Tag Archives: 1: Poor

Health + Ability

U.S. News | Mental Illness

Texas prepares to execute man despite recognition of mental illness
  • Adam Ward was convicted of the 2005 murder of a code enforcement officer and sentenced to death, now set to become the fifth person executed in Texas in 2016.
  • On appeal, the federal district court acknowledged Ward’s documented bipolar disorder and paranoid delusions, which had been recognized and treated off and on since Ward was 3, but argued that it was insufficient to disqualify him from the death penalty.
  • Ward’s lawyers have appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, including an argument that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Read more:
“Execution Set For Man Courts Recognize as Mentally Ill” (The Texas Tribune)
“Texas Set To Execute Man Amid Claims Of ‘Severe Mental Illness’” (BuzzFeed News)
“Texas to execute Adam Ward unless Supreme Court intervenes” (AP via AL.com)

(Image Credit: tdcj.state.tx.us, via BuzzFeed News)

Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Honduras News | Indigenous Activists

Indigenous activist murdered days after famous campaigner in Honduras
  • Nelson García, member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), was gunned down on his way to his family home.
  • His murder follows that of fellow activist Berta Cáceres, the co-founder of COPINH killed in her home after having received threats from police and anonymous individuals.
  • The deaths come as government officials have subjected COPINH affiliates to illegal surveillance and coercive detention, part of an anti-environmentalist environment in Honduras that saw more than 100 killed between 2010 and 2014.

Read more:
“Fellow Honduran activist Nelson García murdered days after Berta Cáceres” (The Guardian)
“Another Member of Berta Caceres’ Group Assassinated in Honduras” (teleSUR English)
“Berta Cáceres, Honduran human rights and environment activist, murdered” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Ideology + Affiliation

Mexico News | Journalists

Sharp uptick in attacks on journalists in Mexico in 2015
  • There were 397 attacks against journalists reported in Mexico in 2015, a 22% increase over 2014 and the most violent year on record, according to a report by an international media advocacy group.
  • Most prevalent in Mexico city and the southern state of Veracruz, the attacks, which included seven murders, involved public officials 41.5% of the time.
  • The year was also a record for attacks on women journailsts, with 84 incidents having been reported.

Read more:
“A Mexican Journalist Is Attacked Every 22 Hours: Report” (teleSUR English)
“Mexico’s Media Faced a Record Number of Violent Attacks in 2015” (VICE News)
“Media group: Attacks on Mexico journalists up 22 pct in 2015” (AP via Yahoo! News)

(Image Credit: Reuters, via teleSUR English)

Ideology + Affiliation

DRC News | Activists

DR Congo activists go on hunger strike as detention without trial continues
  • Fred Bauma and Yves Makwambala, members of the group Struggle for Change (Lucha), began their strike after the Supreme Court refused to release them from jail, despite their having been held for more than a year without trial following their arrest at a pro-democracy workshop.
  • An additional 30 members of Lucha have been arrested as the group has held demonstrations to move elections in the country up and secure basic resources for their neighborhoods.
  • Founded in 2012 on the principle of non-violent demonstration, Lucha has no centralized organization except that necessary to maintain communications, strategy, ideology, and funding, and the group, part of a growing constellation of youth movements across Africa, have so far refused external funding.

Read more:
“Congolese activists on hunger strike after court refuses release” (The Guardian)
“Law and disorder in the DRC: Who is Fred Bauma, Congo’s jailed Mahatma Gandhi?” (International Business Times)
“Congo police arrest 18 pro-democracy activists: U.N.” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: via The Guardian)

Health + Ability

Indonesia Research & Feature | Mental Illness

Disrupted Minds, Shackled Bodies

Despite its criminalization, the practice of pasung, the physical shackling of people with mental illness, has continued throughout Indonesia, with an estimated 18,000 subjected to the imprisonment according to a new Human Rights Watch report. Families in the poor, rural regions of the Muslim-majority nation often turn to faith-healers and other pseudoscientific practices as mental health services are severely lacking throughout the country. Psychological and social divergence from societal norms are conflated as disruptions to community relations land “violators” in squalor in Indonesia’s poorly maintained mental hospitals.

