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Angolan government bans Brazilian TV channel, alleging ‘irregularities’ · Global Voices
Global Voices Lusofonia

Screenshot of video by Public Television of Angola/YouTube
On April 19, the Angolan government suspended the broadcasting of Record TV África, a television network belonging to the Brazilian media conglomerate Grupo Record, alleging it had engaged in “irregularities.”
In an official statement, Angola's Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Media (MINTTICS) justified the decision with the fact that Record TV África's executive director was not a national citizen. The Ministry added that the network's foreign journalists were not officially accredited in Angola.
The suspension took effect on April 21 and will last until further notice, according to the statement.
On April 30, Record TV África announced it would replace its executive director, Fernando Teixeira, a Brazilian citizen, with Simeão Mundula, who is Angolan. The network also said that it did not have foreign journalists in its personnel in Angola.
At the time of the suspension, Record told the Brazilian press that it was surprised by the decision. It said:
Em 19/04/2021, a Record TV Africa foi surpreendida com um comunicado da Direção Nacional de Informação e Comunicação do Ministério das Telecomunicações, Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação Social (“MINTTICS”).
On April 19, Record TV Africa was surprised with a communiqué from the National Direction of Information and Communication of the Ministry of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Social Communication (“MINTTICS”).
Record TV África has been operating in Angola since 2005 and currently has 73 direct and indirect collaborators.
Record TV África, in strict compliance with the Constitution and Angolan law, informs the public, business partners and, in particular, its hundreds of thousands of daily viewers.
Record TV África is and has always been guided by the law in the more than 15 years it has operated in Angola and throughout the African continent, and will, together with the appropriate government authorities, seek clarification regarding the alleged irregularities.
The government's decision comes amid mounting criticism of Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, the Brazilian owner of Grupo Record, which operates all across Africa including in Angola.
Since 2017, Angolan bishops have accused Universal Church's Brazilian managers of corruption, mistreatment, and racism. In August 2020, Angolan prosecutors seized seven buildings belonging to the church as part of a criminal investigation into its activities. A group of Angolan bishops seeks to create a breakaway Universal Church in Angola.
This story is a translation of a story originally published in Portuguese on April 22, 2021, and differs from the original as it includes developments that took place after its publication.

author: Global Voices Lusofonia


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Georgia toughens penalties for administrative offences · Global Voices
OC Media

Screenshot of video by Voice of America.
This story was originally published on OC Media's website. A lightly edited version is republished here under a content-sharing agreement.
Georgian lawmakers approved last week a series of tougher penalties for administrative offenses that human rights groups say could have a chilling effect on freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly.
On April 29, the parliament dominated by Georgian Dream approved, in a series of expedited hearings, amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences that introduce harsher penalties for petty hooliganism (Article 166) and disobeying the police (Article 173).
The package law triples the minimum fine for repeated hooliganism to ₾1,500 (440 USD) and doubles the maximum fine to ₾2,000 (580 USD). In lieu of the fine, offenders may also be placed into administrative (pre-trial) arrest for a minimum of five days, while the maximum period is set to remain at 15 days.
Lawmakers also toughened penalties for non-compliance with orders given by a law-enforcement officer, raising fines from ₾1,000-₾4,000 (290-1,200 USD) to ₾3,500-₾4,500 (1,000-1,300 USD) and the minimum period of administrative arrest to seven days (the maximum, again, will remain at 15 days).
Additionally, the Parliament extended the maximum period of administrative detention for any reason (Article 247) from 24 to 48 hours.
Watchdog groups, including Transparency International — Georgia, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA), and the Democracy Research Institute (DRI), have expressed concern over the amendments’ negative effect on the freedom of peaceful assembly, as the legal provisions targeted by the amendments are routinely used by police to detain participants of anti-government street protests.
Critics have underlined that reviewing the draft law in an expedited fashion complicated the public oversight of the process, as well as endangered what has appeared to be a rapprochement between the ruling Georgian Dream party and the country’s opposition.
Georgia has been engulfed in a political crisis since October 2020, when opposition groups contested the results of parliamentary elections won by the ruling Georgian Dream. An agreement was reached in April after negotiations mediated by both the United States and the European Union.
RFERL reported:
The deal stipulates that early parliamentary elections be called in 2022 if Georgian Dream gets less than 43 percent in upcoming local elections. It also sets the rules for power-sharing in parliament, outlines reforms to the judicial system, and suggests reforms to the Central Election Commission.
In a statement released shortly after the amendments passed, the US Embassy in Georgia expressed their “deep disappointment” over Georgian Dream streamlining the package law in such a manner, calling it “unnecessary and unhelpful.”
“The lack of meaningful consultation with opposition parties, civil society, and other stakeholders raises questions about the purpose of the amendments,” the statement reads.
The US Embassy underlined that Georgian Dream has “fallen short” of taking more inclusive steps after the deal.
In response to such criticism, Georgian Dream MP Dimitri Samkharadze blamed the lack of debate on opposition groups disregarding the parliamentary hearings on the law.
While criticising Georgian Dream over the latest move, several activist groups, including Movement for Georgia and Shetsvale (Change!), which have frequently held anti-government protest rallies, did not spare the opposition groups in the parliament from criticism for their “astounding” silence on the matter.
On April 27, in a bid to overcome the crisis, MPs from Strategy Aghmashenebeli, Lelo, the Republican Party, Girchi — New Political Centre, and Girchi — More Freedom started participating in the parliamentary work. However, they mostly limited it to the amnesty law which is expected to free Nika Melia, chairman of the largest opposition group United National Movement, who has been in jail since February 23 with charges linked to the anti-government protests that have swept the country in the past months.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: OC Media


