Tag Archives: Law & Politics

Age, Ideology + Affiliation

Portugal & Angola News | Activists & Dissidents

Protests over jailing of youth activists in Angola spread to Portugal
  • Advocates in Lisbon have expressed dismay that the Portuguese government has so far refused to condemn the jailing of 17 youth activists in its former colony.
  • Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos warned Portugal against stepping into what he considers to be an Angolan domestic matter.
  • Demonstrations in Lisbon castigated the conviction of the book-club activists as well as Angolan businessmen’s investment in Portugal’s news and telecommunications industries.

Read more:
“Anger as Lisbon fails to condemn jailing of Angola book club dissidents” (The Guardian)
“Tensions high after Angolan activists sentenced in ‘show trial’” (The Observers)

(Image Credit: Joao Relvas/EPA, via The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

Czech Republic | Iraqi Christian Refugees

Czech Republic expels Iraqi Christian refugees for attempting to cross into Germany
  • Interior Minister Milan Chovanec announced the 25 refugees have seven days to arrange their return to Iraq.
  • Chovanec accused the Iraqis of “abusing the country’s generosity” after they were caught at the German border and returned.
  • The Czech Republic agreed to accept 153 Christian refugees from Iraq in December, but only 89 have been resettled so far and Chovanec has suspended the relocation program.

Read more:
“Czechs to return Iraqi Christians who tried to move to Germany, interior minister says” (Reuters)
“Czechs To Repatriate 25 Iraqi Christians Who Tried To Cross Into Germany” (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Gender, Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.K. News | LGB

Scotland becomes first country to have out sexual minorities comprise majority of political party leaders
  • Kezia Dugdale, leader of the Scottish Labour party, came out quietly in an interview with the Fabian Review, mentioning her relationship with another woman.
  • Dugdale joins the leaders of the Scottish Conservative, Scottish Green, and UKIP Scotland parties as an out politician.
  • At 34, Dugdale is also the youngest leader of the Labour party and discussed how her relative youth has affected perceptions of her leadership capabilities.

Read more:
“The long road: interview with Kezia Dugdale” (Fabian Review)
“The Scottish Labour Leader Just Came Out And No One Batted An Eyelid” (BuzzFeed News)
“Kezia Dugdale: Scottish Labour leader announces she is in a same-sex relationship” (The Independent)

(Image Credit: Mark Runnacles/Getty Images, via BuzzFeed News)

Nationality + Migration

Interregional News | Cuban Migrants

Surge in Cuban emigration spurs resentment in U.S. and bottleneck throughout Central America
  • Taking advantage of Cuba’s 2012 removal of exit visas, more than 43,500 Cubans arrived in 2015, a 78% increase over 2014 and nearly six times as many as in 2011.
  • Following an airlift of Cuban migrants traveling to the U.S. through Central America stuck at a closed Nicaraguan border, Costa Rica closed its borders to Cuban migrants, trapping thousands across its border with Panama in towns like Paso Canoas and Puerto Obaldia.
  • With the reestablishment of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations, some have begun calling for a revision of the immigration policy that fast-tracks permanent residency for Cuban immigrants over others, including those from violence-riddled Central America.

Read more:
“Cuban migration to US continues to swell on fears of losing privileges” (AP via The Guardian)
“Bound for U.S., Cuban migrants are stuck in Central America” (CNN)
“Cuban immigrants face resentment in Texas over ‘preferential treatment’” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman/New York Times/Redux/eyevine, via The Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Zimbabwe News | Black & White

Zimbabwe looks to black farmers to provide reparations to displaced white farmers
  • As the Zimbabwean government struggles to keep its economy afloat, it has toyed with shifting the burden of reparation to black farmers, who lease land from the government, through a compensation fund created through their rent payments.
  • White farmers were displaced as a part of a contentious indigenization program that saw massive land redistribution beginning in 2000, promoted as a corrective to the expropriation of land from black families under colonialism.
  • More than 6,000 farms remain for reparation assessment, with only 240 white farmers having begun to receive payment.

