Tag Archives: Law & Politics

Nationality + Migration

U.S. Feature | Guest Workers

The Low Tide of Slavery

The low-skilled counterpart to the U.S.’s highly promoted H1-B program, the H-2 visa program brings guest workers to the U.S. to fill low- or unskilled labor positions, including farm work, construction, household maintenance, and elements of the food harvesting supply chain. BuzzFeed News investigates how limited enforcement of regulations and workers’ unbreakable tie to their employer while in the country exacerbate employer-employee power inequalities in the program, leaving guest workers vulnerable to slavery-like exploitation including wage undercutting, visa and passport withholding, illegal fee leveraging, basic resource deprivation, and more insidious threats like sexual violence and death.

Read the full feature at BuzzFeed News.

(Image Credit: Ken Bensinger/BuzzFeed News)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.S. News | LGBT

Texas Supreme Court rules Houston must repeal LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance or submit to popular referendum
  • The court overruled a state district judge who ruled that opponents of the ordinance’s passage failed to submit enough valid signatures to the city for a repeal referendum.
  • Houston’s mayor and city attorney overrode the city secretary’s sign-off on the petition, declaring many signatures invalid due to improper paperwork.
  • The city is expected to choose to submit the addition of sexual orientation and gender identity as locally protected classes to ballot, which observers expect to draw national attention and money to Houston’s local elections in November.

“You’re going to have money pouring in from all across the country on this issue because it’s extremely important. … We’re going to be looking at mayoral candidates, city council candidates that stand with us on this important issue. The eyes of the country are going to be looking at Houston.”

Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle.

(Image Credit: Cody Duty/Houston Chronicle)

Nationality + Migration, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Thailand News | Gay American

Aside
Thai surrogate attempts to block departure of gay couple with infant
  • A U.S.-Spanish binational couple has retreated to a secret location with their infant daughter after the surrogate they contracted through a Thai surrogacy agency refused to sign the papers for the child’s passport.
  • The woman alleges she was unaware the child was going to a gay couple and is not obligated to turn over her rights to the couple, despite contracts regulating the process and her lack of biological connection to the child.
  • After the present situation’s process had already begun, surrogacy was banned in Thailand following high-profile scandals that drew attention to the largely unregulated industry.

“She said she thought she was doing this for an ‘ordinary family’ and when she found out that it wasn’t an ordinary family she was worried for Carmen’s wellbeing.”

Read the full story at the Guardian.

(Image Credit: Gordon Lake/Facebook, via the Guardian)

Nationality + Migration

U.S. News | Undocumented Immigrants

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Immigrants file suit against Texas for denying birth certificates to their U.S.-born children
  • Texas has cracked down on the documentation required to obtain a birth certificate for U.S.-born children, accepting only a U.S. driver’s license, visa, or home-country voter identification.
  • State registrars are no longer allowed to accept the popularly held matriculas, or consular-issued identification cards, because of alleged verification concerns.
  • The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees citizenship to children born on U.S. soil, which has formed the basis of the legal claim by immigrant parents.

“It says we need a U.S. license we don’t have; a [Mexican] passport we have, but with a visa we don’t have; voter ID card I have, but it expired. … It’s not fair. She has a right to her birth certificate. What are we supposed to do?”

Read the full story at The Los Angeles Times.

(Image Credit: Molly Hennessy-Fiske/Los Angeles Times)

Gender, Religion + Belief

Pakistan News | Christian Women

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Death sentence temporarily stayed for Pakistani Christian woman charged with blasphemy
  • Pakistan’s Supreme Court issued the decision as they prepare to hear an appeal against the conviction of Asia Bibi, a mother of four who became the first woman sentenced to death under the law.
  • Blasphemy laws are ill-defined in Pakistan and often connected to personal conflicts and extortion, making the rate of convictions high.
  • Two politicians who intervened on behalf of Bibi were murdered, inhibiting calls for legal reform.

Read the full story at Al Jazeera.

(Image Credit: EPA, via Al Jazeera)

Ideology + Affiliation, Nationality + Migration

Russia News | Advocates

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MacArthur Foundation closes shop in Russia following placement on government watchlist
  • The US-based NGO supporting academic freedom and human rights has operated in Russia since 1992, but a new
  • The organization’s departure comes amidst an ongoing crackdown on “foreign agents” by the Russian government, which has seen academics fined and deported and human rights groups’ operation permits revoked.
  • The anti-NGO law passed in May claims to target international organizations operating against the sovereignty and national security of Russia.

“The recent passage and implementation of several laws in Russia make it all but impossible for international foundations to operate effectively and support worthy civil society organisations in that country.”

Read the full story at The Guardian.

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Italy News | LGB

European human rights court rules same-sex partnership rights fall under international human rights law
  • The decision responded to a lawsuit from Italian same-sex couples, who live in the only remaining Western European country lacking some form of same-sex partnership rights.
  • Italy’s own courts have ruled in favor of such rights with support from the Italian PM, but Parliament has largely ignored the issue, refusing to create the framework establishing such rights and protections.
  • Arguing that partnership rights fall under the “right to respect for private and family life,” the ruling technically compels compliance from the 47 Council of Europe member states, though its rulings have been ignored in the past.

Read the full story at BuzzFeed.

