Tag Archives: Law & Politics

Ideology + Affiliation, Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

Bahrain News | Shiite Dissidents

Bahrain revokes citizenship of dissidents as denaturalization campaign continues
  • Five Bahrainis were stripped of their citizenship and sentenced to five to 15 years of jail time after being convicted of terror affiliation, public-institution disruption, and weapon possession.
  • Political dissidents and human rights organizations have accused the Sunni monarchy of weaponizing citizenship for demographic redistribution and the suppression of dissent and rights advocacy among the Shia-majority population.
  • Denaturalization is a controversial practice that leaves many effectively stateless and subject to deportation, with 208 Bahrainis having been denaturalized in 2015 alone.

Read more:
“Manama Deprives Five More Bahrainis of Citizenship” (Tasnim News Agency)
“Bahrain: Stop Deportations of Nationals” (Human Rights Watch)
“Bahrain citizen expulsions ‘chilling’, says Amnesty” (Arabian Business)

(Image Credit: via Human Rights Watch)

Nationality + Migration

Germany News | Refugees

German minister announces proposed law requiring refugee integration
  • Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere outlined plans for a law requiring refugees to learn German, allow free mobility for relatives, and accept employment or lose their residency.
  • Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel stated integration must be “demanded” in return for residency after ruling pro-refugee conservatives were dealt a blow during recent regional elections.
  • In 2015, some 1 million refugees arrived in Germany, and an estimated 100,000 have arrived so far this year.

Read more:
“Germany wants refugees to integrate or lose residency rights” (Reuters)
“Europe Refugee Crisis: Syrians Must Learn German Or Lose Residency Under Proposed Integration Law” (International Business Times)
“When refugees want to work in Germany” (Deutsche Welle)

(Image Credit: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

Nauru News | Refugees

Dozens of refugees held in Nauru while seeking asylum in Australia protest their detention
  • Protests have continued for more than a week as some of the asylum-seekers have been detained in the open-air center Nauru runs for Australia for 1,000 days.
  • The demonstrations coincided with Australian protests decrying Australia’s controversial offshore detention policy sending refugees who attempted to enter the country without authorization almost 2,800 miles away to Nauru.
  • Despite reports to the contrary, Australian and Nauruan authorities argue facilities are well-maintained, have good healthcare and activities, and, except during times of protest, allow for detainees to travel into the surrounding community.

Read more:
“Locked gates and erected fences contain Nauru asylum seeker protests” (The Guardian)
“Asylum seekers on Nauru determined to keep up protests” (Radio New Zealand)
“Rapes and fears for safety on Nauru uncovered by independent Moss review” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: via The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration

Australia News | Refugees

Few of Australia’s controversial temporary visas for refugees are reaching their targets
  • Temporary protection visas (TPVs) and the Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (SHEV) were introduced as three-year and five-year work or education visas for refugees, respectively, requiring them to work or study to avoid losing their residency.
  • While some 2,000 have applied for the SHEV, refugee advocates say only 20 have been processed in the 18 months since the immigration ministry announced they would be used instead of opening pathways to permanent residency.
  • Without a SHEV, refugees are forced to remain in offshore detention, another of Australia’s controversial refugee policies.

Read more:
Temporary Protection Visa and Safe Haven Enterprise Visa (Government of Australia)
“Turnbull government accused of ineptitude as refugee visa scheme stumbles” (The Sydney Morning Herald)
“Refugees allowed to work and get services in Tasmania from today under SHEV” (ABC, October 2015)
“NSW signs up to place refugees in regional areas on five-year visas” (The Guardian, May 2015)

(Image Credit: Firdia Lisnawati/The Sydney Morning Herald)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Myanmar Feature | LGBT

Burmese, LGBT, and at the Threshold of a New Era

With a non-military political party now leading Myanmar for the first time in decades, Burmese citizens are looking forward to democratic reforms to make the political process more inclusive of its diverse population. Historically, LGBT security in Myanmar has been minimal to nonexistent: colonial-era anti-homosexuality laws are still on the books and arbitrarily exercised, police extortion is rampant, trans individuals are targeted for violence and fetishization, and widespread conservative attitudes promote anti-LGBT discrimination. But now that newly empowered politicians have made promising (if vague) expressions of support for diversity and burgeoning advocacy groups have begun generating visibility and awareness, the LGBT Burmese community has expressed hope that the first signs of a more secure future have appeared.