Read more:
“We can’t pay: Zimbabwe farmers resist compensating evicted white landowners” (Reuters)
“Zimbabwe May Ask Black Farmers to Help Repay Ousted Whites” (Bloomberg)
“Zimbabwe begins talks to compensate evicted white farmers” (AfricaNews)

(Image Credit: via AfricaNews)

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Zimbabwe News | Black, White & Foreigners

Deadline for Zimbabwe’s controversial corporate indigenization plan passes
  • President Robert Mugabe has pushed a contentious plan to have all companies operating in Zimbabwe—including major multinational corporations—comply with a 2008 law to transfer majority shares to black Zimbabweans to “indigenize” their local firms.
  • The plan was conceived as a corrective to colonial-era economic exclusion and is a follow-up to the ongoing land reform program that has transferred farm ownership from white to black Zimbabweans.
  • It is unclear how many companies, faced with the revocation of their operating licenses, have complied to date, and many concerned that the program discourages foreign direct investment.

Read more:
“Zimbabwe deadline for firms to be black-owned passes” (BBC)
“Zimbabwe says foreign banks, miners fail to comply on selling stakes to locals” (Reuters)
“Zimbabwe: Diamond firms comply with indigenization law” (Deutsche Welle)

Gender

Canada News | Women

Elective abortion services to return to Prince Edward Island for first time in more than three decades
  • The Prince Edward Island government announced that it has asked Health PEI to plan a new women’s reproductive health clinic, which will offer medical and surgical abortion procedures among other health services.
  • PEI has not offered on-island elective abortion procedures since 1982, forcing its residents to travel to New Brunswick or Nova Scotia for healthcare.
  • Activists had threatened the provincial government with a lawsuit, which few thought would withstand scrutiny under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Read more:
“PEI drops opposition to abortion, plans to provide access by year’s end” (The Globe and Mail)
“Abortion services coming to P.E.I., province announces” (CBC News)
“Canada’s Prince Edward Island ends abortion ban in province” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: The Washington Post/Getty Images, via CBC News)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.S. News | LGBT

U.S. federal judge rules Mississippi ban on same-sex adoption unconstitutional
  • Judge Daniel P. Jordan III found that the law interfered with gay and lesbian citizens’ equal protection under the law in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision overturning same-sex marriage bans.
  • Judge Jordan argued that Mississippi’s Department of Human Services couldn’t interfere with the “rights and responsibilities intertwined with marriage.”
  • The ruling came as the Mississippi Senate passed an extensive religious freedom bill, sending one of the most expansive anti-LGBT bills introduced after the establishment of the nationwide right to marry to the governor’s desk.

Read more:
“Mississippi Same-Sex Adoption Ban Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules” (BuzzFeed News)
“Federal judge overturns Mississippi’s adoption ban on same-sex couples” (The Guardian)
“Mississippi Senate Passes Sweeping Anti-LGBT Religious Freedom Bill” (BuzzFeed News)

(Image Credit: Dominic Lipinski/PA, via The Guardian)

Class + Socioeconomics, Gender, Ideology + Affiliation

South Korea News | Sex Workers

South Korean sex workers protest court ruling upholding criminalization of sex work
  • Pro-sex work activists protested the Constitutional Court’s decision to uphold a 2004 law that set punishments for both sex workers and customers, arguing it unfairly limits women’s economic opportunity and punishes poor clientele while paid relationships among the wealthy persist.
  • Sex workers and consumers face up to a year in jail or a fine of 3 million won ($2,600).
  • Activists say the ruling violates their right to work and announced intentions to petition the United Nations.

Read more:
“South Korean Court Upholds Ban on Prostitution” (The New York Times)
“South Korea prostitutes decry court ruling, demand right to work” (Reuters)
“South Korea Upholds Tough Anti-Prostitution Laws” (AP via ABC News)

(Image Credit: Jean Chung/The New York Times)

Class + Socioeconomics, Gender

U.S. News | Women

FDA eases restrictions around abortion pill, increasing access for rural and low-income women
  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now allows for mifepristone (Mifeprex) to be legally prescribed and taken further into pregnancy (10 vs. 7 weeks), with reduced dosage (200 vs. 600 mg), and requiring only two rather than three doctor’s visits.
  • Medical professionals and researchers have held that the restrictions, based on science from the 1990s, were out of step with advanced medical and pharmacological understanding.
  • Conservative states have long restricted access to mifepristone, requiring the drug to be administered by licensed physicians and at times in the presence of the prescribing doctor.

