Stories about Governance from February, 2013
The Idleness of African Leadership in Mali
Ousmane Gueye on the site Mondoblog writes [fr] about the slow deployment of African troops in northern Mali : If we were to judge the impact of the intervention in Mali by the jubilant euphoria of liberated populations, then it should be obvious that by deploying so slowly, African countries failed Mali...
Students to Protest Constitutional Amendment
The Hungarian Student Network and the Hungarian High School Network posted a declaration [en] “about the rule of law” in Hungary – and are planning yet another protest rally [hu] in Budapest on Monday, Feb. 11: Today’s proposal for a constitutional amendment has made it obvious – even for those...
In Pictures: The Protesting Crowd In Shahbag
Last Friday, 8th of February, 2013, hundreds of thousands of people started to gather since morning in Shahbagh's Generation Square in solidarity with bloggers and online activists’ ongoing protests. Arif Hossain Sayeed shares pictures of this mass gathering in Bangladesh capital Dhaka.
Bureaucracy and Motherhood in Serbia
Marija Janković's photo of her 3-month-old baby sleeping peacefully next to the 52 medical and administrative documents has received 942 ‘likes’ and 826 ‘shares’ on the Facebook page of Status Magazin [sr], a Belgrade monthly, and was awarded the first prize in a photo contest run by the publication. It...
Philippines: Human Rights Watch 2012 Report
The overall human rights situation in the Philippines improved in 2012 with fewer extrajudicial killings and the passage of historic laws promoting rights. But the government has failed to address impunity for the most serious abuses. On prosecuting rights abusers, it needs to walk the walk, not just talk the...
European Regional Differences
Slovak NGO/think-tank Conservative Institute [en] blogged [sk] about the results of a study of 270 second-level EU regions (NUTS 2). Comparing changes in unemployment, they found that during 1990-2011, despite the growing amount of Euro-funds, the differences between the regions grew by about 4 percentage points. In more than 50...
The Romanian-Hungarian “War of the Flags”
Hungarian Spectrum writes about the ongoing diplomatic confrontation between Romania and Hungary, sparked by the Romanian authorities’ ban on flying the flag of the Székely Land, an ethnic Hungarian enclave currently demanding territorial autonomy within Romania.
Protesting Cyrillic, “Collectivising Guilt” in Croatia
Balkan Anarchist weighs in on the protests against the use of the Cyrillic script in Vukovar‘s public spaces: […] I believe that we, decent and honest Serbs, should be ashamed of what was done in the name of Serbdom during the '90s and condemn it all unequivocally! And I also...
Mali: Threats All Around
The Malian army has committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) during the ongoing conflict against armed groups, including extrajudicial executions of civilians, according to testimonies collected by Amnesty International during a ten days mission in Mali.
Bangladesh: Protesters Demand Capital Punishment for 1971 War Criminals
Abdul Quader Mollah, the secretary general of Bangladesh's Islamist party Jamaat-e Islami has been sentenced to life in prison for murder, rape, torture and other crimes committed during the 1971 liberation war. But tens of thousands feel that justice has not been served. They want him hanged. Protests are spreading like wild fire across the country.
Europe's Frozen Conflicts
Black Sea News publishes Natalya Belitser's paper [en] – “Transnistrian Conflict: State of Affairs and Prospects of Settlement” – written for the international conference on “frozen conflicts” in Europe, which was held in September 2012 in Bled, Slovenia (via Andrei Klimenko).
“Hands up! This is a robbery!”: Protests Continue in Spain
People in Madrid have taken the streets in droves to show their fury with President Mariano Rajoy over new corruption allegations. Anna Williams shares her photographs of the protests.
Iran: Will Thieving Officials Also Have Their Hands Chopped Off?
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again proved his talent for making surprising headlines when he played a video for the parliament implicating some of the country's leading officials in a corruption scandal.
U.S. President Barack Obama Supports Immigration Reform
U.S. President Barack Obama supported a bipartisan proposal developed by eight senators to overhaul immigration by strengthening border security, verifying the legal status of workers, and allowing university students to continue their university studies. Netizens react.
One Joke Too Many? Bhutanomics Satire Blog is Suddenly Blocked
Rousing suspicions that Bhutan's government does not appreciate the humor of political satire blog Bhutanomics, the website was blocked on January 12, 2013 from a major internet service provider with no explanation or warning.
Escaping Russia's “Vulgar, Primitive” Secularism
Vladimir Putin has given another speech in defense of Russian Orthodox values, this time calling on the Church to study the lessons of the twentieth century. "We must avoid a vulgar, primitive understanding of secularism," he told the Bishops' Council, a massive gathering of Orthodox clergy. Putin's comments are hard to divorce from several conservative legislative efforts in the last year.
Historic ‘Tanka’ Poem Rises from Japan's Nuclear Ashes
Drawing from contemporary issues, a Japanese blogger writes an adaptation of a famous piece of tanka - a genre of Japanese poetry - originally published in 1957 by an avant-garde Japanese artist, Shuji Terayama. What will you hear in this piece which has been re-created more than half a century after its original?
Somyot Case Ignites Lese Majeste Debate in Thailand
Activist Somyot Prueksakasemsuk was found guilty by the Bangkok Criminal Court of violating the Lese Majeste (anti-royal insult) law. As editor of the Voice of Taksin magazine, Somyot was slapped with a 10-year jail sentence for publishing articles that ‘insulted’ the monarchy. Somyot's case ignited debate on whether it's time for Thailand to reform the controversial law
Human Rights Group Maps Russian Internet Censorship
On February 1, the Russian human rights group Agora released a report [ru] on RuNet censorship in 2012, titled “Russia As a Global Threat to a Free Internet,” documenting various limitations on Internet usage in Russia, including violence, administrative pressure, and other forms of intimidation and punishment used against netizens by...
Trinidad & Tobago: Questionable Résumés
Trinidad and Tobago-based bloggers weigh in on the latest political controversy, in which Hafizool Mohammed, who serves on the Commission of Inquiry into the 1990 attempted coup, had many indiscrepancies on his résumé, but was appointed to his post in spite of them.
News from the Iranian Journalists in Prison
Mezrab continues to report about the detained journalists in Iran. The post includes a very personal story about a an Iranian woman who shares her prison experience.
