Category: NGOs

Can civil society tame Pakistan’s violent extremism?

     

Tackling extremism is a political minefield in Pakistan where politicians openly consort with leaders of banned militant groups and sympathy exists within the security forces and civil administration for perpetrators… Read more »

Russian rights defender receives political asylum

     

Russian rights defender Nadezhda Kutepova has received political asylum in France, RFE/RL reports: Kutepova, the director of the Planeta Nadezhd (A Planet of Hope) nongovernmental organization, left for France in… Read more »

Egypt’s civil society crackdown: rights defenders at risk of prosecution

     

Fourteen global human rights groups today urged Egypt to halt a renewed crackdown on civil society and rights defenders. The demand came as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced a cabinet… Read more »

Egypt’s civil society: two misperceptions

     

During a congressional hearing on the Obama administration’s FY17 budget request, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke briefly regarding the state of human rights in Egypt, expressing his concern over the… Read more »

‘In search of lost time’: standing up to Putin

     

Russia and the West are sliding into “a new Cold War,” Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned the recent 2016 Munich Security Conference, going on to ask: “Are we living… Read more »

Angola: a road to dialogue or things fall apart?

     

Angola faces a choice between three likely scenarios, says Rafael Marques de Morais, a leading journalist and democracy advocate: a dysfunctional status quo, with the kleptocratic, nepotistic regime maintained by… Read more »

‘Political activity’ an existential issue in Russia

     

Defining “political activity” may seem like an academic exercise, but in Russia, it is an existential one, notes Tanya Lokshina, Russia program director at Human Rights Watch. The definition is… Read more »

Challenging Moldova’s pro-Western facade

     

An unknown assailant threw a grenade at the house of the governor of Moldova’s central bank overnight, RFE/RL reports: Bank chief Dorin Dragutanu and his family were asleep when the… Read more »

Elections highlight ‘Struggle for the Soul of Iran’

     

Iran has excluded Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the founder of the Islamic republic and a cleric with ties to reformist politicians, from contesting elections to the country’s powerful Assembly of… Read more »

Fearing social instability, China waging ‘lawfare’ on NGOs

     

China’s Communist authorities are intensifying a crackdown on dissent, civil society and growing labor unrest, reflecting the ruling party’s concern that economic restructuring and dislocation will “threaten social stability.” “If… Read more »