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Two Malaysian artists face police probe for online commentary and artwork · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Screenshot of the Spotify playlist ‘This is Dengki Ke’ created by artist Fahmi Reza.
Malaysian artists Fahmi Reza and Zunar are facing police investigations for social media posts deemed insulting to authorities.
Fahmi was detained for one day on April 23 after the police received a complaint about a satirical Spotify playlist uploaded by the artist. The playlist titled “Dengki Ke” (“jealousy”) contains 101 songs. It allegedly ridicules Malaysian Queen Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah.
#Dengkike trended on Twitter on April 19 after an Instagram user asked the Queen if the rumors are true that her personal chefs had already received COVID-19 vaccines. The Queen reportedly responded as saying: “Dengki ke?” (“Are you jealous?”). The royal family had been criticized earlier after reports that some of its members had taken vaccines that are not yet approved by the government.
Fahmi was released on bail but continues to face investigation of whether he violated Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA). Section 233 refers to the posting of offensive online content with the “intention to annoy”.
Before his arrest, Fahmi defended the right of artists to express dissent:
In a country where artists, designers & satirists have been censored, arrested & incarcerated for their art, it is important that this vital form of artistic expression — parody & satire as a form of political protest — is continued to be practiced & to be defended at all costs.
— Fahmi Reza (@kuasasiswa) April 21, 2021
This is not the first time that Fahmi has faced harassment for his online work. He was threatened by authorities in 2016 for posting clown memes mocking the country’s former Prime Minister Najib Razak who was embroiled in a corruption scandal.
Last March 2021, Fahmi received notices from the police that two of his tweets are being investigated for allegedly defaming the country’s health minister. He was interrogated by the police for two hours on March 10.
The Freedom of Expression Cluster, which is organized by civil society groups, has highlighted the case of Fahmi to push for the overhaul or repeal of laws, including the Sedition Act and CMA, which they said are being abused by authorities to silence criticism. In a joint statement issued on April 23, the cluster added that satire is a legitimate form of expression:
Satire plays an important role in society as a space for commentary, discussion and debate on shared values. Political satire in particular, plays an important role to engage with institutional power in a way that creates space for humour. Such a space should be defended as a vital part of public participation, to enable a robust civic discourse and healthy democracy that is able to withstand critique and differing opinions.
Meanwhile, cartoonist Zunar wrote on April 28 that he received notice from the police that his political cartoon published in January is being probed for potentially violating Section 233 of CMA.
Contacted by the police, to be investigated over my cartoon, which was published 23 Jan. 505c Penal Code & 233 Multimedia Act. Will present at IPD Padang Terap, Kedah 2 May, 11 am @CRNetInt @CartooningPeace pic.twitter.com/90f76Tv087
— Zunar Cartoonist (@zunarkartunis) April 28, 2021
The cartoon alludes to the decision of the Kedah state government not to grant a public holiday for Thaipusam, an annual Hindu festival, because of the federal government’s COVID-19 restrictions. The decision of Kedah officials has been criticized by some groups which warned that it might disturb the racial harmony in the state.
Zunar defended his right to comment about his home state and asserted that his caricature is open to various interpretations.
Like Fahmi, Zunar has been prosecuted in the past for his cartoons deemed offensive to PM Najib. His books were previously banned by the government and he was prevented from holding exhibitions until the Najib government lost in the 2018 election.
Nalini Elumalai, ARTICLE 19’s Malaysia Programme Officer, warned that the police investigations against Fahmi and Zunar could send a chilling effect in society:
The investigation of Zunar is a further example of the Malaysian government’s intolerance of public criticism. The persecution of artists such as Zunar and Fahmi stifles creative expression, chills public discourse, and undermines trust in Malaysian authorities.

