Press Release Dec 28, 2017 HRF Succeeds in Petition; UN Condemns Zimbabwe NEW YORK (December 28, 2017) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) welcomes the United Nations’ determination that the February and September 2017 arrests and subsequent imprisonment of Zimbabwean human rights activist and religious leader Evan Mawarire were arbitrary under international law.
News Dec 20, 2017 Cambodia is systematically squashing all forms of dissent (The Economist) – The scale of the crackdown is unprecedented, says Ou Virak, a political analyst who once worked at the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, which the government recently threatened to close. Gatherings of more than five people are banned.
News Dec 19, 2017 Uzbekistan Forces State Workers to Subscribe to State-Run Newspapers (Radio Free Europe) – In Uzbekistan, where media has remained tightly controlled by the government even decades after the breakup of the Soviet Union, public-sector workers say they still don’t have the freedom to choose whether to subscribe to state-run newspapers.
News Dec 18, 2017 China tells web giants they must accept limits to access (Sky News) – Web giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter would be welcome to operate in China if they adhered to Beijing’s strict censorship and surveillance laws, regulators have said.
News Dec 16, 2017 HRF calls on the Vietnamese government to release Nguyen Van Dai Human rights lawyer and activist Nguyen Van Dai was arrested on December 16, 2015, five days after he was beaten by a masked mob. He was charged under Vietnam’s ludicrous Article 88 for “conducting propaganda against the state.”
News Dec 15, 2017 Venezuela’s opposition wins EU’s prestigious human rights prize Venezuela’s opposition has won the EU’s prestigious Sakharov prize for freedom of thought and urged the world to keep a close eye on a forthcoming presidential election, where it aspires to end two decades of authoritarian rule.
News Dec 15, 2017 Activists Pressure Lao Government on Missing Civil Society Leader Five years ago, Shui-Meng Ng and her husband, Sombath Somphone, were driving their car through Vientiane. It was on that day that he disappeared.
News Dec 14, 2017 6,700 Rohingya Muslims killed in one month in Myanmar, MSF says More than 6,700 Rohingya Muslims, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed in the first month of a crackdown that started in August in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.
News Dec 14, 2017 HRF in the News — En El País sobre la crisis democrática en Bolivia El historiador boliviano Alcides Arguedas relata que, tras hacerse redactar una Constitución a medida en 1868, y mientras sus diputados elogiaban sus virtudes de estadista, el presidente Mariano Melgarejo interrumpió la tertulia palaciega y dijo:
News Dec 14, 2017 HRF in the News — En El País sobre la crisis democrática en Bolivia El historiador boliviano Alcides Arguedas relata que, tras hacerse redactar una Constitución a medida en 1868, y mientras sus diputados elogiaban sus virtudes de estadista, el presidente Mariano Melgarejo interrumpió la tertulia palaciega y dijo: “Sepan todos los honorables señores diputados que la Constitución de 1861, que era muy buena, me la metí en este bolsillo (señalando el bolsillo izquierdo de su pantalón); y la de 1868, que es mejor, según estos doctores, ya me la he metido en este otro (señalando el bolsillo derecho); y que nadie gobierna en Bolivia más que yo”.
News Dec 13, 2017 Pakistan orders George Soros foundation, other aid groups to close (Reuters) – Pakistan has told at least 10 foreign-funded aid groups to close, an umbrella agency said on Wednesday, including a charity founded by hedge fund billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, the group said.
News Dec 12, 2017 Evidence that Ethiopia is spying on journalists THROUGHOUT 2016 AND 2017, individuals in Canada, United States, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, and numerous other countries began to receive suspicious emails. It wasn’t just common spam. These people were chosen.
News Dec 12, 2017 North Korea’s prisons are as bad as Nazi camps (The Washington Post) – North Korea’s political prisons are just as bad as — and perhaps even worse than — the Nazi concentration camps of the Holocaust, a renowned judge and Auschwitz survivor has concluded after hearing from former North Korean prisoners and guards.
News Dec 11, 2017 Museveni “Supports” Extending Presidential Terms DOUALA (Reuters) – A celebrated Cameroonian writer who wrote a piece critical of the government’s handling of a separatist crisis in its Anglophone region was detained at Douala airport on Thursday, his wife and lawyer said.
News Dec 8, 2017 Prize-winning Cameroonian writer detained after criticizing government DOUALA (Reuters) – A celebrated Cameroonian writer who wrote a piece critical of the government’s handling of a separatist crisis in its Anglophone region was detained at Douala airport on Thursday, his wife and lawyer said.
News Dec 8, 2017 South Sudan: Security Council urged to do more to protect civilians (UN News Centre) – With the conflict in South Sudan entering its fifth year, senior United Nations officials on Thursday expressed concern about the precarious security situation and bleak humanitarian conditions in the world’s youngest country.
News Dec 7, 2017 China hosts global forum featuring own take on human rights BEIJING — Hundreds of participants attended the opening of a human rights forum in Beijing on Thursday in the latest installment of China’s energetic drive to showcase what it considers the strengths of its authoritarian political system under President Xi Jinping.
News Dec 7, 2017 Hungary’s Jobbik party says fine risks making it insolvent (Reuters) –Hungary’s main opposition party would be unable to compete at an election next April if state auditors impose a heavy fine in a campaign finance case, a vice chairman for the nationalist Jobbik party told Reuters on Thursday.
News Dec 6, 2017 Police have killed dozens of children in Philippines war on drugs, Am Police have killed dozens of children in the “war on drugs” in the Philippines in the last 18 months, Amnesty International said.
News Dec 6, 2017 President Rodrigo Duterte orders police to rejoin Philippines’ war on (Deutsche Welle) – Philippine police on Tuesday were ordered to rejoin the war on drugs, overturning President Duterte’s decision two months ago to leave the campaign in the hands of the government’s anti-drug agency.
