ICNC is now accepting applications for the 2010 Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict at Tufts University. This week-long Institute, now in its fifth year, will run from June 20 – 26 and brings together international professionals and journalists from around the world to learn from top practitioners and scholars about strategic concepts and present applications of civil resistance.
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OCEANIA
As Fiji regime stays silent, concern grows over politician seized by soldiers
By: Radio New Zealand International, March 11, 2010 The Australia-based Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement has expressed its concern about a former parliamentarian, Peceli Rinakama, who has not been seen since last Friday. Reports say he was seized by soldiers, but the military and the interim government refuse to comment. Read full article… |
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AFRICA
Gambia row over wave of arrests
By: BBC News, March 11, 2010 An opposition leader has criticised a wave of arrests in The Gambia, saying detainees – including a former minister – do not know why they are being held. Read full article… Nigeria women protest at Jos killings We will fight for the soul of Nigeria Nigeria: Young people power UN says Congo rights situation remains ‘problematic’ The subjugation of the people of Zimbabwe for the sake of power |
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NORTH AMERICA
Internet restrictions curtail human rights, says US
By: BBC News, March 11, 2010 Many governments have used the internet to curtail freedom of expression at home, the US state department says in its latest annual human rights report. Read full article… U.S. recognizes Afghans, Iranian as among ‘International Women of Courage’ US: Human rights defenders receive the International Women of Courage Award US: Students to ‘come out’ as undocumented US: U.N. Security Council action required immediately Archival documentary evidence of Mexico’s human rights abuses US lifts web sanctions on Cuba, Iran and Sudan US: Web firms under fire to protect human rights US: Philadelphia activists rally and risk arrest to tell the EPA no more mountaintop removal mining |
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CENTRAL AMERICA/CARIBBEAN
Journalist shot dead in Honduras
By: Monster and Critics, March 12, 2010 Honduran journalist David Meza was gunned down in his hometown of La Ceiba, according to local media reports. The 51-year-old radio and television journalist was shot in his car late Thursday as he tried to escape his attackers while metres from his house in the coastal town about 200 kilometres north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, the online edition of La Tribuna reported. Read full article… Lula irks friends and foes by comparing Cuban dissidents to criminals Cuban dissident seeks “humanitarian gesture” from Raul Castro Ailing Cuban hunger striker refuses treatment again Honduras opposition calls for day to mark coup anniversary |
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SOUTH AMERICA
Exposed: Chevron’s cover-up of gross environmental abuses in Ecuador
By: AlterNet, March 8, 2010 What is a lost culture? Is it just some intangible time before? Is it an economy? Can you inventory a lost culture in the number of lives lost or rivers polluted? Chevron claims it’s not responsible for dumping 18 billion gallons of industrial wastewater into the Amazon. A local leader says otherwise. Read full article… A consolidation of democracy in Colombia Venezuelan official disputes report on human rights abuses |
By: Washington Note, March 10, 2010
Like the Iraqi vote, the Ukrainian one was closely watched by international observers and domestic officers. For Ukraine, the elections were peaceful and smooth. International monitors declared the poll clean and observers around the world applauded Viktor Yanukovich’s peaceful transition to power, hailing his inauguration on February 25, 2010, as a symbol of Ukraine’s strengthening democracy.
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Russia: Grozny, rebuilt, fearful and (almost) forgotten by the West
By: Tanya Lokshina, Open Democracy, March 10, 2010
Downtown Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, is ablaze with lights and full of chic shops now. But the paralysing fear remains. Human Rights Watch’s Tanya Lokshina and her Memorial colleagues tell a rare visitor from the West about the kidnappings, about the relatives too fearful to complain.
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Tide of protest engulfs more Russian cities
By: Claire Bigg, RFE, March 10, 2010
Tatyana, a 50-year-old preschool teacher in the central Russian city of Penza, must now spend 5,000 rubles ($168) per month on water, gas, and electricity. This leaves her with just 2,300 rubles ($77) to feed her two teenage children and her husband, an invalid whose health problems prevent him from working. Panicked, Tatyana decided to take to the street. She joined a rally in Penza organized by the opposition this past weekend to protest worsening living conditions and call for the ouster of local leaders. As many as 10,000 people rallied in Kaliningrad in January.
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Turkish reporters unite to protest YouTube ban
By: Clothilde Le Coz, PBS, March 9, 2010
The Turkish courts banned YouTube in May 2008, and now a new protest campaign launched by the editorial team of the Milliyet newspaper is drawing attention to how long the country has been prevented from using the website.
