News Jan 2, 2018 DR Congo has shut down internet amid bloody anti-government protests (Quartz) – At the start of a new year, the Democratic Republic of Congo is being rocked by an old problem: violent protests against president Joseph Kabila who has refused to leave office after his term expired.
News Jan 2, 2018 Thousands in Hong Kong protest Beijing’s interference (Reuters) – Thousands of protestors marched to the mainland Chinese government’s liaison office in Hong Kong on Sunday, demanding universal suffrage and protesting against Beijing’s perceived interference in the territory’s recent chief executive election.
News Jan 2, 2018 ‘Worrying’ clampdown on human rights: UN condemns Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia faces new calls to release the dozens of people detained since September in what has been condemned as a “worrying” clampdown on human rights.
News Jan 2, 2018 Iran protests and death toll grow as tension rises (The Washington Post) – Anti-government protests in Iran flared on more fronts Tuesday with clashes that left at least nine people dead, state media reported, as leaders in Tehran struggled to respond to the most serious internal crisis in nearly a decade.
News Dec 28, 2017 Liberia Election Could Mark First Peaceful Transfer of Power Since 1944 MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberia has not witnessed a peaceful transition of power since 1944, and the fate of past presidents — since 1971, four of them have either died in office or been sent into exile — is so grim that many Liberians consider the presidential palace to be haunted.
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.
