Category: Dissidents

Vietnam’s ‘digital dictatorship’ seeks to silence dissidents

     

The European Union (EU) must urge Vietnam to end its ongoing crackdown on peaceful dissent, repeal its repressive laws, and immediately release all political prisoners, according to human rights groups,… Read more »

“An affront to democracy”: Cuba’s launches fresh crackdown on activists

     

Cuba’s Communist regime has launched a fresh crackdown on the island’s democracy activists, reports suggest. At least eight houses were occupied by more than 200 military personnel bearing assault weapons… Read more »

How Khomeini betrayed the democratic promise of the Iranian revolution

     

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini betrayed the principles of the Iranian revolution after sweeping to power in 1979, leaving a “very bitter” taste among some of those who had returned with him… Read more »

Remembering Nadia Diuk

     

  In the days since Nadia passed, the National Endowment for Democracy has received an incredible outpouring of messages of condolence and remembering, said NED President Carl Gershman, delivering a… Read more »

Why Iran’s Islamic Republic hates Wednesdays

     

The compulsory hijab law is perhaps the most high-profile of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s many human and civil rights violations. Yet for Masih Alinejad (above, addressing the National Democratic Institute’s… Read more »

The truth about Cuba’s ‘transformation’

     

The Cuban regime’s sympathizers – including those like Angela Davis who never protested Fidel Castro’s brutal anti-gay repressions – insist that the Communist stalwart may be moving closer to democracy, but more… Read more »

Clash of ideas key in political warfare against neo-authoritarians

     

Both Russia and China are governed by opaque, highly centralized and increasingly personalized governments. Political warfare, for such regimes, is second nature, according to Hal Brands, the Henry A. Kissinger… Read more »

‘Realizing Rights over Repression in Iran’ – the case for Magnitsky sanctions

     

  Iran has sentenced two human rights lawyers to six years in prison and a third to 13 years, AP reports: The Arman daily said Ghasem Sholeh-Saadi and Arash Keikhosravi were… Read more »

Lyudmila M. Alexeyeva, R.I.P.

     

Democracy and human rights advocates are mourning the loss of Lyudmila M. Alexeyeva, a leader of the Russian human rights movement in the Soviet Union and in the era of… Read more »

How democracies slide into authoritarianism

     

In “The Captive Mind,” Czeslaw Milosz documented the collusion that accompanies democracy’s collapse. While his message holds special relevance for those living in autocracies, its resonance extends to both free… Read more »