Politics

More than 140 countries have passed counterterrorism laws since the attacks of September 11, 2001, often with little regard for due process and other basic rights, Human Rights Watch said in a new report.
The 112-page report, “In the Name of Security: Counterterrorism Laws Worldwide since September 11,” says that while terrorist attacks have caused thousands (read more)…

The first of February this year was a historic day in the Chinese village of Wukan. Several thousand villagers, who had chased out their corrupt old leaders, went to the polls to democratically elect new representatives. A few months later, on 27 May, there was another equally historic democratic election in a factory in nearby Shenzhen…

We are seeing increasing social protests all over the world, with hundreds of thousands on the streets from Santiago to Montreal, from Moscow to Tokyo and everywhere in between. Sudan, after having recently divorced its southern neighbour is a country not know for its human rights and police leniency, so it is encouraging that even here things are moving, even if carefully.

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Reporters Without Borders is today releasing a report on the crisis in the western state of Arakan, a copy of which it gave yesterday to National League for Democracy parliamentary representative Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently on a four-day visit to Paris, the last leg of a European tour that ends tomorrow.

Almost half a million people were on the streets in protest July 1, 2012, marking the day this territory was handed back to Chinese sovereignly by the British 15 years ago. It’s not that people are displeased at that changeover, it’s what ‘one does’ these days to show the power-holders that everything is not quite in order, with the insistent demand, let’s get it right!

Revolution, Uprising, Protest Movement, Crisis, Armed Insurgency, Civil War, and many other variations of titles have been used over the past 15 months to describe events in Syria. There have been many disagreements on Syria over this span of time, but there is no disagreement over the fact that Syria has been the central event on the global political scene.

The President of the Republic of Argentina, the President of the Federal Republic of Brazil and the President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, in consideration of and in accordance with what is set out in the Ushuaia Protocol on Democratic Commitment, have decided to suspend the Republic of Paraguay from the right to participate in the organs of MERCOSUR.

Reporters Without Borders welcomes yesterday’s joint declaration by four international experts calling on governments to treat “crimes against freedom of expression” as a special category under criminal law and thereby provide journalists and other news providers with better protection.

Joint press release by 41 European and International organisations to invite Members of the INTA committee to fully reject ACTA.

Fernando Lugo, the deposed Paraguayan president, says he is aiming to return to power and is rallying allies at home and abroad to push congress to reverse a vote removing him from office that he and many others are calling a break with democracy and proper legal procedures. Lugo. 61, has created a parallel cabinet, attacking the legitimacy of the government that replaced him.