Stories about Law from July, 2010
Belarus: Election 2011
Notes and updates on the upcoming 2011 presidential election in Belarus – at BelarusDigest (here, here, and here).
Serbia: More on the Beating of a Journalist in Belgrade
Anegdote comments on the recent beating of journalist Teofil Pančić in Belgrade: “The government needs thugs, and thugs need the government. The cycle goes on.” (A GV translation on the attack is here.)
Serbia, Kosovo: More on ICJ's Ruling
More commentary on the ICJ's opinion on Kosovo's independence – at A Fistful of Euros, Belgraded, Gray Falcon, and Jamestown Foundation Blog (a GV translation on the subject is here).
India: RTI Activist Murdered
On the 20th of this month, 33yr old Amit Jethwa, a prominent environmentalist and Right to Information (RTI) activist was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen opposite the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad, India. Netizens react with shock and anger.
Trinidad & Tobago: 20 Years Later
“For twenty years, successive governments ignored calls from citizens both prominent and ordinary for a formal probe”: On the anniversary of the 1990 attempted coup d'etat, The Caribbean Review of Books believes “it’s time to face the truth and its consequences.”
Chile: Controversy Over Pardon Proposal by Catholic Church
The Chilean Catholic Church has announced a proposal regarding the need to pardon certain people convicted of crimes on humanitarian grounds. The proposal has sparked debate on the Chilean blogosphere, as the original request could have included a pardon for those convicted of human rights abuses during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.
Iraq: Ban on topless women?
After France imposed a ban on the veil, Iraqi Layla Anwar tweeted: “I am looking forward to see a ban on topless Western tourists on Muslim countries beaches…”
Serbia: A Journalist Is Attacked on a Public Bus
Teofil Pancic, a well-known Serbian journalist, was beaten up on a public bus on Saturday. Sinisa Boljanovic translates some of the initial reactions by Serbian netizens.
India: Should Prostitution be legalized?
Delhizen raises an old debate: should prostitution be legalized in India?
Russia: Interpreting the FSB-law
A Good Treaty discusses the new Russian FSB-law, extending the powers of the country's security service.
Hungary: Constitutionalism under threat?
Eva Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum draws attention to a number of laws that may threaten Hungarian constitutionalism.
Serbia: ICJ Rules Kosovo’s Independence Legal
On July 22, the International Court of Justice ruled that the declaration of independence of Kosovo did not violate international law. Sinisa Boljanovic reviews Serbian bloggers' reactions to the ruling.
France: Rioting in the Itinerant Community after Shooting Sparks Row
On July 18th, after 22 year old Luigi Duquenet was shot and killed, riots shook the quiet town of Saint Aignan in the Loire valley and immediately revived law-and -order reactions while also highlighting the discriminatory practices towards Roma people.
Egypt: Niqab ban in France stirs controversy
The lower house of the Spanish Parliament is debating a proposal to prohibit the wearing of body-covering burqas and face-covering niqabs in all public spaces in Spain, and the French parliament just approved a ban on niqabs (face veils). Bloggers from across the Middle East react.
Russia: Anti-Religious Online Group Closed
“Antireligion” group in the social network “Vkontakte“, with more than 8000 members, had been closed and its content deleted, ru_antireligion reports [RUS]. Prosecutor's office, that was checking the group for extremism [RUS], recognized photos of t-shirts with slogans “Orthodoxy or Death” [EN] as “extremist” and obliged administration of “Vkontakte” to...
Venezuela: Indigenous Yukpa Protest Outside Supreme Court
Venezuelan Analysis reports: “Over 80 Yukpa indigenous Venezuelans are protesting in front of Venezuela's Supreme Court in order to demand a ruling on whether three arrested Yukpas can be judged under indigenous law rather than the national legal system, in the wake of a conflict over land demarcation.”
Panama: Questioning Strength of Panamanian Democracy After Protests Against Law 30 and Martinelli
Pilar Chato writes [es] for the blog Oye about the recent violent protests by banana plantation workers in Bocas del Toro that lasted nine days and, as she reports, left “700 detained, hundreds injured and various dead.” She goes on to say that protests against the government of Ricardo Martinelli have escalated:...
Censorship in Singapore
Singapore authorities caused a major uproar when they banned a film of an ex-political prisoner and arrested a British author who wrote a book about the death penalty in Singapore. Bloggers react
Mexico: Women Sent to Jail in Guanajuato for Spontaneous Abortions
Ximena Vega reports [es] on the ongoing incarceration of women who go through spontaneous abortions (miscarriages) in Guanajuato; she writes that women who have abortions (spontaneously or otherwise) can get an average of 27 years in jail. This has been going on for years, as an article from Human Rights Watch from 2006...
Russia: “Why Did They Kill Yuri Volkov?”
The murder of a TV journalist and football fan Yuri Volkov in the centre of Moscow on July 10, 2010, became a widely discussed event in the Russian blogosphere. A complicated topic, dealing with hostile ethnic stereotypes, crime, police corruption and Russian subcultures, has generated nearly 7,000 comments, tweets and blog posts.
Benin: Interior Ministry Repudiates Wolosso Dance Before His Dismissal
Wilfried Léandre Houngbedji reports that the Interior Ministry Armand Zinzindohoué ordered that night clubs in Cotonou curbed down the excessive practice of a dance called Wolosso [fr]. Unrelated to the previous matter, Zinzindohoué was dismissed and arrested later in the week for fraud.
