Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Robert Stefanicki WARSAW, Jan 24, 2012 (IPS) – "I had to fight to be treated like a human, not animal," dissident Nikolai Avtukhovich wrote from prison. Last month Avtukhovich, Belarusian political activist and entrepreneur, convicted to five years in the penal colony for illegal storage of five [...]
SOUTH SUDAN: Still Counting the Dead in Inter-Ethnic Conflict
January 24, 2012 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Jared Ferrie PIBOR, South Sudan , Jan 24, 2012 (IPS) – In the ward of a partially destroyed clinic, Mangiro (who did not give his last name) sat on a bed next to his wounded nine-year-old daughter, Ngathin. The little girl is fortunate, she survived the recent [...]
FUTURE OF KASHMIRI PANDITS
January 21, 2012 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy B.RAMAN It is 23 years today since Jammu & Kashmir saw the beginning of the ethnic-cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandits, the original inhabitants of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), from their homeland at the instigation of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) by a group of Kashmiri jihadi elements trained, armed and motivated [...]
TURKEY: Filtering Out Internet Freedom
January 21, 2012 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS ANKARA, Jan 19, 2012 (IPS) – Fifteen respected academics from different Turkish universities signed a declaration in Ankara last week protesting recent state regulations restricting access to a variety of websites on ‘moral’ and ‘national integrity’ grounds. Simultaneously, thousands of angry netizens held street demonstrations in several major [...]
LATIN AMERICA: Human Rights Agenda Has Expanded
December 7, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Marcela Valente BUENOS AIRES, Dec 7, 2011 (IPS) – Although the public identifies human rights organisations in Latin America with resistance to the dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, for years now these groups have broadened their concerns to encompass environmental and other issues. Environmental conflicts over [...]
CHINA: Enforced Disappearances on the Rise
December 5, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Emily-Anne Owen BEIJING, Dec 5, 2011 (IPS) – China is experiencing the worst crackdown since 1989 with a rising number of enforced disappearances of activists, a prominent Chinese dissident now living in exile has stated. Liao Yiwu, a former Chinese political prisoner and eminent author most well [...]
MEXICO: Deadly Cocktail of Sexual Violence and Impunity
November 23, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Emilio Godoy MEXICO CITY, Nov 23, 2011 (IPS) – Sexual violence against women in Mexico is on the rise, alongside the escalation of violence between police and soldiers and the drug cartels, women’s rights activists warn. "We have seen an increase in sexual harassment, groping, gang rape, [...]
MIDEAST: Into an Unsettled New Year
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Mya Guarnieri HEBRON, Jan 22, 2012 (IPS) – An elderly Palestinian woman spent last week on hunger strike to protest violent attacks by Israeli settlers. Hana Abu Heikel went on the hunger strike on behalf of her family after settlers burned the family car during the previous [...]