Author Archives: DemDigest

‘Taking the Pulse of Democracy’: Mexico and the Americas 2018/19

     

Why did Argentina, Brazil and Mexico react so differently to COVID-19? Responses to this question are usually limited to whether their presidents – Alberto Fernández, Jair Bolsonaro and Andrés Manuel… Read more »

COVID-19 highlights democracies’ cohesion or confusion?

     

As the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision making body of the World Health Organization, gathers virtually today for its annual conference, more than 120 countries have signed a draft… Read more »

‘From Wuhan to the World’: COVID-19 may play in favor of democracies, not autocracies

     

  A leaked database from a Chinese military-run university suggests China may have 640K coronavirus cases, not 80K. This is breathtaking mendacity not even matched by the Islamic Republic in… Read more »

China’s subversion of international norms could generate chaos

     

The coronavirus pandemic has crystallized the critical connection between human rights, accountability and public health. China’s ruthless suppression of free speech and its lack of transparency gave the disease wings… Read more »

Release Saudi women’s rights advocates on 2nd anniversary of arrests, say NGOs

     

  Today marks two years since Loujain al-Hathloul (below), a prominent human rights activist in Saudi Arabia, was arrested and detained for trying to “destabilize the kingdom” with her fight… Read more »

Democracy vs Authoritarianism Under COVID-19

     

Movements and regimes inspired by liberal ideals are increasingly finding themselves on the defensive in a world increasingly vulnerable to authoritarian mischief, notes analyst Brian Stewart. Although excessive centralization is… Read more »

Amal Clooney urges Magnitsky law to protect global human rights

     

Have our moral nerve endings been deadened as a result of widespread immunity for human rights abusers? Human rights barrister Amal Clooney has told Australian MPs they have a role to… Read more »

‘Breaking the China Supply Chain’: How the ‘Five Eyes’ democracies can decouple

     

The inability to produce and source Personal Protective Equipment via globalized supply chains has reminded democratic governments and peoples that it is necessary to be able to produce strategic commodities,… Read more »

Pondering pandemic’s political potency

     

The world’s leading democracies will not be judged by how they initially responded to Covid-19, but by their success in post-crisis reconstruction, according to a leading analyst. We always knew… Read more »

Failing the COVID-19 test of democratic governance

     

  Want to learn more about how the spread of #deepfake videos & #disinformation threaten our democratic elections? Watch our session w/ @Microsoft on the different strategies that social media… Read more »