Category Archives: Governance

Rights activist survives petrol bomb attack on his home in Malawi

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Bombing believed to be linked to Timothy Mtambo’s role at forefront of mass protests over alleged rigging of elections

The home of a leading human rights activist in Malawi has been petrol bombed in what is believed to be a targeted move to stop mass demonstrations planned for next week.

Three bombs were thrown at the car and home of Timothy Mtambo, the chairman of Malawi’s Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC), and the executive director of the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRC).

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‘We’re not afraid to lead’: Myanmar’s displaced find a new voice

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Fearful for their safety, many of the 241,000 people forced from their homes by conflict in Myanmar are reluctant to go back. Now campaigners are mobilising to resist organised returns

Bawk Nu Awng hasn’t been home since 2011. All three of the villages where she spent her childhood have been destroyed.

“War hit wherever my family lived,” she said. “I feel like it is my responsibility to engage in all matters related to peace.”

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Obscene texts and corruption: the downfall of Puerto Rico’s governor – podcast

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Mass protests triggered by leaked text messages have led to the resignation of Ricardo Rosselló. Oliver Laughland discusses his time on the island. And: Larry Elliott on why sterling is at a 28-month low

Hundreds of thousands of people have lined the streets of Puerto Rico over the past couple of weeks in some of the largest demonstrations in the US territory’s history. They began in response to hundreds of pages of leaked text messages between the governor, Ricardo Rosselló, and 11 members of his inner circle, which made homophobic and sexist jokes and mocked the victims of Hurricane Maria.

However, the problems go further back than July. The Rosselló administration has been plagued by allegations of corruption and mismanagement during the response to Hurricane Maria. Shortly before the messages were leaked, the FBI arrested five former government officials and contractors accused of misappropriating millions of dollars in federal funds given to the island after the disaster.

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Moves to improve press freedom in Malaysia met with cautious optimism

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Proposal to replace restrictive legislation with independent media council could end closures of outlets but campaigners remain wary

The Malaysian government is considering repealing a restrictive media law and creating an independent watchdog to regulate the industry.

In a move that activists hope will become the first of many to improve press freedom in the country, the government is discussing the abolition of the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA).

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MPs say ’embarrassing and insulting’ UK visa system damages Africa relations

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Cross-party inquiry finds people from African countries often perceive reasons given for failed applications as biased or discriminatory

British MPs have warned that the UK visitor visa system is “broken” and doing “severe damage” to UK-Africa relations.

The problems faced by experts trying to visit the UK are so widespread that many Africans believe the Home Office to be prejudiced against them and deliberately trying to reduce visitor numbers.

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Seafarers trapped on ship for 33 months say jail threats forced them to reboard

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Men stranded off UAE for almost three years claim they were told they could face two-year sentence for leaving vessel unmanned

Seafarers who abandoned their ship after being stranded at sea for almost three years say they were forced back to their boat after they were warned they faced jail.

The four men, stranded 25 nautical miles off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, said they were told by coastguards that they faced two years in prison for leaving the vessel, the MV Tamim Aldar, and were advised to return. For abandoned seafarers, leaving a ship is alast resort, as the vessel represents their bargaining power for unpaid wages.

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‘War on drugs’ makes Philippines fourth most dangerous country – report

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Duterte’s violent anti-drugs operations are responsible for 75% of civilian deaths this year

President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of a “war on drugs” has made the Philippines the fourth most dangerous place in the world for civilian-targeted violence, according to a report that places the country behind conflict-ridden Yemen.

The report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled) identifies India as the most dangerous country, with 1,385 violent events that targeted civilians. Second place is Syria with 1,160, followed by Yemen with 500, and the Philippines with 345. It supports comments made recently by Michelle Bachelet, UN high commissioner for human rights, who voiced concerns over ongoing human rights abuses in the Philippines and the “extraordinarily high number of deaths – and persistent reports of extrajudicial killings – in the context of campaigns against drug use”.

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Social stock exchange idea highlights India’s move away from foreign aid

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Proposal could provide cheaper funding for charities, says finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, but critics warn against greater government control of welfare projects

India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has called for the creation of a “social stock exchange”, allowing ethically minded investors to buy stakes in social enterprises, volunteer groups and welfare organisations.

The proposal would be a radical experiment in a country characterised by stark inequality and rapid economic growth.

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No ticket to ride: Zimbabweans trapped for months without passports | Nyasha Chingono

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With the registry office facing a backlog of 280,000 applications, some people have waited close to a year to work or study abroad

Every morning for the past two months Eldah Makuvise, 35, has braved the cold winter mornings to queue for her passport at the local registry office in Harare, Zimbabwe. Each time she’s been sent away in despair.

Makuvise’s application, like others submitted a year ago, is stuck in a huge passport backlog.

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State projects leave tens of thousands of lives in the balance in Ethiopia – study

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Giant dam and irrigated sugar plantations mean people in lower Omo valley face starvation and conflict, says US thinktank

A giant dam and irrigated sugar plantations are “wreaking havoc” in southern Ethiopia and threaten to wipe out tens of thousands of indigenous peoples , a US-based thinktank has claimed.

The Oakland Institute says that while the Ethiopian government has made considerable progress on human rights under prime minister Abiy Ahmed, it has yet to address the impact of state development plans on indigenous populations in the lower Omo valley, where people face loss of livelihoods, starvation, and violent conflict .

