Tag Archives: Law & Politics

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Kenya News | LGBT

Anti-gay demonstration takes place in Nairobi ahead of Obama visit
  • Dozens gathered in the Kenyan capital to protest LGBT rights and advocacy and warn President Obama against attempts to speak out on the issue in Kenya following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of same-sex marriage.
  • MP Irungu Kangata spoke outside of the Kenyan Parliament at the rally billed as pro-family.
  • Rights activists have called on the U.S. president to show solidarity with their struggles in the country, setting the stage for conflict regardless of the president’s actions.

“We are telling Mr Obama when he comes to Kenya this month and he tries to bring the abortion agenda, the gay agenda, we shall tell him to shut up and go home.”

Read the full story at Reuters.

(Image Credit: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

Italy News | Refugees

Italian mayors ban migrants from entering towns without health certificate
  • The mayors of six cities in the northwest Savona province have outlawed entrance of migrants in their town unless certified as disease-free.
  • Despite the lack of major disease outbreaks since the arrival of nearly 68,000 migrants in Italy this year, mayors have claimed concern over public health in order to avoid having to take in migrants and refugees.
  • Community organizations have slammed the policies as discriminatory, with instances having taken place of Milan bus drivers declaring refusal to transport migrants because of so-called public health concerns.

“The law cannot be used in a discriminatory way, which is something local leaders should know.”

Read the full story at The Local.

Nationality + Migration

Turkey News | Korean & Chinese

Turkish nationalists attack group of Korean tourists in Istanbul, believing them to be Chinese
  • Members of the Istanbul chapter of Ülkü Ocaklari, a far-right Turkish nationalist group, broke off from demonstrations in solidarity against China’s treatment of its Muslim Uyghur minority to attack the tourists at the Topkapi Palace.
  • The Koreans had been at the popular tourist attraction as part of a tour group, and police quickly dispersed the attackers using tear gas.
  • Turkey has summoned its Chinese ambassador to discuss concerns over China’s constraint of Uyghur’s religious freedom, which has led to tension and violence in Xinjiang in the northwest of China.

Read the full story at the Hurriyet Daily News.

Gender

Afghanistan News | Women

First woman nominated to Supreme Court in Afghanistan

  • President Ashraf Ghani put forth Anisa Rasooli for parliamentary approval to join the nine-member court.
  • Rasooli has had a distinguished career in the juvenile court system and as director of the Afghan Women Judges Association, but clerical opposition has been swift to protest the nomination.
  • President Ghani has been vocal in his advocacy for more women in government, having appointed two female governors and called for all ministries to appoint female deputy ministers.

Read the full story at Public Radio International.

(Image Credit: Sayed Salahuddin/Reuters)

Gender

Australia News | Women

Housing in New South Wales domestic violence centers maxed out as government changes reshape landscape of crisis housing
  • In the southeastern Australian state, 90% of the 350 available rooms are full, while Sydney’s accommodations are at capacity.
  • The housing saturation comes as 28,870 domestic violence incidents were reported in the first quarter of the year, including 8 deaths.
  • Center managers report that a recently implemented governmental program has consolidated transitional and crisis housing with generalized homelessness services, leading to a sharp increase in housing demand and more turn-aways.

“It used to be that we were real advocates for women and now we are quite fearful of saying anything at all. We have to be grateful for every cent that we get.”

Read the full story at the Sydney Morning Herald.

(Image Credit: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, via The Sydney Morning Herald)

Nationality + Migration

Kenya News | International Visitors

Kenya transitions to electronic visa system, easing visa acquisition for foreign visitors
  • Launched at the beginning of July, the new system aims to improve the efficiency of the visa application process by digitizing the application, payment, and issuance cycle.
  • The e-visa will operate alongside the old visa until September 1, allowing travelers with upcoming trips to enter under previous policies.
  • The transition comes on the heels of the digitization of the passport application process for Kenyans through its new e-citizen system.

Read the full story at the Daily Nation.

Nationality + Migration

China News | Immigrants

1 Comment
Shanghai implements new long-term visa policies for foreign workers
  • A new five-year work visa has opened up for foreign workers skilled in areas like science and innovation.
  • The new immigration policy also features the option for workers to apply for permanent residence after having lived in the city for three years.
  • Previously, only around 2,500 immigrants received permanent residence in Shanghai because of high application barriers.

“So if you come here to China and your children are in high school, and you’re reaching the end of your five-year visa and they are about to go to high school, and you’d like to stay longer and see them through high school, then you can. And that’s really important for a family to be able to stay longer.”

Read the full story at CCTV.

Ideology + Affiliation

China News | Advocates & Dissidents

China enacts sweeping new national security law, fortifying Communist Party powers and worrying rights advocates and political dissenters
  • The law expands China’s “core interests” to include economic development; polar, maritime, and extraterrestrial project protection; and a broad sense of national security encompassing culture, education, and politics.
  • With two complementary bills on foreign organization regulation and counterterrorism in the pipeline, security experts and human rights advocates expect the new law to lead to more activities categorized as national security violations and strengthened legal justification for crackdowns on dissent.
  • Under the agreements that led to their reintegration into China, Hong Kong and Macau will not be subject to application of the law.

“All these things are brought together in a way that links the idea of the nation or the state with the security of a political regime. … Everybody knows this is the understanding that the Communist Party has, but it’s rarely put this explicitly in national law. That’s just striking.”

Read the full story at the New York Times.

