Stories about Human Rights from March, 2013
‘Foreign Ideas’ as Extremism in Central Asia
[I]n former Soviet Central Asia there is little debate that the root problem [of extremist beliefs] is “foreign ideas,” defined so broadly as to become a target of opportunity for both every political purpose and every local policeman or official’s ambition. Any sign of dissent from state policies or ideology <...> can be enough to bring the wrath of the state, sometimes with great violence.
Brazil Violently Ousts Indigenous Village Ahead of World Cup
Brazilian police violently evicted a group of indigenous people from a building they had occupied in Rio de Janeiro to make way for a sports museum, the latest in a series of evictions that have drawn criticism from human rights defenders as Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup.
Digital Freedom: Principles and Concepts
The Egyptian Institute for Freedom of Thought and Expression issued its first statement on digital freedom, a simplified research paper to propose definitions for digital rights and related principles which the paper summarised as: universal access, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to privacy, and the right to creativity, development and innovation.
INFOGRAPHIC: More Money for Ukraine's Bloated Police Force
The infographics on Ukraine's law enforcement that many Ukrainian Facebook users have been sharing this month tells us that the country's police force is a bit too numerous and has been receiving more and more state funding over the past few years.
Remembering the Tenth Anniversary of the War Against Iraq
Last week marked a decade since the then George W. Bush administration declared the war against Iraq, as part as his fight against terrorism. In the United States, netizens react.
Protests and “Frozen Zones” in Brooklyn after murder of Kimani Gray
On Saturday, March 16, Kimani Gray, a 16-year-old African American boy, died at the hands of two New York City police officers. There have been riots in Brooklyn for four consecutive days and police have declared frozen zones in a neighborhood in this borough of New York. News of this event has spread through social networks due to lack of information in the mainstream media.
Shedding Light on Macedonia's “Black Monday”
In order to shed light on the events of Dec. 24, 2012, when journalists and opposition MPs were thrown out of the Macedonian Parliament [en, es, mk], Foundation Open Society Institute Macedonia (@fosim) published a study entitled “Black Monday” [.pdf: en, mk, sq], with testimonies of witnesses and participants and...
Russian Nationalists Rally Behind Subway Shooter
After all, how can one not react with outrage upon learning that Alexandra Lotkova, a pretty, twenty-one year old college student, got three years in prison for using a non-lethal gun to protect herself from knife-wielding thugs, who had already stabbed one of her friends!
Vietnam Police Question Activist Over Article
According to a Radio Free Asia report written by Y. Lan and Rachel Vandenbrink, Vietnamese activist Le Cong Cau of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam was accused by the police of spreading subversive propaganda in connection to an article he wrote espousing political pluralism.
Hardline Buddhists Drive Sri Lanka to Drop Muslim Halal Labeling
Religious tensions in Sri Lanka are on the rise after Islamic clerics facing massive protests from militant Buddhists put an end to the island's widespread halal food labeling system.
Guinea-Bissau is Second Worst Democracy
The Democracy Index 2012 from The Economist Intelligence Unit, published on March 19, 2013, places Guinea-Bissau second to last in the ranking, just before North Korea. The same day a coalition of civil society organizations released a roadmap with concrete proposals for the restoration of constitutional order following the military...
Chinese Microblogger Detained After Questioning Dead Pigs Scandal
The dead pigs scandal in Shanghai has been a hot topic online for the past two weeks, yet one poet's voice on this issue has lead to her detention.
Photos: Day One in Trial of Former Guatemalan Dictator
Documentary photographer James Rodriguez shares a photo essay with “images from the first day of the historic trial against former de facto dictator Efraín Ríos Montt and former Intelligence Director José Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez. Ríos Montt and Rodriguez Sanchez are charged with Genocide and crimes against humanity during the civil war...
Hackers Publish Turkish Mayor's Phone Number in Tit-for-Tat Cyber Attack
A group of Turkish hackers who call themselves Redhack have published the mayor of Ankara's cell phone number on Twitter in retaliation against him for publicizing the cell phone number of a college student.
Japan's ‘Sex Slaves’ Phantom Fuels Petition
The GoPetition site published Do not select Tokyo to host the 2020 Summer Olympics petition which has been introduced to many local sites. It accuses the current Japanese administration of denying the truth that more than 200,000 women and girls were indeed forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during...
Zimbabwe Police Arrest Top Human Rights Lawyer
One day after millions of Zimbabweans approved a new constitution that will bring about presidential and parliamentary elections later this year, prominent Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa was arrested after demanding a search warrant from police who were attempting to arrest her clients.
Former Guatemalan Dictator On Trial
Rios Montt's lawyer and others believe that the trial is a “political lynching” […] It doesn't matter if the guerrilas were going to turn “Guatemala into another Cuba;” the rape, torture, starvation and murder of civilians who might or might not have supported the guerrillas is just indefensible. But Rios Montt now...
Anti-Gay Preacher Elected Brazil's Human Rights Committee Head
The election of controversial evangelical preacher Marco Feliciano, known for his vocal hardline views on homosexuality, as the chairman of the Brazilian legislature's human rights committee has earned the condemnation of religious groups and sparked protests around the country.
Today's Tibet, Tomorrow's Hong Kong?
An activist network in Hong Kong organized an assembly to express their solidarity with Tibetans on the 54th Anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day last Sunday March 10, 2013. Some participants who joined the meeting believed that Hong Kong people should learn from Tibet and avoid the history from recurring in Hong Kong.
Video: Crisis Engenders Greek Documentary Boom
The 15th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival includes five crisis-themed Greek films in its lineup. As the Festival, and Greece at large, continues to labor under the mounting debt and austerity crisis, fiction and documentary filmmakers alike are increasingly focusing their work on its effects on society.