author: Mong Palatino


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With shrinking wetlands, population of Nepal’s elusive fishing cats is poised to decline · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus). Image via Flickr by Dulup. CC BY-SA 2.0
In the southern plains of Nepal, a person who is frightened of something is told ‘you’re a wet cat’. But in that region, there are cats that aren’t afraid of water. In fact, it lives near wetlands and mostly feeds on fishes, earning its name as the fishing cat. However, under threats of habitat loss and degradation, the animal’s population is declining in Nepal.
Today, experts estimate there are approximately 150-200 fishing cats in Nepal, with less than 2,500 fishing cats in the wild, distributed discontinuously in South Asia and South-East Asia, where they've been recorded in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Skilful at fishing, the cat's technique is simple: it taps the water surface, and when fishes are drawn to the created ripples, it dives in to catch them. Its partially webbed feet, rudder-like tail and water-resistant coat assist it while swimming. Aside from fishing, for which it was given its name, the cat equally devours rats, reptiles, small mammals, and birds.
It's #FishingCatFebruary so let's learn a bit about the species! Fishing cats are expert hunters in aquatic habitats. Not only do they have some unique morphological features, they also have tricks up their sleeve! #fishingcats #fishingcat #fishingcatfebruary #worldfishingcatday pic.twitter.com/tEzcMsf951
— Fishing Cat Conservation Alliance (@fishingcatorg) February 3, 2021
First recorded in Nepal in 1836 by Brian Houghton Hodgson, the middle-sized cat that weighs around 5-16 kilos and is often confused for a leopard cat, has been classified as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List.
“Among the 40 wild cat species in the world, the globally-vulnerable fishing cat is the only species spending most of its time in wetland habitat,” Rama Mishra, a PhD candidate at the University of Antwerp in Belgium who founded Terai Fishing Cat Project, Nepal, told Global Voices. “Unlike other cats which don’t prefer going underwater, it preys on several species of fishes and other aquatic creatures. So, we call this cat the indicator of a healthy wetlands ecosystem.”
Conservation biologist Sam Helle tweeted:
I love big cats, but I love small cats too! Follow my friend & colleague Rama Mishra as she collects Fishing Cat scats in southwest Nepal.@iRamaMishra was the first publish a thesis on Fishing cats in Nepal & is the founder of the Terai Fishing Cat Project @fishingcatorg pic.twitter.com/EkXkDklm8D
— Sam Helle ?? (@samanthaiam) April 26, 2021
On the cat's behaviourism, Mishra, who studied fishing cats in Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve and Chitwan National Park, said she “found these cats are exclusively nocturnal in a human-dominated landscape in the buffer zone area of Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve,” but that they're also “found active in day hours too in a wilder habitat like in core reserve site of Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve and Chitwan National Park.”
A camera trap image of a fishing cat. Image by Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC)/ National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) through Rama Mishra. Used with permission.
Fishing cats have been found and recorded in all protected areas in southern plains of Nepal namely Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Parsa National Park, Chitwan National Park, Bardia National Park and Shuklaphanta National Park from east to west, except Banke National Park. Beyond protected areas, they are found in fish farming areas, sugarcane fields and paddy fields.
But threats like habitat loss and degradation have affected the fishing cat population of Nepal. Speaking to Global Voices, Bhupendra Prasad Yadav, Assistant Conservation Officer with the Nepalese Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, said that “many wetland habitats are being drained and converted to agricultural land and infrastructure development in Nepal”. He added that, in some areas, pollution and excessive fishing are also damaging wetlands. “In some places, fishing cats have been killed for their pelts or for their meat,” he said.
A fishing cat lives in and around wetlands. Image by Rama Mishra. Used with permission.
Yadav, who has intensively collected fishing cat data from the camera trapping data used for a survey in Shuklaphanta National Park that monitored tigers and their preys, also said:
Unfortunately, when their usual habitat has been destroyed or has become unusable, some fishing cats have increased their predation on livestock. So, farmers have killed them to protect their animals. Wetland destruction is by far the biggest threat to the animals, however.
In addition, converting agricultural land into ponds adds to the woes of these cats. Though farmers don’t harm them while they are roaming around agricultural land looking for their prey, they assume that these cats lurk around ponds to steal fish. In retaliation, they trap and poison these cats to stop their fishing. Some have been killed in road accidents as well.
But on the other hand, Mishra noted that these cats are good friends of farmers, since they prey on rats, mice and farmland birds that harm the crops. But in order to protect these unique friends of farmers from extinction, conserving and restoring wetlands is a first and crucial step, let alone raising awareness among the communities to conserve them. “Stop taking it as a bad omen when any cat crosses your way,” Mishra said. “This will obviously control the road kills of cats.”