(Image Credit: Bobby Yip/Reuters, via The New York Times)

Religion + Belief

India News | Muslims

Indian state government causes upset through exclusion of religious school-educated students from definition of school-going children
  • Maharashtra’s social justice minister stated that any child obtaining full-time religious education would not be counted as educated or in-school, including the children enrolled in one of the state’s 1890 registered madrassas.
  • After politicians from multiple political parties called the declaration unconstitutional, the minister argued that the designation has been one followed by previous governments.
  • Last month, the government instated a rule requiring madrassas to teach math, science, social science, and English in order to be eligible for government grants.

“The decision is against the Constitution. A number of students who studied in madrassas have successfully competed in competitive exams. The government must roll back the decision.”

Read the full story at The Hindu.

(Image Credit: Vivek Bendre/The Hindu)

Ideology + Affiliation, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Iran News | LGBT & Allies

Iranian actor apologies after summoning by authorities following LGBT-supportive tweet
  • Bahram Radan tweeted in support of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of nationwide same-sex marriage, leading to his summoning by Iran’s ministry of culture and Islamic guidance.
  • The reaction to the U.S. ruling highlights the division in Iranian society and the diaspora over LGBT rights, seeing online debate stirred after many added Facebook’s rainbow filter to their profile pictures in solidarity with the decision and many others condemned the action.
  • Iran’s hardline conservative authorities have relaxed some punishments against homosexual acts, but they are still criminalized and treated as manifestations of mental illness.

“They’re afraid that people in Iran are beginning to talk about homosexuality as a sexual minority, not an illness, and they don’t want that to be normalised.”

Read the full story at the Guardian.

(Image Credit: Ahmad Halabisaz/Xinhua Press/Corbis, via The Guardian)

Gender

Afghanistan News | Women

Afghan president appoints second female governor despite vocal opposition
  • President Ashraf Ghani appointed Seema Joyenda to the governorship of the Ghor Province in central Afghanistan, the second of three female governor appointments promised by the administration.
  • The first, Massoma Muradi, has been marooned in Kabul, unable to take her post in the Daikundi Province due to demonstrations against her appointment.
  • Provincial leaders and community members opposed to the appointments claim a woman will be unable to navigate the complex security terrains of the provinces, which see continuing conflict between tribal groups, including the Taliban.

“This is not new to me. As their former representative, I traveled the province, I know my people’s pain.”

Read the full story at the New York Times.

Age, Gender

Kenya News | Girls

Kenyan mother sues government for denying safe access to abortion following daughter’s botched backstreet procedure
  • The 15-year-old girl sought the abortion following her rape by an older man, but complications arose that have led to ongoing health complications.
  • While abortion is permitted in cases of emergencies involving maternal health under Kenya’s 2010 constitution, the state has banned training for government healthcare providers and harassed and charged other doctors.
  • Unsafe abortions account for 35% of maternal deaths in Kenya (well above the 13% global average), with around 2,600 women per year dying in hospitals after having attempted to get an abortion elsewhere.

“The Kenyan government is allowing thousands of women in Kenya to needlessly die or suffer severe complications every year due to unsafe abortion, and it must be held accountable.”

Read the full story at Reuters.

Gender

Singapore News | Women

Colonel Gan Siow Huang promoted to become first female general in Singapore Armed Forces
  • On July 1, Huang, 40, will assume the rank of Brigadier-General after 22 years in the army.
  • She was one of four women to receive the first SAF merit scholarship in 1993 when the military first began actively recruiting women.
  • A graduate of the London School of Economics and mother of three, she credits the SAF’s family-friendly policies with allowing for some of the flexibility needed for her to balance her demanding work with starting a family.

“I think women entered this game late. It was only in 1993 that the SAF seriously started to look at and bring in talent, and to develop woman leaders. Back then, the SAF also did not know how far women could go.  In the 1990s, we didn’t have many woman COs in the Army, Navy and Air Force. Over time, when women in different jobs and vocations did well, confidence was gradually built.”

Read the full story at AsiaOne.

(Image Credit: via AsiaOne)

Gender

U.S. News | Women

Ohio Senate passes legislation outlawing abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy
  • Republicans drove through the legislation that will make it a fourth-degree felony for doctors to perform abortion procedures after 20 weeks, sending it to the House of Representatives for approval.
  • Other politicians and reproductive rights advocates have criticized the bill for its lack of exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or severe fetal medical anomalies.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand federal rulings striking down similar laws in Idaho and Arizona.

“Most women targeted by this bill are suffering from medical complications with a wanted pregnancy. Doctors shouldn’t have their hands tied by legislators, they need to be able to treat their patients in the way that is best for their patient and their family.”

Read the full story at Cleveland.com.

(Image Credit: Robert Higgs/Northeast Ohio Media Group, via Cleveland.com)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.S. News | LGB

U.S. becomes 25th country to guarantee same-sex marriage rights nationwide with Supreme Court decision
  • Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion in the 5-4 ruling, which cast same-sex marriage as a fundamental constitutional right.
  • The ruling legalizes same-sex marriage in the 13 remaining states that have yet to have pass marriage equality legislation or have judicial rulings issued effectively legalizing the recognition.
  • The decision is the culmination of a nearly unbroken line of state and federal court decisions that have dismantled bans on same-sex marriage, most spurred by the Supreme Court’s US v. Windsor decision that ruled much of the federal legislation banning same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

“It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. … Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.”

Read the full story at the New York Times and Quartz.