Read more:
Living in Hell (Human Rights Watch)

Summaries:
“Thousands of Mentally Ill Indonesians Are Imprisoned in Shackles, Report Says” (TIME)
“Indonesia’s mentally ill languish in shackles” (AFP via Yahoo! News)
“‘Living in hell’: mentally ill people in Indonesia chained and confined” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: via Yahoo! News)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Ukraine News | LGBT

Far-right protesters in Ukraine attack LGBT festival attendees after officials ban event
  • Police and city officials in Lviv refused to give official permit to the equality-themed event, whose program included film screenings, literary discussions, and a public march.
  • After a last-minute court hearing banned the festival’s public events, far-right protesters descended on the hotel housing festival attendees, throwing stones and allegedly shouting “kill, kill, kill” as attendees were evacuated.
  • Although Lviv’s mayor admonished both victims and attackers, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack and announced police had begun an investigation.

Read more:
“LGBT festival in Ukraine abandoned after far-right protest” (The Guardian)
“U.S., Canadian ambassadors condemn attack on LGBT activists in Lviv” (Ukraine Today)
“Ukrainian LGBT festival cancelled as far-right groups surround venue, chant ‘kill’” (PinkNews)

(Image Credit: Mykola Tys/EPA, via the Guardian)

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Ethiopia News | Nuer & Anuak

Leave a comment
Ethnic clashes escalate in the Gambella region of Ethiopia
  • At least 14 and possibly dozens have died in ethnic violence in the Itang administrative district of the western Ethiopian region.
  • Gambella, host to more than a quarter-million Nuer refugees, has seen a cascade of retaliatory violence between the Nuer and Anuak ethnic communities since the fall.
  • The Nuer refugees have fled from South Sudan as civil war persists, which has seen weapons transported to Ethiopia and further exacerbated the Gambella conflict.

Read more:
“Ethnic clashes in Ethiopia’s Gambella kill dozens, official says” (Bloomberg via The Chicago Tribune)
“Ethnic clashes in Gambella region of Ethiopia between Nuer and Anyuak communities” (The Sudan Tribune)

Ideology + Affiliation

Turkey News | Journalists

1 Comment
Turkish journalists face espionage and pro-terrorism charges after publishing investigative report
  • Can Dundar and Erdem Gul face the possibility of life imprisonment without parole for publishing a report alleging Turkish officials sent weapons to aid opposition fighters in Syria.
  • Cumhuriyet, a secular opposition newspaper led by Dundar, published the report including photos and video of the alleged weapons delivery in May 2015.
  • PM Tayyep Erdogan confirmed that the photos showed trucks belonging to Turkey’s intelligence agency but insisted they were delivering aid to the embattled Turkmen minority in Syria.

Read more:
“Turkish court to seek life without parole for prominent journalists” (Reuters)
“Detained Turkish reporters defiant over espionage claim” (BBC)

(Image Credit: Murad Sezer/Reuters)

Ideology + Affiliation, Nationality + Migration

Egypt News | Foreign Intellectuals

Leave a comment
Italian student found dead in Cairo after writing article critical of government
  • Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old graduate student at the University of Cambridge, was found dead alongside a road outside Cairo with cigarette burns and other signs of torture on his body.
  • Regeni had been conducting research on Egyptian labor rights and had written an article criticizing the Egyptian government’s anti-union stance and lack of press freedom for Il Manifesto, a left-wing newspaper in Rome,.
  • Italy summoned its Egyptian ambassador to discuss the situation, requesting a joint investigation to determine the cause of the student’s murder, which Egyptian authorities have ruled an accident.

Read more:
“Italian student Giulio Regeni found dead in Cairo ‘with signs of torture’” (The Guardian)
“Italian student Giulio Regeni’s body found in Egypt” (BBC)
“Italian student killed in Egypt criticized Cairo govt. in articles” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Twitter photo, via The Guardian)

Ideology + Affiliation, Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

Saudi Arabia News | Artists

Leave a comment
Saudi Arabia reduces sentence for poet from death to imprisonment and lashes
  • Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh, a refugee in Saudi Arabia, had initially been sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes for apostasy, but was sentenced to death on appeal.
  • Fayadh will now face 16 years in prison, receive 800 lashes, and must publicly apologize and disavow his work.
  • Fayadh’s case stirred a fierce response from the international community, including artists, celebrities, nonprofits, and other human rights advocates.

