On February 12, a coalition of human rights organizations and lawyers (including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists) wrote an open letter to the U.S. to drop the case against Wikileaks cofounder Julian Assange. While it was hoped that the new Biden administration would drop
November 10th saw the signing of the Azerbaijan-Armenian peace deal, ending six weeks of bloody conflict. Large swathes of Nagorno-Karabakh were awarded to Azerbaijan after being seized during the war. Ethnic Armenians who resided in these areas fled Armenia, often destroying their homes in the process. During the war, international
In recent months, Peru has faced a growing missing person’s crisis. Since lockdown was imposed in mid-March, female disappearances have risen considerably. According to Peru’s women’s ministry, figures in July indicated that about 1200 women had gone missing, which amounts to eight women reported as missing per day. By the
On June 25th, in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, Asroridden Rozikov was arbitrarily detained by Tajik security forces. Rozikov was targeted for one reason, he is the son of a senior member of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRT). The detention is the latest instance of the increasingly coercive
In a move that mimics recent acts by Russia, Poland and Hungary, the Mongolian government is preparing to debate proposed legislation that will allow government oversight of non-government organisations (NGOs). As reported by The Washington Post’s Aubrey Menarndt, the legislation requires the creation of a Civil Society Development Council, which
On October 4th, ministerial officials from the U.S., U.K. and Australia published an open letter to Facebook, requesting the company to delay plans to implement ‘end to end encryption’ across Facebook messaging platforms. End to end encryption, or E2EE, would greatly increase individual security and privacy by all but removing
Honduras and Nauru have both recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel this past week. On Thursday, President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández visited Jerusalem to open a diplomatically recognized trade office. According to Hernández, the office will act as an extension of the embassy in Tel Aviv. Palestinian officials
Protests have erupted across Indonesia’s eastern region of Papua this week, following an incident where forty-three Papuan students were tear-gassed, barricaded and detained on Friday night, August 16, by Indonesian forces. As reported by the Australian Broadcasting Channel (ABC), students were held without charge for nine hours, following an allegation
This year has seen yet greater increases in permafrost thawing in Russia, and more frequent incidents of extreme heat and weather. Blind to such events and their cause, the Trump administration released the ‘Affordable Clean Energy Rule’ (ACE). The ACE rule is Trump’s response to climate change, implemented by the
A report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday has detailed Eritrea’s continued use of secondary schools to conscript students into national and military services. Before completing their final year of secondary school, students are sent to an isolated military camp to train and take their final tests. The
On Friday, August 2, the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty). The Treaty prohibits the acquisition of ground launched missiles with a range of 500-1500 kilometers. The move came amidst concerns that Russia was no longer complying with the treaty. President Trump has also raised the
At the start of this month, the Tajoura detention centre in Tripoli, Libya, was attacked. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), scores were killed, and many were left critically injured. The detention centre held 600 migrants and asylum seekers, many of whom were women and children. However, the
On Monday this week, three major Pakistani news channels were airing an interview with jailed ex-president Nawaz Sharif, when they were suspended for between six to eight hours. The suspension has been heavily criticized by media watchdogs, but it is only the latest example of censorship in Pakistan. Over the
This year, disinformation from Russian sources was discovered in the lead up to the European Union’s (EU) parliamentary elections. Disinformation is the malicious intentional spread of false claims, as opposed to misinformation, which refers to the unintentional spread of misleading and false claims. Disinformation in and of itself is a
As a spate of violent attacks occur across Burkina Faso, the tactics used within counter-insurgency effort, ‘Operation Doofu’, are under fire. Mid-way through May, Operation Doofu was launched to ‘uproot terrorism’ and protect citizens. However, there are grave concerns about the tactics being utilized by security forces. In particular, there
A report released by the European Union (EU) on Friday presented evidence which suggests that Russia is using disinformation to impede elections to the EU parliament. According to the report, the aim was to sway voters towards right-wing parties by using disinformation to spread polarizing views on topics such as
LGBT+ refugees from a number of African countries were evicted from their refugee housing in Kenya on Friday. According to Reuters, the 76 LGBT+ refugees moved to Nairobi in April, seeking greater protection from discrimination they received within Kenyan refugee camps. On June 12, the landlord told the group to
On Saturday, members of the opposition were arrested in Sudan, after meeting with African Union (AU) appointed mediator Abiy Ahmed in an attempt to restart peace talks with the Transitional Military Council (TMC). Opposition politician, Mohamed Esmat, and secretary general of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, Ismail Jalab, were seized
Over the past year the government of Ethiopia, headed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, has produced progressive reforms to increase journalistic freedoms and freedom of expression. Such freedoms have been frequently and harshly repressed by previous governments. However, with these freedoms inevitably arise complications, namely a rising culture of disinformation
