News Nov 22, 2017 Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa returns to serve as nation’s next leader (CNN) – Zimbabwe’s former vice president has returned to the country to serve as interim President, the state broadcaster reports, following veteran leader Robert Mugabe’s resignation after 37 years of rule.
News Nov 22, 2017 UN court sentences Ratko Mladic to life in prison over Bosnia genocide (Los Angeles Times) – Mladic, 75, was found guilty of commanding forces responsible for crimes including the worst atrocities of the war — the deadly three-year siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern enclave of Srebrenica, which was Europe’s worst mass killing since World War II.
News Nov 21, 2017 China Finds Lawyer Guilty of Inciting Subversion (The New York Times) – A Chinese human rights lawyer who has supported the families of other lawyers and activists detained in a sweeping crackdown since 2015 was declared guilty on Tuesday of inciting subversion by a court in southern China and sentenced to two years in prison.
News Nov 21, 2017 HRF to Nelly: Drop men-only concert in dictatorial Saudi Arabia On December 14, 2017, Nelly is scheduled to take part in a men-only concert sponsored by the Saudi dictatorship’s General Authority for Entertainment.
News Nov 21, 2017 Sweden stops some new aid for Cambodia in protest over crackdown (Reuters) – Sweden said on Tuesday it was stopping new aid for Cambodia, except in education and research, and would no longer support a reform programme after the main opposition party was outlawed by the Supreme Court at the government’s request.
News Nov 20, 2017 Kenya Court Upholds President’s Election Win (The New York Times) – Kenya’s Supreme Court on Monday dismissed two petitions seeking to overturn last month’s presidential vote, paving the way for the inauguration of President Uhuru Kenyatta for a second term.
News Nov 20, 2017 Turkish ban on LGBTI events in capital condemned as ‘discriminatory’ (The Guardian) – Rights groups have condemned as illegal and discriminatory a ban on LGBTI events in the Turkish capital one week after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described empowering gay people as being “against the values of our nation”.
News Nov 20, 2017 HRF in the News — L.A. Times cites HRF research on African dictators In Zimbabwe, Mugabe’s fall appears to mark the end of Africa’s postcolonial ‘Big Men’ era.
News Nov 20, 2017 In Zimbabwe, Mugabe’s party gathers to begin his impeachment (The Washington Post) – A day after Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe defied the nation’s calls to resign, lawmakers here frantically searched on Monday for a legal path to dismiss the long-ruling leader.
News Nov 17, 2017 Russia vetoes UN resolution on chemical weapons probe in Syria (CNN) – Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Thursday that would have renewed a mandate for the independent group investigating chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
News Nov 17, 2017 Two killed as Kenyan police disperse supporters cheering opposition leader (Reuters) – Two people were killed on Friday as Kenyan police tried to disperse supporters cheering a convoy carrying opposition leader Raila Odinga from the airport to central Nairobi, a Reuters photographer said.
News Nov 17, 2017 Venezuela opposition leader Ledezma flees to Colombia To learn more about human rights violations under Maduro’s authoritarian rule, watch HRF’s Oslo Freedom Forum talk by Antonietta Ledezma, daughter of Antonio Ledezma.
News Nov 17, 2017 North Korean defector had 27cm parasitic worm in his stomach Parasitic worms have been found in a North Korean soldier critically injured while defecting to South Korea, highlighting nutrition and hygiene problems that observers believe have plagued the isolated country for decades.
News Nov 16, 2017 Cambodia’s Top Court Dissolves Main Opposition Party (The New York Times) – Cambodia’s highest court on Thursday dissolved the main opposition party, eliminating the most popular and viable challenger to the country’s authoritarian leader before elections next year.
News Nov 15, 2017 China is perfecting a new method for suppressing dissent on the internet The art of suppressing dissent has been perfected over the years by authoritarian governments. For most of human history, the solution was simple: force.
News Nov 15, 2017 Egyptian singer Sherine Abdel Wahab to face trial over Nile comments Jokes about the Nile are as old as the river itself, but one Egyptian pop singer has been told she will stand trial after joking about disease in the famous waterway.
News Nov 14, 2017 Jesus won’t save you — President Xi Jinping will, Chinese Christians told (The Washington Post) – Jesus Christ won’t drag you out of poverty or cure your illnesses, but the Chinese Communist Party will, so take down those pictures of Christ and put up a nice photograph of President Xi Jinping.
News Nov 14, 2017 ‘When they began slaughtering us we ran for our lives’: Rohingya trapped inside Myanmar It’s the sound of the wailing that is most haunting. It’s a deep, soulful, pit-of-your-being, howling hurt. And it follows us as we’re swept along by this moving, wretched mass of humanity.
News Nov 14, 2017 HRF mourns the death of Chinese blogger Yang Tongyan Writer and blogger Yang Tongyan , named after Yang Tianshui , a leading figure in the democratic opposition in China, died on Tuesday when he had almost completed a 12-year sentence for “subversion” in Nanjing Prison (Jiangsu Province, Southeast).
News Nov 14, 2017 An imprisoned West African graphic novelist received the Courage in Cartooning award (The Washington Post) – The cartoonist Ramón Esono Ebalé sits imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea for his art. Over the weekend, his journalistic brethren formally helped spotlight his case.
