Category: Human rights

Egypt’s hollowed-out civil society

     

Authoritarian regimes are, in general, averse to a strong civil society. Egypt is no exception, notes Gamal Eid (left), an Egyptian lawyer and the director of the Arabic Network for… Read more »

Cuba minister calls Obama trip ‘an attack’ as Communists defend ideology

     

U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Communist-led Cuba was an “attack” on its history and culture aimed at misleading a new business class, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said on Monday,… Read more »

Chavista courts eroding Venezuela’s democracy

     

Venezuela’s courts — packed by leftist loyalists of Nicolás Maduro only days before they handed over power — have fiercely chipped away at the new legislature’s efforts, leaving some here wondering… Read more »

Still a long road ahead for Cuba’s civil society

     

  A leading human rights group has strongly condemned the harassment of Cuban doctor and journalist Eduardo Herrera Duran (above). In March, Herrera — a surgeon at the Calixto García University… Read more »

U.N. experts decry Egypt’s civil society crackdown

     

Egypt is closing down domestic non-governmental organizations and putting travel bans on their staff in order to obstruct scrutiny of human rights issues, three independent U.N. human rights investigators said… Read more »

Video shows ‘Putin’s New Praetorians’ training to suppress a Moscow Maidan

     

On April 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would develop a national guard to fight terrorism and crime, but a recently released video (above) from Open Russia purports to show the guard training to… Read more »

Make Peru poll a ‘referendum on return to Fujimorismo’

     

  Peruvian markets jumped on Monday as results showed two free-market candidates would move on to the second round of a presidential election: Keiko Fujimori, the conservative daughter of a… Read more »

Venezuela’s failed state: is there light at the end of the tunnel?

     

“Widespread Blackouts Loom As Venezuela’s Dams Run out of Water” was the ominous headline from the PanAm Post on March 16. And even though the government blames El Niño, engineers apparently have… Read more »

Egypt ‘significantly escalates’ civil society crackdown

     

Egypt expanded its crackdown on human rights organizations Tuesday, raiding a center that treats victims of violence and attempting to shut it down. This time, however, the government backed down,… Read more »

Despite crackdown, China faces ‘real risk of social disorder’

     

  As an old-style Leninist party in a modern world, China’s ruling Communist party is confronted by two major challenges, notes Orville Schell, the Arthur Ross Director of the Center… Read more »