Read more:
“Snapshot: LGBTI rights in Myanmar” (The Star Observer)
“The brutal reality transgender women face under Myanmar’s ‘darkness law’” (Mashable)
“Gay People In Myanmar Can’t Live Openly. Here’s Why” (The World Post)
“Myanmar’s transgender people not just chasing rainbows in fight for equality” (The Guardian)
“LGBT group to battle homophobia in Myanmar with information” (mizzima.com via Gay Asia News)
“Myanmar LGBT film festival raises visibility, challenges taboos” (Washington Blade)

(Image Credit: Joshua Carroll/Mashable)

Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Israel News | Arab-Israelis & Dissenters

Law to suspend legislators accused of terrorist sympathies passes first round in Israeli parliament
  • Arab-Israeli and other opposition lawmakers fear the law will be used to silence opposition to anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian measures in the Israeli parliament.
  • Tabled for two additional readings, the proposed law comes as PM Benjamin Netanyahu has indefinitely suspended the return of the bodies of Palestinians killed by security forces after killing Israelis.
  • Last month, three parliament members were suspended for supporting families of Palestinian assailants killed after attacking Israelis.

Read more:
“Israeli law to allow suspension of Arab legislators passes first hurdle” (Reuters)
“Controversial MK suspension bill passes first Knesset reading” (The Times of Israel)
“Netanyahu Orders Defense Minister Not to Return Terrorists’ Bodies to Palestinian Authority” (Haaretz)
“Ethics C’tee suspends Arab MKs from Knesset discussions” (Ynetnews)

(Image Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90, via The Times of Israel)

Ideology + Affiliation, Religion + Belief

Bangladesh News | Secularists

Bangladesh High Court rejects 28-year-old petition to remove Islam as state religion
  • The court ruled that the 15 petitioners (10 of whom have died since filing suit) didn’t have the standing to bring the issue before the court.
  • Bangladesh was initially established as a constitutionally secular country upon gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971, but constitutional revision under military rule established Islam as the state religion in 1988.
  • Despite the reaffirmation of secularism as a political principle in 2011, religious and ideological minorities, including secularists and atheists, have increasingly come under attack as Islamic fundamentalism has begun gaining a foothold in the country.

Read more:
“In 2 Minutes, Bangladesh Rejects 28-Year-Old Challenge to Islam’s Role” (The New York Times)
“HC rejects writ on state religion” (Dhaka Tribune)
“Bangladesh continues with Islam as state religion” (newsnextbd.com)

(Image Credit: A.M. Ahad/Associated Press, via The New York Times)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.S. News | LGBT

Georgia governor announces veto of anti-LGBT bill
  • Republican Georgia governor Nathan Deal announced he would veto House Bill 757, a bill introduced to protect faith-based organizations from anti-discrimination lawsuits.
  • Governor Deal’s announcement came in the wake of boycott threats from businesses and prominent entertainers as well as national backlash over the passage of a more extensive anti-LGBT bill in neighboring North Carolina.
  • Some Georgia senators have announced their intention to attempt an override, although successful veto overrides are rare in Georgia’s history.

Read more:
Transcript: Governor’s remarks on HB757 (Georgia Office of the Governor)
“Georgia Governor Rejects Bill Shielding Critics of Gay Marriage” (The New York Times)
“Georgia Governor blocks anti-gay law after boycott threats” (PinkNews)
“Senators calls for override of Deal veto of religious liberty bill” (The Atlanta Journal Constitution)

(Image Credit: David Goldman/Associated Press, via The New York Times)

Nationality + Migration

Global Feature | Palestinian-Syrian Refugees

Syria’s Stateless Refugees

More than half a million in number, Syrian-born Palestinians face a unique and particularly challenging vulnerability when applying for refugee status. While they have been born in Syria, many lack Syrian citizenship (and thus a Syrian passport) due to Syria’s citizenship laws as well as the desire to maintain their Palestinian nationality to retain the right to return to Palestine. Most of Syria’s neighbors have traditionally denied entry to Palestinians as part of complex politics resulting from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As residents of Syria, Palestinian Syrians have faced the same circumstances as other Syrian refugees, and immigration officials have been instructed to extend the same consideration to Palestinian Syrians as other Syrians. Al Jazeera investigates cracks in the process of asylum application and other challenges faced by Palestinian-Syrian refugees.

Read more:
“Palestinian Syrians: Twice refugees” (Al Jazeera)

Additional reading:
“Palestinian Refugees from Syria” (Inter Press Service)
“Arab Countries Are Forcing Palestinian Exiles Back Into Syria” (The Daily Beast)

(Image Credit: UNRWA via AP, via Al Jazeera)

Gender, Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Germany Feature | Women & Refugees

Securing Women’s Bodies in Germany

On New Year’s Eve, hundreds of women were grabbed and sexually assaulted by a group of mostly Algerian and Moroccan men during holiday festivities in Cologne. In the fallout, a contentious international debate exploded, impacted by ongoing tension over Germany’s refugee policy. While both sides have accused the other of information distortion for political purposes, some feminists have shifted the focus to the lax laws that enable such sexual assaults to take place, arguing that such violence has been a problem since long before refugees arrived. With a mere 13% of rape cases resulting in conviction, advocates have sought to change laws that require evidence of overwhelming offensive and defensive physical force for a case to be considered rape. BuzzFeed News examines the intersection of sexism, racism, xenophobia, and feminism in the fight to secure women’s sexual agency and refugee integration in Germany.

