#Democracy

While flipping channels, I noticed the difference between the coverage on Pakistani channels and BBC and CNN. The local channels are reporting about the 40th anniversary of Libya’s so-called revolution. And of course, BBC and CNN were reporting about the elections in different parts of the world. I couldn’t help, but notice that Pakistan’s channels […]

It appears that for now, while some improvements are being made, women are still fighting for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.

In an unusual and unprecedented move, the Chinese government sent a strong message to its citizens seeking legal redress in Beijing: stay home, or be seriously penalized. Petitioners routinely travel to the capital to seek assistance regarding what they see as the failure of their local system, such as corruption in the courts, land-grabbing by […]

In a new development in the ongoing saga of the ouster of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, the head of Honduras’s human rights commission, Ramon Custodio, publically declared Zelaya’s exile to nearby Costa Rica a mistake.  However, Custodio does not believe that the actual ouster of Zelaya to be wrong, saying that Zelaya’s violations of the […]

The blogosphere is abuzz with the unsettling news that the Chinese government has arrested Xu Zhiyong, a 36-year-old attorney, thereby dealing another blow to the growing Chinese rule of law movement. In authoritarian countries or nations in transition, lawyers often play a key role in bringing greater democracy through the judicial protections, accountability, and transparency […]

Cambodia has never been known as a haven for free speech and political dissent, but several recent developments in the country have observers even more concerned about the shrinking space for political expression. Last week, a Cambodian court found an outspoken opposition MP guilty of defamation for filing her own defamation suit against Prime Minister […]

We usually only post once a day here at the Human Rights Blog, which means we can only cover so many human rights stories.  But to keep you informed, here are some of the other stories that came across my desk this past week. Niger:  For the People, By the people . . . Niger’s […]

ct82hpgjq6 Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) has long been the institutional embodiment of Lee Family Power.  Using the PAP, Lee family patriarch, Lee Kuan-Yew created a political monopoly,  in the nation of  4.6 million people, that has lasted its entire 50 years of independence.   This monopoly allowed the establishment of a dynasty with the ascension […]

Mexico’s midterm election for its Chamber of Deputies, six governors and mayors and local legislators in 11 states will be held next Sunday July 5. The governing National Action Party (PAN) has  deployed an agressive campaign that attempts to turn the elections  into a referendum on  President  Felipe Calderón’s war against the drug cartels: either […]

Today’s New York Times featured two contrasting views of how the US should fight the Afghan insurgency and prevent international terrorism from breeding in the region. Leslie Gelb, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, while asserting that defeating the Taliban threat is ‘not achievable’, argues for a steady military drawback from the conflict, […]