(Image Credit: Virginia Mayo/AP, via BuzzFeed)

Ideology + Affiliation

Venezuela News | Dissidents

Fourth opposition politician in last month banned from office in Venezuela
  • Former state governor Pablo Perez has been disqualified from holding office for 10 years by the comptroller’s office in what government critics say is a crackdown on political opposition ahead of Venezuela’s upcoming elections.
  • A former legislator and two ex-mayors have also been banned as the country has descended into economic turmoil, weakening support for President Nicolas Maduro.
  • Demonstrations protesting the bans and calling for free elections have been planned, though President Maduro has used violence in those protests as grounds for banning politicians from running.

Read the full story at Reuters.

(Image Credit: Isaac Urrutia/Reuters)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.S. News | LGB

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission rules existing civil rights law covers sexual orientation
  • The EEOC found that discrimination claims lodged by lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals against employers fall under sex discrimination, which is covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  • The decision applies directly to federal employees but impacts nationwide employment security more broadly because the EEOC investigates discrimination claims from the private sector as well.
  • The development follows the commission’s 2014 ruling that gender identity was protected under Title VII, which the Justice Department joined later in the year.

“'[T]he question is not whether sexual orientation is explicitly listed in Title VII as a prohibited basis for employment actions. It is not,’ the commission found. Instead, the commission stated that the question is the same as in any other Title VII sex discrimination case: ‘whether the agency has “relied on sex-based considerations” or “take[n] gender into account” when taking the challenged employment action.’”

Read the full story at BuzzFeed.

(Image Credit: via BuzzFeed)

Nationality + Migration

Kazakhstan News | International Visitors

Kazakhstan extends visa-free travel to 19 countries
  • Following a successful pilot program over the past year, the Kazakh government has extended visa-free travel for up to 15 days to residents of Australia, Hungary, Italy, Monaco, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Finland, France, Switzerland and Japan.
  • Should residents desire to stay longer than 15 days, they will be required to reenter or obtain a visa.
  • The program will last through the end of 2017 and has been implemented as Kazakhstan plans to host two major international sporting and cultural events–Winter Universiade and Expo 2017–in the next two years.

Read the full story at Tengrinews.

(Image Credit: Infopass.ru, via Tengrinews)

Nationality + Migration

U.A.E. News | Seychellois Visitors

Seychelles added to list of countries whose residents can travel to the UAE visa-free
  • The Indian Ocean archipelago’s 90,000 residents will now be able to travel to the United Arab Emirates for up to 90 days without a visa, with typical restrictions against working or studying applying.
  • Seychelles is the first African nation to be added to the UAE’s visa-free list, and according to one report is the African nation with the highest mobility as measured by passport-power.
  • The UAE is the most popular travel destination for Seychellois, with more than 9,000 trips to the country made in 2014.

Read the full story at the Seychelles News Agency.

(Image Credit: Wikipedia, via Seychelles News Agency)

Gender, Nationality + Migration, Religion + Belief

Canada News | Muslim Women

Religious freedom and politics face off over face-covering ban for Canadian citizenship oaths
  • A legal showdown looms over the constitutionality of the 2011 policy requiring oath-takers to have their faces uncovered, which conservative Muslims say violates their religious freedom.
  • A federal judge ruled in favor of a Muslim woman who had been denied citizenship after refusing to unveil herself, leading the government to appeal.
  • Lawyers for the woman hope to have the constitutionality of the ban addressed in the appeal ruling, while Conservative politicians have drummed up the issue as a political one.

“Despite the party’s success with new immigrants and ethnic communities … and spearheading connections to those communities, a lot of the base still has a view that minority cultures have inappropriate practices.”

Read the full story at The StarPhoenix.

Nationality + Migration

India & Bangladesh News | Immigrants & Nationals

Indian and Bangladeshi enclave residents decide on citizenship as deadline nears
  • In May, India and Bangladesh agreed to return enclaves within their respective borders to one another.
  • More than 50,000 enclave residents must now choose which citizenship they would like to have by July 31st, which will determine whether they will have to move.
  • Despite having officially been citizens of their country of national origin, the residents have effectively been stateless as they lack access to public services in their country of residence.

Read the full story at the BBC.

(Image Credit: via BBC)

Nationality + Migration

U.S. Perspectives | Undocumented Immigrants

Video

Define American: Coming Out

Non-profit group Define American has launched a media campaign focused on the stories of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Confronting difficult questions of national identity, visibility, and integration, the campaign is soliciting the stories of undocumented individuals ready to share their personal experiences to advance the cause of U.S. immigration reform.

Visit and subscribe to Define American’s YouTube channel for the latest coming out videos or their website to contribute your own.

Gender

India Research | Women

Indian women and children showing progress in key health indicators
  • The U.N.-supported Rapid Survey on Children showed significant positive developments in the rates of stuntedness in children, child marriage, breastfeeding, immunization, and hospital childbirths.
  • The survey–the first of its kind in India in nearly a decade–still indicated that rates of adverse behaviors and conditions remain high, however.
  • Since the initial report covering 2005-06, the government has introduced a number of public health measures, including introducing female community health advisers and free facilitation services, such as hospital transportation for pregnant women.

“Overall we are pleased about the data as it shows a positive trend. … Anything India does on development has a huge impact globally and I think everyone is optimistic about the progress made.”

Read the full story from the Thomson Reuters Foundation at Reuters.