Why political prisoners matter
Today, May 12, marks the 40th anniversary of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a human rights organization created to monitor the Soviet Union’s compliance with the Helsinki Accords, notes Natan… Read more »
Category: Human rights
Latin America’s ‘Liberals, Rogues and Enablers’
Despite the majority of Latin America’s governments being (at least nominally) democratic, there is no clear pattern of support for democratic institutions and rights, neither among neighboring states nor in… Read more »
Partners in Prevention: A Global Forum on Ending Genocide
Two former mayors from Rwanda went on trial in Paris on Tuesday for their suspected role in massacres of ethnic Tutsi in the early stages of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, The New York… Read more »
U.S. poised to end ban on arms sales to Vietnam, keep sanctions on Myanmar
The United States isn’t ready to fully shed sanctions in Myanmar, instead awaiting progress on issues including human rights as the government run by former opposition leader Aung San Suu… Read more »
Democracy Promotion: A Distinctive European Approach?
The fact of different European states’ priorities on democracy and human rights reflecting different historical experiences may be illustrated by the initiative taken by Poland during its presidency for a… Read more »
Cuba’s ‘big change’ – China-on-a-daiquiri?
Fidel’s brother [Raul Castro] has clearly been thinking ahead in a way the aging Fidelistas in the Cuban Communist Party have not, notes Alma Guillermoprieto. He may be trying… Read more »
Obama must raise Vietnam’s rights abuses, civil society crackdown
Thich Quang Do, the Patriarch of Vietnam’s Unified Buddhist Church (left), has called on U.S. president Barack Obama to use his forthcoming trip to the Communist state to highlight continuing… Read more »
Egypt faces backlash on freedom of expression
The US State Department and the European Union have urged Egypt’s government to uphold basic rights to freedom of expression after security forces stormed the Press Syndicate. Egypt’s police… Read more »
Iranian activists use social media to demand justice, accountability
The public outcry over the rape and murder of six-year-old Afghan refugee Setayesh Ghoreishi (left) demonstrates how social media has allowed Iran’s civil society to hold accountable hardliners in the… Read more »
Cubans getting bolder in acts against government
More than a month after ordinary Cubans jubilantly welcomed President Barack Obama to Havana, the Communist government is finding it hard to dampen the afterglow, AP reports: But few people… Read more »