Read more:
“New F.D.A. Guidelines Ease Access to Abortion Pill” (The New York Times)
“FDA backs expanded use of medical abortion pill” (Reuters)
“FDA Extends Abortion Pill Recommendations To Later In Pregnancy” (BuzzFeed News)

(Image Credit: Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times)

Gender

Vietnam News | Women

Vietnam parliament elects first woman chair
  • Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan became the country’s first parliament chairwoman, the fourth-highest government office.
  • Legislators lauded the historic moment and noted the ongoing push for 30% of the parliament’s seats to be occupied by women.
  • Her election was expected after she was re-elected to the 19-member Politburo within the Communist Party, the lead decision-making body in the country.

Read more:
“Vietnam has first chairwoman of parliament” (Thanh Nien News)
“Vietnam elects first woman to lead parliament” (Deutsche Welle)
“Vietnam Elects First Chairwoman of Parliament” (AP via ABC News)

(Image Credit: Ngoc Thang/Thanh Nien)

Nationality + Migration

Japan News | Korean Immigrants

Japanese study finds anti-Korean demonstrations subsiding but still ongoing
  • The government study found that Zaitokukai, an anti-Korean nationalist organization, and other ultraconservative groups held 347 rallies in 2013, 378 in 2014, and 190 through September 2015.
  • Anti-Korean sentiment has been fueled by territorial disputes, North Korea, and ongoing disagreements over the Korean woman enslaved as “comfort women” for the Japanese in WWII .
  • In 2014, the Osaka High Court ordered Zaitukukai to pay ¥12 million following hate rallies in front of a Korean school in Kyoto.

Read more:
“Japan’s first-ever hate speech probe finds rallies are fewer but still a problem” (The Japan Times)
“Abe eager to tackle hate speech” (The Japan News)
“Osaka assembly passes nation’s first ordinance against hate speech” (The Japan Times, January 2016)

(Image Credit: Satoko Kawasaki/The Japan Times)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Ethiopia News | Oromo

Oromo Ethiopians clash with government over land, language rights
  • Members of the ethnic community have been protesting in a cycle of dissent and retribution since November, with activists reporting as many as 200 dead despite largely peaceful demonstrations.
  • The Oromo have clashed with the government over land rights as they have found themselves pushed off their land by ongoing urban development driven by the country’s economic boom.
  • Language rights have been a particular flashpoint, with the government’s refusal to officially recognize Oromo, the country’s most widely spoken native language, leading to Amharic-only instruction in schools.

Read more:
“Video: Anger among Ethiopia’s Oromo ethnic group boils over” (France 24)
“What do Oromo protests mean for Ethiopian unity?” (BBC)
“Ethiopian students demand end to police crackdowns in rare protest” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: via BBC)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Myanmar News | Ethnic Minorities

Ethnic health groups in Myanmar call for government recognition as new president sworn in
  • The Health Convergence Core Group (HCCG), a coalition eight ethnic and community health organizations, has led the effort to see local health organizations recognized under the new Burmese government.
  • At a conference that brought together 110 people from 21 organizations ahead of the swearing in of Myanmar’s new president, healthcare leaders called for the decentralization of public health services to be more inclusive of healthcare provided by community organizations.
  • Ethnic health groups provide a broad range of services, from reproductive healthcare to health education, that are shaped by the cultural and health specificities of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities.

Read more:
“Ethnic health organizations call for Burmese government’s recognition of community-based health services” (Burma News International)
“Community health: We care for our own” (The Myanmar Times)

(Image Credit: EPA via The Myanmar Times)

Ideology + Affiliation, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Saudi Arabia News | LGBT & Mistaken Identity

Saudi man arrested in Jeddah for flying rainbow flag
  • The doctor was arrested by the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Saudi Arabia’s religious police, for displaying the international symbol of LGBT pride.
  • The man claimed to be unfamiliar with the meaning, having purchased the flag online because his children enjoyed it, and was later released on bail after an investigation and the removal of the flag.
  • His arrest comes as Saudi authorities have announced that “soliciting homosexual acts” via social media will be punishable by death.

Read more:
“Saudi man arrested for flying Pride flag above home” (Middle East Eye)
“Saudi man arrested for flying ‘pretty’ rainbow flag, had no idea it represented gay pride” (Al Bawaba)
(CNN Arabic) طبيب يرفع علم “المثليين” على منزله بجدة.. والقتل تعزيراً قد تصبح عقوبة الشواذ المجاهرين إلكترونياً

(Image Credit: via Al Bawaba)