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Lights out: the price hikes leaving millions of South Africans in the dark | Kimon de Greef

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Electricity costs have tripled in the past decade under a utility company plagued by debt and corruption claims, wiping out decades of progress

Electricity, when it arrived in Nosisi Rasmeni’s life, seemed to promise a better future.

Like most black South Africans who grew up during apartheid, she was raised with gas stoves, candles and paraffin heaters. Her family’s shack was poorly lit and smelled of fumes. “Electricity was only for whites,” says Rasmeni, 37.

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Uganda bans giving to child beggars in bid to stop exploitation

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Kampala officials say law aims to protect children and keep them off the streets but activists fear exploiters will develop new tactics

Ugandan officials have passed a law making it an offence to offer money, food or clothing to children living on the streets of the capital, in a controversial bid to stop exploitation and sexual abuse.

The Kampala Child Protection Ordinance 2019 also criminalises children loitering in public places, begging or soliciting, vending or hawking, and bans the sale of alcohol and drugs to children.

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Andrew Mitchell and Justine Greening back calls for foreign loan transparency

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Former international development secretaries among 50 British MPs urging introduction of tighter regulations on disclosure

Three former international development secretaries are among 50 British MPs urging the British chancellor to take “strong action” to increase transparency on loans to governments, in advance of next month’s G20 meeting.

Citing the alleged involvement of UK-based companies in secret loans to Mozambique, Andrew Mitchell, Justine Greening and Hilary Benn joined parliamentarians from every party in calling for regulations to ensure loans to governments are publicly disclosed.

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Can Buhari win over his enemies to unite a deeply divided Nigeria? | Orji Sunday

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As the president is sworn in for a further four years, the challenges of tackling corruption, poverty and conflict grow ever more intense

Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari will be sworn in on Wednesday, the former military dictator taking a new four-year tenure after a keenly contested election in February.

When the results were announced, it cleanly split national emotion into joy and sadness – a divide that now has knitted back together into widely felt indifference.

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Sexism, slander, hatred: Sri Lanka’s culture of online abuse

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From politicians to members of the LGBTQI community, social media in Sri Lanka is a hotbed of harassment and hostility

The threats began after Jegatheeswaram Jeyachandrika decided to contest local government elections.

Clutching a file of printouts, Meena, as she is known, points to a Facebook post in which she is pictured, circled in red, among a group of people.

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The west turns a blind eye to Middle Eastern violence at its own peril | Dr Amr Darrag

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In failing to hold Egypt and Saudi Arabia to account over the deaths of Giulio Regeni and Jamal Khashoggi, the west is making a rod for its own back

The parents of Giulio Regeni, the Italian doctoral student murdered in Cairo three years ago, last week wrote an emotionally charged letter to Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. “As long as this barbarism remains unpunished,” they told the Egyptian president, “until all those who are guilty, regardless of their position, are brought to justice in Italy, no one in the world can stay in your country and feel safe.”

Regeni was found in a ditch in February 2016, less than 2km away from the national security agency headquarters. His body, naked from the waist down, bore clear signs of brutal torture. Regeni’s parents, who say they have yet to see any sign that the murder is being investigated, said they could only identify their son by the tip of his nose. They want those responsible extradited to Italy.

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Global neglect of millions forced from their homes by conflict branded ‘pitiful’

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Top official condemns lack of focus on record 41 million people left homeless in their own countries after fleeing violence

Record numbers of people have been forced from their homes by conflict in a crisis that has received “pitiful” international attention, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council has said.

A total of 41.3 million people were living in a state of internal displacement by the end of 2018 due to violence, researchers for the organisation found, with increasing numbers unable to return home for protracted periods. This is a rise of more than a million on the previous year.

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Poor bear the brunt as global justice system fails 5.1 billion people – study

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Flawed legal systems mean two-thirds of the world’s population are deprived of justice

Across the world, an estimated 5.1 billion people – two-thirds of the global population – are being failed by the justice system, a study has found.

But providing universal access to basic justice could save the global economy billions of dollars every year, as lost income and stress-related illness due to seeking legal redress can cost countries up to 3% of their annual GDP, according to a report published today by the Task Force on Justice.

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‘I lost consciousness’: woman whipped by the Taliban over burqa without veil | Haroon Janjua

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Aziza’s story reflects the growing number of violent public assaults on women deemed to be in breach of sharia law in Afghanistan

One of four women who was recently subjected to a brutal public lashing by armed Taliban fighters in Afghanistan has spoken about her experience, amid an increase of violent punishments given to those violating its strict interpretation of religious law.

Aziza, who like many other Afghan women only uses one name, was rounded up by the Taliban’s shadow police for being out of her house without her husband and not being fully veiled. She was beaten so badly she lost consciousness.

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Zimbabwe’s £118,000 outlay on judges’ wigs met with fury

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Lawyers say economically stricken country’s purchase of horsehair wigs made in London evokes spirit of colonialism

Lawyers in Zimbabwe have hit out at a government decision to spend thousands of pounds on wigs made in England for local judges, saying the tradition evokes a colonial past that should not exist in modern Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s judicial services commission has placed an order for 64 wigs from Stanley Ley Legal Outfitters in London, at a cost of £118,400.

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