State-Controlled Social Media Platforms Raise Global Alarms over Privacy and Free Speech
In February 2022, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism published a report, accusing Facebook of inciting ethnic violence and disseminating misinformation in Ethiopia. A senior government official condemned the tech giant, accusing it of standing idle as the nation descended into chaos. Yet, as previously announced, the Ethiopian government refused to sit by idly and pledged [...]
A group of NGOs including Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International Friday released a joint statement criticizing the Iraqi government’s decision to require applicants for reparations under the Yazidi Survivors Law to file a criminal complaint. The law was passed in March 2021 to provide reparations and welfare support to female survivors of ISIS [...]
HRW: Indonesian authorities should drop defamation charges against human rights defenders
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Friday stated that Indonesian authorities should not pursue criminal defamation charges against Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti, who are significant human rights defenders in Jakarta. The charges were brought against them based on a 2021 police report filed by Luhur Binsar Pandjaitan, a minister in the president’s cabinet. The report accuses [...]
This article is the first in a series on attacks on the rule of law. The rule of law is a political philosophy premised on the promise that all citizens, leaders, and institutions are accountable to the same laws, guaranteed through processes, practices, and norms that work together to support the equality of all citizens [...]
War Crimes As Warfare: Russian Conscription of Ukrainians Living Under Occupation
Russia appears to be accelerating efforts to replenish its battlefield strength through passportization and conscription of Ukrainian nationals in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Such efforts suggest a certain degree of desperation on Russia’s part in the face of battlefield setbacks during its illegal and ill-conceived war against Ukraine. They shine a light on the plight [...]
Explainer: Enforced Disappearances and Torture Finally Criminal Offences in Thailand
Recently, Thailand passed an important human rights law following significant pressure from many parties including NGOs, victims of torture, relatives of the dead and missing, and investigative journalists. On 24 October 2022, the King signed into law the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearances Act which Parliament enacted on 26 August 2022. This [...]
Turkey’s New Disinformation Bill: Disturbing Trend Toward Digital Authoritarianism
In 2002, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Turkey, defeating Kemalist hegemony, there was a glimmer of hope in the West for the overwhelmingly Muslim country. However, the experience of Turkey over the past 20 years is one descending into an authoritarian regime with clampdowns [...]
A Saudi Arabian court Tuesday sentenced Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani to 45 years prison for tweeting material the court claimed impinged upon “public order and religious values.” Not many details are known about the case yet. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a nonprofit organization founded by Saudi Arabian journalist and critic Jamal Khashoggi, [...]
War and Peace (Through Trade): Is There a Role for the WTO in Bringing Peace to Ukraine?
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has called into question the responsiveness and effectiveness of many international organizations, particularly those dealing with economic matters. When the war broke out, the West made it clear they were unwilling to commit military forces to Ukraine. Instead, in addition to providing weapons, the decision was made to respond through economic [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) Tuesday published a call for India to end its controversial sedition law. The sedition law is a statute from the colonial era when India was controlled by the United Kingdom. According to HRW, the law “remains a powerful tool used by the authorities to criminalise dissent and arrest peaceful critics of [...]
