Human Rights

Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s movement for democracy in Burma is hanging in the balance this week, with the regime threatening a brutal response to her call to free political prisoners. Activists have appealed to the world for help, saying international pressure is crucial to tipping the balance. Avaaz calls people to sign a petition

This day each year the citizenry of Hong Kong take to the streets and demonstrate in solidarity against a wide variety of ills and social injustices – July 1, 2011, was no exception. Hongkongers staged their biggest show of discontent with the government in seven years, taking to the streets in the largest numbers since 2004.

“High food prices are here to stay, and their impact on the poor in developing countries who spend a high proportion of their income on food can be devastating”
Their number exceeds one billion and up to 98% of them live in developing countries.

Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Ernst Joseph and Wolf “Duralph” François, hosts of the programme “They said it” on Radio Prévention in the southwestern town of Petit-Goâve, who have been detained ever since their arrest during an appearance at the public prosecutor’s office on 22 June.

Mired in poverty and with few land rights, indigenous groups saw little to celebrate on the bicentennial of the nation’s independence from Spain on May 14. Representatives of indigenous organizations headed to the capital, Asunción, to demand the government take immediate action to stem the severe problems afflicting Paraguay’s 20 native peoples.

The United Nations has taken the wind out of the sails of world’s rich countries that never tire of complaining about the citizens of developing lands burdening their rather stressed economies, by pointing out that 80 per cent of refugees in the world live in poor countries. “In relation to the size of their economies, poor countries shoulder a disproportionate refugee burden,”

Mexican government promises to improve conditions in Chiapas jail after hunger strike by some 500 mostly indigenous prisoners. The prisoners ended their hunger strike on June 11 after the government promised to improve conditions in a prison near San Cristobal de las Casas in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

In an historic vote, the state of New York, the third largest in the United States, legalised Gay Marriage last night joining Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C. The legislation comes into effect on the 24th of July with thousands of couples expected to take the opportunity to legalise their partnerships.

The second day at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn and a continuously rising temperature. After the first panels on the opening day and exchanging cards with journalists from all over the world, the second day gave us vibrant meetings and high emotional intensity. Women were the protagonists.

Ednaldo Figueira, a blogger, politician and owner of the local newspaper O Serrano, was gunned down on 15 June in Serra do Mel, a town in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte. He headed the Serra do Mel branch of the Workers Party (PT), the party of President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor, Lula da Silva, and posted regularly on the Serra do Mel blog.