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Forced fertility or infertility? Peruvian women still have no power over their own bodies · Global Voices
Duzka Ortiz

Photo of a Peruvian woman and her baby from pxhere, no copyright.
During Peru's internal armed conflict, in which the State fought against subversive terrorist groups from 1980 to 2000, the then-President Alberto Fujimori's government (July 28, 1990 – November 22, 2000) implemented a series of policies to reduce the country's birth rate.
This involved the forced sterilization of an estimated 270,000 women and 22,000 men, most of whom were from the indigenous and poor rural population groups. To this day, the survivors of these sterilisations continue to fight for justice and to ensure that their stories are not forgotten. However, this has been a slow process, one which according to María Esther Mogollón, a spokeswoman for the Association of Peruvian Women Affected by Forced Sterilizations, is due to “little political will and a lack of understanding of what human rights are.”
Some 20 years later, in 2020 and 2021, you would think that these reproductive control measures have come to an end. However, this is not the case. Control of women's bodies in Peru now centres on sexual violence and the criminalization of abortion.
In 2020, there was a 12 per cent increase in unwanted pregnancies in Peru, which were predominantly in teenage girls. What's more, there were more than 13,840 reported cases of sexual violence, 43 per cent of which were adolescent victims between the ages of 12 and 17 and 20.7 per cent of victims were girls between 6 and 11 years of age.
In this regard, more than one in every 10 teenage girls has been pregnant at some point. The figures are higher in rural areas of the country, where more than one in five girls under the age of 18 becomes pregnant. In 2020, the number of girls under the age of 10 who were forced to become mothers in Peru tripled, which is a direct consequence of the spike in sexual violence seen during the pandemic.
Elga Prado Vasquez, coordinator of the Sexuality and Bodily Autonomy Program of the Manuela Ramos Movement, told me over the phone that the pandemic left the most vulnerable population groups even more defenseless than before. As part of the country's lockdown measures, the Peruvian State closed essential services, and the health care system’s failures were exacerbated. Many girls, teenagers and women were left to fend for themselves in situations of physical and sexual violence within their own homes. Although there is no longer a mandatory lockdown in Peru and public services have reopened, it is worrying to think about what the figures will be if a lockdown is implemented in the future.
To aggravate this situation, unsafe abortions are now the third leading cause of maternal death in Peru, according to the feminist non-governmental organization PROMSEX. Women of all socioeconomic and educational levels have abortions. However, according to a study on abortions in adult women, people from the middle and lower economic strata, and those who have secondary education and higher education levels, are more likely to have abortions. In total, almost one in five adult women has had an abortion once in her life. According to Peru's Ministry of Health, in 2018 2,480 teenage girls were hospitalised after undergoing an abortion.
In Peru, almost all abortions have been illegal since 1924, except in cases of a threat to the life or health of the woman. Not only that, these abortions are punishable by law. Between 2000 and 2019, 571 women and teenage girls were prosecuted for terminating their pregnancy, out of 961 reported cases. According to the Catholic Organization for the Right to Decide, there are 1,000 abortions a day in Peru.
Despite these figures, very few political parties had sexual and reproductive rights on their agendas for the elections that took place on April 11, 2021. Only two out of 18 parties included proposals on access to birth control and the emergency kit, which is a set of free medications intended to safeguard the health and well-being of sexual violence victims.
It seems that this situation is unlikely to change for the second round of the presidential elections, scheduled for Sunday, June 6. What's most concerning is that the two candidates who have progressed to the second round, Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori, are more likely to be pro-life and neither has a clear agenda on gender-focused sexual and reproductive rights.
From forced sterilizations to forced pregnancies, it seems that Peruvian women still have no control over their own bodies and fertility.

