Stories about Human Rights from November, 2006
Lebanon: Minister Pierre Gemayel Assassinated
Lebanon witnessed this week the brutal assassination of its minister of industry and trade. This terrorist act overshadowed all other events and topics in the Lebanese blogosphere. Nevertheless, the posts were as varied and different as the political inclinations of the Lebanese themselves. Here is a sample of what they...
Ethiopia's bloggers disappear again
The bulk of Ethiopia's bloggers disappeared from Ethiopian computer screens for the second time in seven months this week. All sites hosted by the popular Blogspot platform stalled when internet users tried to log on to them through their Ethiopian Telecom Corp dial-up connections. The small stable of anti-government blogs...
Iran:Clashes at AmirKabir University
According to Azarmehr three students from Amir Kabir university staged a sit in at the university entrance today.They were protesting at the decision to ban them from continuing their education.Campus marshals tried to break up the gathering by physically attacking the 200 students who had formed a human chain to...
Kazakhstan: Video & Image
Registan.net discusses the very different images created by Kazakhstan's promotional videos and videos of the destruction of a Hare Krishna community in southern Kazakhstan.
India: Caste and reservations
National Highway on caste matters and reservation. “But if a ‘meritorious’ person like him could achieve so much in life despite such hardships, why do we need reservations at all? “I was an exception,” he says, “dalits are deliberately discriminated against and excluded and we need reservations to make sure...
Belarus: Kozulin Turns 51 in Jail
A former presidential candidate, Aleksandr Kozulin, has celebrated his 51st birthday in prison, in relative obscurity, and with no food – because he's been on hunger strike for over a month already, writes TOL's Belarus Blog.
Russia: Image Abroad
ZheZhe [dot] us posts a lengthy entry on media discussions of Russia's image abroad.
Ukraine: Was the Famine Genocide?
Petro Rondiak of Petro's Jotter writes a letter to the editor of a Kyiv English-language publication, disagreeing with his view on the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33; the editor responds.
Arabisc: Bahraini Elections, Dying Children and Confusing Freedom!
Bahrain held its second Parliamentary elections in its modern history this week, with about 300,000 voters going to the polls. Amongst them was Bahraini blogger Haythoo, who hoped his ‘party’ would emerge victorious. أنا الأن متوجه لتغطية العملية الأنتخابية.. أتمنى أن يحالفنا الحظ و نفوز بأكثرية نيابية.. يجب أن نعمل...
Libya: A Dutch letter to Gheddaffi, “We burn migrants.”
On the 26th of October 2005 a fire raged in the Dutch Schiphol Airport Detention Centre. Eleven migrants died. In an Open Letter to Gheddaffi a Dutch media-activist informs the Libyan president about the fate of three Libyan citizens. One died in the fire; another survived but “was treated in...
Palestine: Border still closed!
Since then, Laila and her family are still waiting to cross the border from Egypt to Gaza. There is now some rumors that the border is opening tomorrow for three days only, in both directions. She can't be certain until she hears the same from the Egyptian border officials.
China: Chen Guangcheng's case re-opened
The blind human rights activist's case is re-opened today. According to Zeng Jinyang (zh), the lawyers were harrassed by local police and the village has been blocked to prevent local villagers to go to the court as Chen's eyewitnesses.
Ethiopia: pro-democracy websites and blogs blocked
“All pro-democracy websites are now blocked in Ethiopia. Blogs which were unblocked for the last three months are blocked again including this blog,” reports Ethiopian Life, Culture, Politics, and Arts.
The Week That Was in Bahrain
More than 300,000 Bahrainis went to the polls on Saturday to elect 40 Municipal Councillors and another 40 Members of Parliament. This is the second time Bahrainis vote in their modern history, after sweeping reforms initiated in 2002. According to official records, seventy-two per cent of the eligible voters took...
Kenya: mistreatment of Kenyan novelist
Black Looks has an update on the mistreatment of Kenyan academic and novelist, Professor Ngugi wa Thiong'o.
Sudan: Southern Sudanese are trapped
Africa Blogs explain why Southern Sudanese feel trapped, “Inside the mud-and-wattle structures, eating places by day and pubs by night, littering the Juba streets, people hurdle to discuss the future of Southern Sudan. But they are discovering that it’s becoming harder to discuss the future without discussing the wave of...
Zimbabwe: Zimbabwean film-maker wins first prize
A Zimbabwean filmmaker, Tawanda Gunda Mupengo, wins first prize at the Dakar Film Festival for his short film, Spell My Name, “The film is about a young albino girl sexually abused by the headmaster of her school and a young teacher who stands up to protect her.”
Palestinian Still Waiting to Return Home
Palestinian Leila Al Haddad is still waiting at a road block in Arish to return home. She says she has lost count of the number of says she has spent waiting and has come to the realisation that “Israeli decisions are without rhyme or reason.”
Guyana: Little progress on eradicating homophobia
SASOD, the Guyana-based Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination, publishes on their blog a letter sent to the Kaieteur News acknowledging the progress made in other developing countries towards reducing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and protesting the ineffectiveness of the Ethnic Relations Commission.
Russia: Berezovsky and Litvinenko's Death
Boris Berezovsky's figure in the background makes Copydude skeptical of some aspects of Aleksandr Litvinenko's poisoning story.
Russia: Unusual Protest
The Turkish Invasion and Very Russian write about today's very unusual demonstration in Moscow. LJ user 50×50 posts photos.