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UK: Environmental activists may soon benefit from “paradox of repression”
By: Bryan Farrell, Waging Nonviolence, March 9, 2010
According to The Guardian, the head of a right wing group known as the Young Britons’ Foundation has called for trespassing environmental activists to be “shot down” by police. His words are more than just bluster, however, considering that the Young Britons’ Foundation is in the business of training Tory parliamentary candidates.
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By: Emil Guliyev, AFP, March 10, 2010
An Azerbaijani court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by two bloggers jailed after satirizing the government with an Internet video that showed a donkey giving a press conference, their lawyer said.
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Tajikistan: Independent newspapers prosecuted
By: Suhrob Majidov, CACI Analyst, March 3, 2010
On February 23, a preliminary hearing took place in a lawsuit against three independent weekly newspapers and a lawyer that were accused of libel for publishing the content of a press conference.The judges demanded to defend their honor and dignity and to recoup moral damage at a total amount of 5,5 million somoni (approximately US$1,2 million).
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SOUTH ASIA
Transparency International calls for protection of civil society organisations in Sri Lanka
By: Transparency International, March 11, 2010 Transparency International (TI) is alarmed by the intimidation tactics and public allegations threatening civil society organisations in Sri Lanka, and in particular those against the TI chapter, Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL). Transparency International appeals to the Government of Sri Lanka to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of Weliamuna and all other officials and staff of TISL. Read full article… Six killed in attack on World Vision office in Pakistan |
By: BBC News, March 11, 2010
Burma’s leaders have formally annulled the National League for Democracy’s 1990 election win, under laws enacted for polls expected later this year.
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Burmese opposition displeased with electoral law
By: Mizzima, March 11, 2010
Burma’s military rulers on Tuesday announced the Electoral Law for its planned general election to be held later this year. But the country’s main opposition party, National League for Democracy (NLD), said the Electoral Law is yet another set of rules to ensure the election is neither free nor fair and instead conducted primarily to further the regime’s interests. Mizzima was able to contact NLD legal advisers Nyan Win and Aung Thein to gain further insight into the position of the political opposition.
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Vietnam: Dissident lawyer detained, freed
By: Cathnews Asia, March 11, 2010
A Vietnamese Christian lawyer, detained for four hours shortly after her release from three years in prison, has been freed, Church sources say.
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Vietnam dissident vows to carry on struggle after prison
By: AFP, March 10, 2010
A Vietnamese lawyer and dissident vowed on Wednesday to carry on her struggle for democracy days after leaving jail, where she spent three years for challenging the Communist authorities.
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Burma, frozen in tyranny
By: Financial Times, March 10, 2010
The end of the cold war unfroze deadlocked political situations all over the world. But political freedom did not advance everywhere in 1989. Most obviously that was the year that the Chinese government sent the tanks into Tiananmen Square. And 1989 was also the year that Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest in Burma. Who would have believed that twenty-one years later, this heroic woman would still be a political prisoner?
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New law barring Burma opposition leader condemned
By: AP, March 10, 2010
A decision by Myanmar’s military junta to bar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from upcoming elections drew sharp criticism from around the world, with one of the country’s Southeast Asian allies Thursday calling it “a complete farce.”
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Burma: Election laws may shut down opposition parties
By: Human Rights Watch, March 10, 2010
Newly issued laws in preparation for 2010 elections in Burma are designed to exclude the main opposition party and ensure a victory for the ruling military, Human Rights Watch said today.
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Burma bans imprisoned dissidents from up-coming elections
By: Mizzima, March 9, 2010
In preparation for the upcoming national election set to take place this year, Burma’s military regime has issued a political party registration law which severely restricts the rights of political parties.
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Burma: Meet the badass group battling a monstrous regime responsible for waging the world’s longest-running war
By: Mac McClelland, AlterNet, March 9, 2010
Mac McClelland went to Thailand to volunteer and ended up living with refugees from Burma. They turned out to be survivors of a nearly unreported genocide the Burmese army is currently waging against an ethnic minority, in retaliation for ethnic insurgents’ fighting a war against the government for the last sixty years.
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Burma: Citizen-journalist sentenced to 13 years for non-existent illegal video footage
By: Asian Human Rights Commission, March 4, 2010
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained the details of the case against a journalist who has been imprisoned in Burma for sending video footage abroad. Ngwe Soe Linn was sentenced to 13 years in jail for supposedly sending illegal clips and going illegally into Thailand, even though there was no evidence against him for either of the charges, and despite the fact that he was tried in a closed court in violation of the domestic law.
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