· October, 2006

Stories about Human Rights from October, 2006

Poland: News and Opinion

  31 October 2006

The beatroot writes about media freedom in the EU, the fear of the Polish plumber (again; 70 comments so far), a Sudanese woman giving birth on a bus in Warsaw, and a few other matters.

India: Capital Punishment, Afzal and Santosh

  31 October 2006

National Highway reflects on capital punishment. “For the simple reason that the desire to see his life extinct reflects society’s desire to disown his act of crime as being ‘inhuman’. But what Santosh did was very human, born out of human impulses, and has to be resolved within the parameters...

Lebanon: Political Uncertainty and Men

  31 October 2006

Many Lebanese blogs are reflecting the internal political bickering that is creating an atmosphere of uncertainty about the future of the country. Most of the posts in this weeks review are bleak with little hope for the future. This is something that is very unusual for a people who take...

Hugo Chavez in the Iranian left-wing blogs

  31 October 2006

Hugo Chavez, the leftist Venezuelan President, has developed a very friendly relationship with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian Islamist President. Iran even awarded the Venezuelan President its highest state medal for supporting Tehran in its nuclear standoff against the international community. This alliance was discussed a couple of months ago among...

Africa: China-Africa connection

  31 October 2006

The Sub-Saharan Africa Roundtable on China-African connection:”No wonder when you consider that trade between China and Africa amounted to $38 billion in 2005, according to the World Bank. What upsets westerners is how China’s investments ignore human rights.”

Mexico: The last moments of Bradley Roland Will

  30 October 2006

Journalism seems like a precarious profession to practise in Mexico. It's ranked by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist. The latest tragic example of this came on Friday 27th October, in the southern state of Oaxaca, with the shooting...

Kenya: recognize gay and lesbian citizens

  30 October 2006

A statement in support of gay and lesbian citizens of Kenya, “It is time to scrap the laws that the British imposed upon us and left us with, laws that the colonizers themselves scrapped long ago. Let Kenya move out from the shadows of her colonial past and recognise the...

Voices from Zimbabwe

  30 October 2006

Following recent reports chronicling the decline in Zimbabwe's HIV/AIDS prevalence, the spotlight has now been turned on to the effect anti-AIDS campaigns have wrought on traditional Zimbabwean morals and values: Zimbabwe's lead in condom use and condom sale worldwide has produced mixed reactions, with some sections of society welcoming the...

Zimbabwe: church releases national vision document

  30 October 2006

The Bearded Man posts latest news from Zimbabwe, “A church-authored national vision document could be the start of efforts to end Zimbabwe’s fast deteriorating crisis but analysts say it fell short of directly putting the blame on President Robert Mugabe’s government and questioned the veteran leader’s commitment to implementing its...

Bangladesh in Turmoil

  29 October 2006

Bangladesh is going through turbulent times as the row over an interim caretaker government chief persists who will lead the country towards the upcoming parliament election in January 2007. This unique caretaker government (CTG) system adopted in Bangladesh constitution worked in past three elections. However this time the opposition parties...

Russia: LJ and Politics

  28 October 2006

On October 25, International Herald Tribune published Evgeny Morozov's opinion piece on the recent developments in the Russian blogosphere. On his blog – Sharp & Sound: Perspectives On Modern Politics – Morozov wrote: […] I’ve been surprised how little coverage the story has received in the Western media…Hm, virtually none…...

The Week That Was in Bahrain

  28 October 2006

Bahrain's bloggers celebrated Eid this week, with many posting greetings on their sites or simply musing about the tradition. While Mahmood Al Yousif thinks that “Eid this time seems to be spread through the whole week, rather than a single day where the whole nation celebrates!”, Silly Bahraini Girl took...

Ethiopian blogger scoops mainstream media

  27 October 2006

The story broke at 12.42 pm. An Ethiopian human rights activist, another unnamed Ethiopian and two senior officials from the European Commission had been arrested that morning close to Ethiopia's border with Kenya. The report from Ethiopian blogger Ethio-Zagol named the activist as Yalemzewd Bekele and the two European officials...

India: Domestice Violence Act

  26 October 2006

To Each Its Own on the Domestic Violence Act in India. “The highlighting point of this Act is that it not only provides protection to women who are legally married but also those who are in live-in relationship, women who are sisters, widows or mother. The new law also addresses...