state Afghan women lead protest against government corruption
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SOUTHEAST ASIA
Burma: Activists say Than Shwe’s future still uncertain
By: Democratic Voice of Burma, December 14, 2009 As Burma gears up for rare elections due next year, eyes are turning to the fate of the country’s ageing military strongman, Than Shwe, and a possible succession, exiled activists say. A new constitution approved in a widely criticized 2008 referendum says that the State Peace and Development Council – the junta that Than Shwe heads – must hand over power to a new national assembly after the elections. Than Shwe may take over the new presidential position provided for by the constitution to maintain his hold on power, according to opposition activists living in exile in Thailand. Read full article… Burma: ‘Judiciary system’, junta’s arm for abuses British government launches innovative Burma campaign |
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Viêt Nam: Un blogueur et militant démocrate formé en France risque la peine de mort
By: RSF, December 14, 2009 Reporters sans frontières a exprimé sa vive inquiétude au sujet du blogueur et militant démocrate Nguyen Tien Trung, détenu depuis plus de cinq mois au Viêt-nam et qui encourt désormais la peine de mort. Les charges retenues contre lui ont été requalifiées, il est désormais accusé de “tentative de renversement du régime du peuple” en vertu de l’article 79 du code penal vietnamien, une accusation passible de la peine capitale. Son procès devrait se tenir d’ici à la fin du mois. Read full article…
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“The People Speak”: Howard Zinn traces social change
By: Brian Stelter, NY Times, December 11, 2009 In Howard Zinn’s new documentary, “The People Speak,” the actress Marisa Tomei is shown reading aloud an essay by a worker at a 19th-century textile mill in Lowell, Mass., who led other women to protest wage reductions and demand better working conditions. So much of Mr. Zinn’s career, reflected in his “People’s History of the United States” book, has been about the struggle for social change. With “The People Speak,” which has its premiere on the History Channel on Sunday (at 8 p.m., Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time), he is having a raft of celebrities recount that effort through the words of people who were there. “It’s the people’s point of view of history,” said the actor Josh Brolin, an executive producer of the film. Read full article… Afghanistan’s ‘bravest woman’ pins hopes on U.S., not Obama |
By: Al Giordano, Narco News, December 14, 2009
In this age of fast changing communications technology, many of our readers and supporters, like us, are in the position of having to upgrade at times to a better video camera, laptop or other work tool. And so as 2009 comes to a close we invite you to please consider donating any of these tools you can to The Fund for Authentic Journalism so that we can grant them to our soon-to-be graduates to take back to their own countries and more effectively do this vital work of breaking the information blockades, faster, better and with greater coherence. In February 2010, we’ll be training 31 students from 24 countries intensively in how to use these modern-day weapons effectively to produce videos, documentaries, websites and investigative journalism.
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Conference on women’s empowerment
By: One World, December 2009
Immaculate College of Education for Women will host an international conference on women’s education for empowerment from February 5- 6, 2010 in Puducherry, India. The deadline for submitting papers is January 4, 2010. Since there are many more aspects to be deliberated, the 2010 conference will act as a step to provoke new thoughts and to strengthen the existing knowledge. It will provide a forum of educationists, research scholars, social scientists, women activists and NGOs to address the issues and challenges related to women empowerment.
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