Stories about Human Rights from May, 2007
Ukraine: Kyiv Mayor and Orphans
Scenes from the Sidewalk reports on Kyiv City Administration's attempts to deal with the problem of orphaned children in Kyiv.
Egyptian Blogger Monem to Be Freed
Jailed Egyptian blogger Abdulmonem Mahmood is being released on Saturday - but Egyptian bloggers are holding their breath and are full of apprehension on their future in a country which has so far conducted a witch hunt on bloggers, reports Freedom For Egyptians.
Latvia: Gay Parade and Other “Problems”
“Gay parade is the least of our problems,” writes All About Latvia: abortions, the lowest life expectancy in the EU, and human trafficking are no less – if not more – significant.
Guyana: Monetary Compensation & Sexual Assault
Following a case in which when a 39 year-old man was accused of sexual assault against a 17 year-old girl, The Guyana Groove writes: “When a woman is forced to accept monetary compensation from the very person who already violated her, it is as if she is forced to put...
Palestine: Honour Killings
Palestinian blogger Amal A gives us an insight to the atrocities being committed against women in her country. According to a report she posts: “A forum of Palestinian organizations which fight anti-women violence published on Monday a report about killing Palestinian women under the guise of so-called family honour. The...
Lebanon: More on the Crisis in the Country
For the second week, Lebanese bloggers have posted anecdotes, reflections, updates, photos, videos, jokes, sarcasm and drawings on the issue that is taking precedence over all other topics. The issue is the ongoing violence which is taking the form of clashes in the north between the army and the militants and the terrorist explosions jumping from one location to another around the country, writes Moussa Bashir.
Ukraine: Internal Troops
“When Ukrainians send Troops to suppress protestors they never – thank God – seem to arrive. In Russia (and the remainder of the CIS) they always arrive and, as in Uzbekistan in 2005, they shoot to kill,” writes Taras Kuzio and shares ideas on how to transform Ukraine's “internal troops”...
Russia: Attacks on Gays and a British Diplomat
“This weekend marked yet another not particularly glorious episode in Russo-British relations, as one diplomat and two (well known) British gay rights activists were attacked in separate incidents,” writes Siberian Light.
Iran:Iran just what you would expect
View from Iran talks about how Iran has become the republic of fear.The blogger says it was the first time in our almost four years there that we saw life in Iran the way that people outside the country sometimes imagine it: as repressive and oppressive. The night before we...
Belarus: Blogger br23/Uładzimer Katkoŭski Passes Away
Belarusian blogger Uładzimer Katkoŭski/br23 passed away in Prague on May 25 at the age of 30. As one of his online friends wrote, "To a large degree thanks to his effort Belarusian-language Internet is now what it is."
Iran:Chinese Cultural Revolution
Shahram Kholdi,blogger and academic,writes about why Islamic Republic arrested several Iranian-American scholars.He says I do not believe the recent arrests in have much to do with the arrests of the Iranian diplomatic “Staff” in Iraq. The arrests of the past year, overall, represent nothing but a coordinated and systematic pattern...
Lithuania: Homophobia
Music and Life – Everywhere! writes about homophobia in Lithuania and a few other EU member states.
Bhutan: Mocking Democracy
Bhutan: For a Democracy on mocking democracy. “Thousands of people from the east have been denied citizenship and right to vote in the upcoming mockeries. People may not like voting to legitimise the terrorism of the Jigmes but our concern is they need to be treated as citizens.”
Bulgaria: George Michael For Tripoli Six
Eternal Remont reports that George Michael has joined the “You Are Not Alone” campaign to raise awareness of the Tripoli Six, “the six Bulgarian nurses who await death by firing squad in Libya.”
Hindi Blogosphere: Scorn at activists and foodies’ delight!
Here we are again, ready to peek into the world of Hindi blogs to see what's happening in that part of the global blogosphere. A lot has happened in this time period in the Hindi blogosphere, nothing short of a civil war and though there's a sort of uneasy peace...
Egypt: Blogger being Watched
From Egypt, Issandr El Amrani links to an article by Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas, who is back from a visit to the US and is worried about his safety back home. “Last Thursday, I returned to my country, Egypt, after several weeks in the United States on a Freedom House...
South Korea: Private Tutoring Is A Crime?
Robert Koehler from Marmot's Hole reports on warning banners in hagwon neighborhood: All Foreigners are being watched for private teaching and if reported you will be deported and fined.
Francophone Morocco: Politics, Power, and Money
"If you don’t do politics, politics will do what it wants with you." Or, do politics make any sense in Morocco? Hamza Daoui checks in on this week's blogging to see what the Francophone Moroccan bloggers have to say.
Block of Youtube: the Moroccan blogosphere react
A petition has been launched by Maghrebism to protest the block of the video-sharing site Youtube by Maroc Telecom (Vivendi International). “We demand that Maroc Telecom and Vivendi Universal immediately stop the current online censorship on YouTube and all other services being censored, which is a violation of the right...
Syria: Presidential Referendum and Lebanon Clashes
Today, Syria is reelecting president Bashar Assad for a new seven-year term in office. The process is done through a referendum, which means there will be no other challengers. The referendum paper has a green circle that says "Yes" and a gray one that says "No". The result is expected to be 99.xx% in favour of the president - as is the tradition in Syria for the last 37 years. Yazan Badran sums up the reactions of Syrian bloggers here.
DRC: Congolese Curious About Money Ocean's 13 Stars Raised for Darfur
Bien au Bout… writes about his neighbor, Karim, who asked to be shown photographs of Brad Pitt and George Clooney (Fr). Apparently, Karim was listening to the BBC and heard about an event in Cannes organized by Ocean's 13 stars Pitt, Clooney, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle that raised $9.2...