Read more:
“Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh’s death sentence quashed by Saudi court” (The Guardian)
“Saudi Arabia Reduces Ashraf Fayadh’s Death Sentence to Eight Years in Prison and 800 Lashes” (Global Voices)
“Lawyer: Saudi court revokes poet’s death sentence” (AP)

(Image Credit: AP, via The Guardian)

Age, Nationality + Migration

Europe News | Child Refugees

Leave a comment
At least 10,000 refugee children reported missing after arriving in Europe
  • The EU’s criminal intelligence agency has reported that the child refugees went missing after registering with state authorities, including 5,000 in Italy and 1,000 in Sweden.
  • Authorities fear the children may have fallen into the hands of human traffickers, who, according to intelligence, have begun linking their slavery networks to migrant-smuggling networks.
  • Unaccompanied minors have become a source of serious concern in the migration crisis, with the U.K. having recently pledged to accept an additional but limited number of unaccompanied children from conflict-ridden regions of North Africa and the Middle East.

Read more:
“10,000 refugee children are missing, says Europol” (The Guardian)
“UK to give sanctuary to unaccompanied refugee children” (BBC)
“Ministers offer unaccompanied child refugees in Europe limited UK help” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Darko Vojinovic/AP, via The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration

Greece & Libya News | Migrants & Refugees

Leave a comment
January sees record number of migrant deaths in eastern Mediterranean
  • To date, there have been 218 deaths as migrants have crossed the Aegean Sea to reach Greek shores, a number not reached until mid-September in 2015.
  • The spike in deaths comes as the overall number of migrants and refugees attempting to reach Europe has reached its lowest point since June 2015.
  • The migration shift occurs as a changing of the guard has taken place among people-smugglers in North Africa, with the brief calm in traffic from Libya having recently given way to a fresh, more lethal round.

Read more:
“Mediterranean deaths soar as people-smugglers get crueler: IOM” (Reuters)
“Mapped: The Refugee Crisis in the Aegean Sea” (Foreign Policy)
“Protests at Greek border after more migrants drown in Aegean Sea” (AP, via The Chicago Tribune)

(Image Credit: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

Burkina Faso News | Foreigners

Leave a comment
Al-Qaeda–linked militants kill more than two dozen in attack on Burkina Faso capital
  • At least 28 were killed when Islamist extremists launched an attack at the Cappuccino cafe and the Splendid Hotel, popular with UN staff and foreign visitors in the capital city of Ouagadougou.
  • At least 18 nationalities were identified among the victims, including Burkinabe, Canadian, French, Swiss, Dutch, and American citizens.
  • Of the 176 hostages freed by security forces, at least 56 were injured in the violence.

Read more:
“Burkina Faso attack: Foreigners killed at luxury hotel” (BBC)
“Burkina Faso hotel attack: 18 nationalities among dead” (The Guardian)
“Six Canadians killed in Burkina Faso attack, PM Trudeau says” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: AP, via BBC)

Religion + Belief

Interregional News | Shiite Muslims

Leave a comment
Execution of Saudi Shiite leader sparks protests throughout the Middle East and South Asia
  • From Saudi Arabia to India by way of Bahrain, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Pakistan, Shiite Muslims protested the Saudi government’s execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
  • Nimr had been convicted of order followers to attack the police, a crime of “banditry” that carries an automatic death sentence.
  • Before his arrest in 2012, Nimr had publicly called for nonviolent demonstrations to draw attention to the oppression of the minority Shia community in Saudi Arabia.

Read more:
“Shi’ite Muslims worldwide decry execution of Saudi cleric” (Reuters)
“Protests in Kashmir, Bahrain and Pakistan over killing of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr” (The Guardian)
“Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr: Figurehead Shia cleric” (BBC)

(Image Credit: AFP, via BBC)

Ideology + Affiliation

South Korea News | Dissidents

Police turn water cannons and tear gas on protesters as Seoul demonstration turns violent
  • More than 60,000 turned out for a protest in Seoul against President Park Geunt-hye’s policies, which ended abruptly when police clashed with participants attempting to move through barricades.
  • Around 10 protesters were injured and some 50 were arrested in the largest street protest of President Park’s term.
  • The protesters–including 53 labor, agriculture, and other civic groups–were demonstrating against President Park’s labor reforms reducing employee job security and textbook reforms perceived as whitewashing Korea’s authoritarian history.

Read more:
“Police detain 49 protesters” (The Korea Times)
“South Korea vows no tolerance after violent protest in Seoul” (Reuters)
“S Korea protesters clash with police in Seoul” (BBC)

(Image Credit: Choi Won-suk/The Korea Times)