Tag Archives: Law & Politics

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Sri Lanka News | Tamils

Sri Lanka announces reconciliation measures to facilitate civil war resolution
  • As part of the reconciliation process following the country’s 26-year civil war, the government will provide certificates acknowledging the forced disappearance of thousands, many of whom were ethnic Tamils abducted by security forces.
  • In addition to an Office of Missing Persons, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera promoted the establishment of a truth commission, Office of Reparations, and new constitution as part of the resolution process.
  • The announced measures follow a survey of families of the missing conducted nationwide, with more than 20,000 complaints have been filed with the government over such disappearances since 2013.

Read more:
“Sri Lanka plans new statute to redress Tamils’ grievances” (The Hindu)
“Sri Lanka to issue missing certificates to families of civil war disappeared” (The Guardian)
“Sri Lanka Prepares ‘Certificates of Absence’” (Inter Press Service)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

Hungary News | Muslims & Roma

Muslims and Roma bear brunt of anti-immigrant rhetoric in Hungary
  • Anti-immigrant sentiment fueled by xenophobic government rhetoric has led to harassment and assault of Hungary’s established minority populations, including Muslims and Roma people.
  • Politicians have drawn parallels between migrants and its own Roma population, painting the Roma minority as a situation to be “handled.”
  • While Muslims began immigrating to Hungary after World War II, the Roma have been present in the land now known as Hungary since the Middle Ages.

“I wish the government would think more carefully before starting campaigns like this. … It’s our wives who get spat on and have their veils ripped off in the street.”

Read more:
“Hungary’s minorities bear brunt of anti-migrant rhetoric” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Jamaica News | Jamaicans

Jamaican leaders find no traction on reparations issue with U.K. PM
  • British PM David Cameron rejected calls from Jamaican PM Portia Simpson Miller and other Caribbean leaders for reparations and an unconditional apology during his recent visit to Jamaica, the first by a British PM in 14 years.
  • Caribbean leaders have chronicled the long-term economic damages that the lack of reparations following Britain’s 1833 emancipation of the enslaved has inflicted on their national economies.
  • The call for reparations in the Caribbean has been particularly strong in the region because of the significant financial compensation offered to slave owners at the time of emancipation.

Read more:
“David Cameron rules out slavery reparation during Jamaica visit” (BBC)
“Apologise for slavery! – Reparations committee wants David Cameron to say sorry for wrongs of UK past” (The Gleaner)
“David Cameron Grapples With Issue of Slavery Reparations in Jamaica” (The New York Times)
“Britain, Jamaica, and the Looming Battle Over Reparations” (The Atlantic)

(Image Credit: Francois Lenoir/Reuters, via The Atlantic)

Nationality + Migration

Japan News | Refugees

Japan PM shuts down prospect of Japan taking in refugees after announcing humanitarian aid
  • Following his speech at the U.N. General Assembly, PM Shinzo Abe stated that Japan would be focusing on domestic issues in lieu of taking in refugees.
  • Citing the need to focus on the birthrate, gender inclusiveness, and the elderly, Abe framed the issue as one of “demography.”
  • At the General Assembly, Abe announced that Japan would provide $810 million in assistance for those affected by the Syrian and Iraqi conflicts, with an additional $750 million going to infrastructure and other peace-building projects.

Read more:
“Abe says Japan must solve its own problems before accepting any Syria refugees” (Reuters)
“Japan’s Leader Shinzo Abe Triples Aid to Address Mideast Refugee Crisis” (New York Times)
“Abe: Japan ready to help refugees, but not take them in” (AP)

(Image Credit: Carlo Allegri/Reuters, via The New York Times)

Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Germany News | Arab Immigrants

Germany prints constitution in Arabic for new arrivals
  • Germany has printed an initial 10,000 copies of an Arabic translation of the first 20 articles of its constitution to help support the integration of the more than 800,000 expected to find refuge in the country by year’s end.
  • Adopted in 1949, the “Basic Law” outlines the most critical political and social features of Germany’s democracy, including secular governance, freedom of religion, and other basic individual freedoms.
  • German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel also noted refugees would have to accept the sexual and gender equality and the prohibition on anti-Semitism in the country.

Read more:
“Germany prints its constitution in Arabic for refugees” (Deutsche Welle)
“Germany prints its constitution in Arabic for refugees to learn” (Reuters)
Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany

(Image Credit: Lukas Barth/Reuters)

Ideology + Affiliation

China News | Dissidents

Protesters gather in demonstration on anniversary of Hong Kong Occupy protests
  • Around 100 rallied near Hong Kong government headquarters on the one-year anniversary of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Occupy Central mass demonstrations.
  • No plans for the restart of mass protests have been made despite unfulfilled demands for the shoring up of the Hong Kong democratic process.

View the Radio Free Asia video on YouTube.

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Australia News | Indigenous Australian

Indigenous lawyer earns Australia’s most prestigious legal title
  • Having just been announced among the new class of silks, Australian barrister Anthony McAvoy is believed to be the only Indigenous lawyer with the title in a country with an estimated 15 Indigenous barristers.
  • Taking silk is a merit-driven process allowing lawyers to add the initials SC (Senior Counsel) or QC (Queen’s Counsel, a Commonwealth title) after their name, designating senior authority.
  • One of 26 who were awarded the status in New South Wales, McAvoy specializes in native title rights.

“For many years there were hardly any practitioners coming through and unless you have practised as a solicitor, making it at the Bar is very difficult. …Without the number of law graduates coming into the practice of law, the numbers would always be low.”

Read the full story at The Australian.

