Ethiopia lifts five month ban on social networks and messaging services
The Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), an organization that tracks online censorship, found Wednesday that access to social networks and messaging services had been restored to Ethiopia after five months of restriction. An Agence France Presse (AFP) journalist in Addis Ababa confirmed the block was removed, accessing Facebook, Instagram and TikTok without a Virtual [...]
The Battle for Inclusion: Pakistan's Transgender Community Faces Setbacks with Shariat Court Verdict
Pakistan’s transgender community finds itself embroiled in an ongoing struggle for inclusion, facing a recent setback with a verdict from the Federal Shariat Court (FSC). Transgender activists in Pakistan have appealed the judgement of the Federal Shariat Court (“FSC”), which adjudicates based on the tenets of Islam, to the Supreme Court (“SC”). As many as [...]
Imran Khan and the Weaponization of Litigation by Pakistan’s Elite
Civil action and criminal prosecution are the two great substitutes invented by law to replace revenge, a deeply wired instinct among humans expressed in a Mesopotamian maxim, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. In Pakistan, most ironically, civil litigation and criminal prosecution have become the revenge instrument, particularly among ruling elites fighting [...]
The Organization of American States’ (OAS) was presented with a crucial opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to democracy last month, as its Permanent Council turned its attention towards Haiti. The nation’s current crisis is one that is directly connected to the actions taken by members of its ruling Tèt Kale party (PHTK), which for the [...]
The recent inflating of U.S.-China tensions has popped the illusion that Washington and Beijing might be able to limit their antagonism to economic competition, as the scuttling of a high-level diplomatic summit in Beijing over the shooting of a Chinese spy balloon recalls the postponement of an Eisenhower-Khrushchev meeting in 1960 following the downing of [...]
Nepal is a least developed, land-locked Himalayan country wedged between India and China. After a long period of instability, it adopted a new constitution in 2015, creating a multi-party federal republic. Previously Nepal had been a unitary state, albeit with a long period of political instability and insurgency. The first election under the Constitution was [...]
How Philippine Authorities Appear to be Scheming to Bar ICC Probe of Duterte-Era 'Death Squads'
The new government of Ferdinand Marcos Jr and Sara Duterte is employing tricks and propaganda to entrench impunity and ward off the International Criminal Court’s long-delayed probe of crimes against humanity committed during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s reign of terror. The latest of these ploys is the government’s attempt, through the Office of the Solicitor [...]
Recently the NITI Aayog rolled out a report in an attempt to increase the participation of the booming gig economy in the nation’s economic growth. The report forecasted a three-fold growth in the gig workforce by 2030. While the report did identify the problem of internet access for women, it omitted the problem of cellular [...]
A set of rules issued recently by Indian cyber security authorities threaten to undermine the very privacy benefits VPNs are designed to enhance. Following the passage of the new directives, VPN providers operating in India are legally obligated to keep a host of private user data on file for a period of five years. This [...]
“…Ukraine is not just a neighbouring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space. These are our comrades, those dearest to us – not only colleagues, friends and people who once served together, but also relatives, people bound by blood, family ties.” — Address by the President [...]
