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18 November 2018
‘I am prepared to go to jail': Founder of Hong Kong Umbrella Movement offers hope ahead of trial
"I am prepared to go to jail… So long as we are not crushed by the trial and the prison sentence...then we will come out stronger."
17 November 2018
Cultural activist from Guyana's Wapishana tribe tries to revive a near-extinct language
"If we weaken indigenous culture, we weaken an integral part of Guyanese culture."
16 November 2018
Saudi Arabia's execution of another migrant worker angers Indonesians and strains an already fraught diplomatic relationship
According to the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, about 103 Indonesians were handed death sentences in Saudi Arabia between 2011 and 2018.
Guyana's transgender community celebrates the overturning of an archaic cross-dressing law
Activists called the ruling “a clarion call to engage state actors on how the law engenders social and economic exclusion of disadvantaged groups”.
How do non-native residents of the Netherlands view Zwarte Piet, St. Nicholas’ blackface servant?
“I understand Dutch affection for Zwarte Piet is born out of a warm, and well-meaning Christmas tradition. But I cannot excuse it.”
From prime minister to escaped convict: Macedonia's ex-leader Nikola Gruevski flees to Hungary
"While Gruevski's escape was unprecedented in Macedonian history, his choice of destination wasn’t too surprising."
15 November 2018
Netizen Report: Tanzania’s crackdown on free speech targets media advocates from CPJ
Committee to Protect Journalists staffers were detained in Tanzania, China is flagging fake news on Weibo and activists across Africa face arrest on defamation charges.
Mozambique’s new China-funded Maputo-KaTembe bridge, the longest in Africa, comes with high tolls
At 785 million US dollars, the bridge is the most expensive infrastructure project undertaken in Mozambique since its independence in 1975.
Bangladesh's now-postponed repatriation would have turned the plight of Rohingya refugees from bad to worse
"How can repatriation still be an objective, when all the evidence shows that these cyclical influxes into Bangladesh are rooted in Myanmar's persecution and denial of citizenship to Rohingya?"
One year on, Brazil’s ‘unrestricted outsourcing’ law fails to create jobs
A recent Federal Supreme Court's decision to approve unrestricted outsourcing may lead to job instability in Brazil.
14 November 2018
‘Tuition free for all in public universities in Liberia’, says President George Weah
Mr. Weah’s tuition-free announcement sounds plausible, but neither he nor the Liberian government has the monetary and logistical support for the realization of the policy.
Meet the people saving a 12,000 year-old forest from being turned into a coal mine
The Hambach Forest has existed since the ice age. Since 2012 activists have been occupying what's left of the forest, determined to save it and end coal mining in Germany.
Who is Sérgio Moro, the Brazilian judge who sentenced former president Lula and will be Bolsonaro's ‘superminister'?
Moro is a controversial figure, seen by some as a symbol of the fight against corruption, but by others as having taken partisan actions in persecuting certain figures.
13 November 2018
Arrival of the ‘migrant caravan’ lays bare Mexico's own anti-immigration side
"Mexico has a long and proud tradition of open doors to persecuted people, in exile, or victims of violence [...] Why are there first and second class exiles and refugees?"
The Caribbean Court of Justice loses again — this time with voter apathy and distrust
"People do not trust the power institutions, the hierarchies in the region — and that's not going to change for a long time to come."
12 November 2018
Mauritania keeps anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid in prison — and far away from parliament
Biram Dah Abeid, who is also an elected government official, is accused of slandering and threatening a journalist with close ties to the Mauritanian government.
Tanzania's stance on homosexuality points to an increasingly repressive political agenda
Even if Tanzania sorts out its mixed messages on homosexuality and human rights — there are other challenges keeping the foreign affairs minister up at night.
Lebanese health practitioners condemn anti-LGBTQ+ “conversion therapy”
The group's HINAD campaign follows multiple reports of gay people being subjected to various forms of conversion therapy, and a urologist's 2017 call for electroshock therapy to be used.
11 November 2018
Activists in Macedonia win fight for clean water despite years of dismissal by former government
"Clear drinking water without arsenic is a present for the people of Gevgelija on 7th of November"
A Conversation with Gyani Maiya Sen, one of the last speakers of a dying Nepali language
"...her commanding tone was the evidence of the aura she might have carried around when she was young -- powerful like a ‘queen of the jungle'."