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Colombia News | Indigenous Colombians

Indigenous Colombian communities condemn arrest of leader Feliciano Valencia as blow to autonomy
  • In a blow to Indigenous criminal justice autonomy, Valencia was arrested for the alleged 2008 kidnapping of a Colombian soldier, which community members say involved the soldier’s detention and sentencing to 20 lashes for espionage in Indigenous territory.
  • Delegates from multiple of Colombia’s 84 registered Indigenous communities arrived at the Indigenous Intercultural University of Popayan to organize the Symbolic March for the Freedom of Feliciano Valencia.
  • Valencia had faced the same charges in 2010 but released after the defense argued that Indigenous communities’ right to administer justice in their own territories, guaranteed in the Colombian Constitution, was administered collectively and not just by Valencia.

“They want to delegitimize (a right) that is inscribed in the Constitution and that should prevail over ordinary legal norms.”

Read the full story at teleSUR English.

(Image Credit: via teleSUR)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Argentina News | LGBT

Argentina lifts ban on blood donations from LGBT individuals
  • After more than a decade of petitioning, LGBT advocates saw another major rights victory in the country as the Ministry of National Health ended its ban on LGBT blood donation.
  • The change specifically targets the pre-donation medical history questionnaire that singled out LGBT individuals for discrimination through questions about gender identity and sexual history.
  • Health officials hope the development will assist in promoting awareness of voluntary donation in an effort to increase its pool of blood donors.

“El cambio de paradigma de grupos de riesgo por el de prácticas de riesgo vuelve a posicionar a la Argentina a la vanguardia mundial en materia de igualdad y no discriminación”

Translation: “The paradigm change from at-risk groups to at-risk practices again positions Argentina in the global vanguard in matters of equality and non-discrimination.”

Read the full story at La Nación (in Spanish).

(Image Credit: via La Nación)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Nepal News | LGBT

New Nepal constitution enshrines rights of LGBT citizens
  • Along with wide-ranging inclusion of vulnerable classes, gender and sexual minorities were identified as being entitled to political protections.
  • The constitution is the first to be approved since the 2008 abolition of the Nepalese monarchy.
  • Marriage is not defined in the constitution, but a special tribunal called upon by the Supreme Court has recommended the extension of marriage rights to sexual minorities.
“The nation’s leadership has affirmed that its LGBT citizens deserve the constitutional right to live their lives free from discrimination and fear.”
Read the full story at the Washington Blade.
Sexual + Gender Minorities

Global News | Intersex

UN declares intersex genital surgeries a human rights violation
  • Intersex advocates and NGO leaders convened in Geneva for a UN Human Rights Council meeting to discuss intersex surgeries, infanticide, and discrimination against intersex people.
  • The recognition follows a 2013 report calling on nations to end the medical practice affecting the estimated 1 in 2,000 born with ambiguous sex traits.
  • Some in the medical community bristled at the comparison of the surgery to torture, arguing that the declaration inhibits doctors’ research into and understanding of intersex patients.

“Physicians constantly say to me that lawsuits and laws are not the way to change medical practice. …And I say, I agree with you, but if you will not change your practices — then that’s what it’ll take.”

Read the full story at BuzzFeed News.

(Image Credit: M. Spencer Green/AP, via BuzzFeed)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.S. News | Native American

1 Comment
U.S. government reaches major settlement with Native American tribes
  • Government and tribal officials have submitted a plan for $940 million to settle claims brought by more than 600 tribes and agencies.
  • The tribes have suffered from a quarter-century of underfunding by the federal government for basic programs like education, housing, law enforcement, and environmental management.
  • A round of finger-pointing between the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Congress, and the President resulted in a 2012 Supreme Court ruling holding the government liable for payment.

“Tribal self-determination and self-governance will continue to be our North Star as we navigate a new chapter in this important relationship and we are committed to fully funding contract support costs so that tribal contracting can be more successful.”

Read the full story at BuzzFeed News.

(Image Credit: Mary Hudetz/AP, via BuzzFeed)

Age, Gender

Egypt News | Women

Egyptian student pursues legal action after alleging her exam results were falsified
  • Mariam Malak, a high-achieving student, took action and demanded an independent inquiry after seeing that the handwriting on the test did not match her own.
  • Malak, who scored 97% on the test in the previous two years, has aspirations of becoming a doctor.
  • With suspicions that Malak’s results may have been switched with another student’s, the case has become a symbol of corruption in the Egyptian education system.

Read the full story at the Guardian.

(Image Credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration

Finland News | Refugees

Finland sees hundreds of refugees entering across Swedish border as it prepares to accept thousands more
  • More than 500 crossed the border in a day as the country has already seen the arrival of 11,000 asylum seekers.
  • Finland has agreed to take in thousands more in agreement with a proposed European refugee distribution plan, with most refugees making it to Finland having arrived from Iraq.
  • The government has reduced refugees’ cash stipend to €316 for a single adult (without meals) and is preparing to cut social integration benefits.

“I think our economic situation has become a smaller problem than the challenge from the refugees… We are monitoring the situation hour by hour.”

Read the full story at Reuters.

(Image Credit: Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

Global News | Palestinians

UN General Assembly vote will allow Palestinian flag to fly at UN headquarters
  • With 119 in favor, eight against, and 45 abstaining, the Assembly voted to allow observer states–Palestine and the Vatican–to fly their national flags in front of the UN’s New York headquarters.
  • The flag is expected to go up on September 30, when Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to address the General Assembly.
  • The U.S. and Israel criticized the measure as working in conflict with peace efforts in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Read the full story at the New York Times.