Read more:
“Why The New Year’s Attacks On Women In Germany Weren’t Even A Crime” (BuzzFeed News)

Additional reading:
“Germany tightens rape law in wake of Cologne assaults” (AFP via The Local)
“Germany to tighten rape laws in wake of Cologne attacks” (The Independent)

(Image Credit: Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images, via BuzzFeed News)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Latvia Feature | LGBT

The Rise of “Family Values” Activism in Latvia

Caught between the Western-democratic values of the EU and conservative nationalists and Kremlin supporters, Latvia has seen a surge in so-called family values activism in recent years. Activists have increasingly targeted LGBT rights and visibility as symptoms of cultural decline, and anti-LGBT sentiment has been connected to wide-ranging issues including the rights of Latvia’s Russian minority, abortion, corporal punishment, and academic freedom. EurasiaNet investigates how groups like Asociācija Ģimene (Family), Mūsu bērnu (Our Children), Dzimta (Kin), and Sargāsim mūsu bērnus! (Let’s Protect Our Children!) have grown their reactionary causes, including the influence of Russia’s hard-line anti-gay, “pro-family” campaign next door.

Read more:
“Looking at Latvia’s Cultural Fault Line” (EurasiaNet)
“The ABC of ‘Traditional’ Values Activism” (EurasiaNet)

(Image Credit: Dean C.K. Cox/EurasiaNet)

Class + Socioeconomics, Gender

Brazil Feature | Women

The Coerced Pregnancies of Brazilian Women

As cases of Zika infection and newborn microcephaly have exploded in heavily Catholic and evangelical Brazil, the country’s tough abortion laws—preventing the procedure except in cases of rape, maternal health endangerment, and child inviability—have come back into the international spotlight. Legislators have proposed the possible prison sentence for women who undergo an abortion from one to three years to four-and-a-half for women who abort because of detected microcephaly, with doctors facing up to 15 years. Brazil’s class divide has exacerbated healthcare restrictions, constraining women of less means to life-threatening procedures (including black market pills, Internet-advised intervention, acid injections, and self-attempted extraction)  while wealthy women enjoy access to overseas healthcare and hidden networks of clinics and doctors. Vocativ takes a look at the dire straits Brazilian women seeking an abortion find themselves in and attempts to gain reproductive rights.

Read more:
“From Sketchy Pills To Upscale Clinics: Illegal Abortion In Brazil” (Vocativ)

Additional reading:
“Brazilian Legislators Look to Increase Abortion Penalties in the Wake of Zika Outbreak” (TIME)
“Illegal abortions claim lives of Brazilian women” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Chrisophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images, via Vocativ)

Ideology + Affiliation, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Malaysia News | Artists & LGBT

Malaysian film banned for LGBT and government-mocking storylines
  • Banglasia, directed by Malaysian YouTube star Namewee, was banned by the government for “mocking national security issues” and highlighting “negative sociocultural lifestyles such as lesbian gay bisexual transgender (LGBT).”
  • The film focuses on a diverse group of people overcoming their differences and took comedic aim at controversial political events from Malaysia’s history.
  • A Kickstarter campaign to recoup lost finances and secure an Internet release for the film stalled.

Read more:
“Ministry: ‘Banglasia’ film banned for ridiculing national security, promoting LGBT” (The Malay Mail)
“Malaysian film promoting LBGT rights banned for ‘mocking national security’” (The Guardian)
Banglasia trailer (YouTube)

Nationality + Migration

U.S. News | Undocumented Immigrants

New Mexico university recruits undocumented students as student activists continue to fight for reform
  • Silver City–based Western New Mexico University has begun an outreach program to recruit undocumented students, a group known as DREAMers after the proposed legislation providing a path to citizenship through higher education or military service.
  • Undocumented students face uncertain prospects for higher education because of their status, with financial aid restrictions and legal precarity constraining their prospects.
  • As colleges face declining enrollments, undocumented students have seen their appeal to admissions offices increase, while students across the country fight for visibility and legal reform.

Read more:
“New Mexico College Seeks Immigrant Students in US Illegally” (AP via ABC News)
“Undocumented students come out of the shadows” (USA Today)
“The Folly of Under-Educating the Undocumented” (The Atlantic)

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)