author: Duzka Ortiz


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Hong Kong activists sentenced to jail for commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre in 2020 · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Despite a police ban, thousands of Hongkongers assembled spontaneously in Victoria Park on June 4, 2020, to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre. Image from the Stand News. Used with permission.
On May 6, four Hong Kong pro-democracy activists received jail sentences for participating in the annual Tiananmen Square Vigil on June 4 last year.
The district court magistrate Stanley Chan added an extra 10 months’ jail time to the sentence of prominent pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong, who is currently serving a 13.5-month jail term after being charged with organizing and inciting an unauthorised assembly in 2019.
The other three who received sentences are district councillors: Lester Shum was sentenced to six months in prison, while Tiffany Yuen and Jannelle Leung each received a four-month jail sentence. All three will lose their district council seats, and Wong and Shum are also facing a subversion charge under the National Security Law for participating last year in the pro-democracy primaries for the Legislative Council elections.
Hongkongers have been gathering in Victoria Park in downtown Hong Kong to commemorate the June 4 Tiananmen Massacre since 1990. The sentences handed down on May 6 mark the first time that anyone has been sentenced to prison for this act of peaceful commemoration.
Last year, the Hong Kong police refused to issue public assembly permits to the organizer of the vigil, citing pandemic concerns. As a result, anyone who attended the vigil risked being charged with participating in an unauthorized assembly.
Out of the more than 20,000 Hongkongers who lit candles in Victoria Park, the police singled out 26 activists for arrest and prosecution. Two of the activists, Nathan Law and Sunny Cheung, have left Hong Kong for exile abroad.
The magistrate said in his ruling:
With the 2019 unrest still lingering, the gathering of some 20,000 participants on a special night like June 4 meant emotions could run high, and unruly elements could take advantage of the situation and incite violence.
Benedict Rogers, chief executive of the London-based human rights group Hong Kong Watch, commented on the disproportionate jail term:
The jailing of Joshua Wong, Lester Shum, and two district councillors for their participation in a peaceful vigil marking the Tiananmen Square Massacre is a new low in the dismantling of the city’s freedom. It appears that it is now a crime in Hong Kong to remember the 1989 massacre, where the Chinese Communist Party killed thousands of student activists.
20 other activists are facing charges for organizing and participating in the June 4 vigil. One of them, the chairperson of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (HK Alliance), the vigil's organizer, faces three charges including organizing, inciting and participating in an unauthorized assembly.
This year, the June 4 vigil in Victoria Park has again been effectively banned, as the Leisure and Cultural Services Department has suspended leasing of venues and facilities, citing health concerns.
While Hongkongers could still go to Victoria Park spontaneously on June 4 like they did last year, the court’s ruling signaled that this could lead to arrest and imprisonment. As @limlouisa noted:
Make no mistake: public remembering of June 4 in hk is being criminalized using the pretext of covid safety https://t.co/0XEjllk0Be
— Louisa Lim (@limlouisa) May 6, 2021
Despite the threats, HK Alliance has continued with their annual June 4 commemoration activities. On May 2, the vice-chairs of HK Alliance, Albert Ho and Chow Hang-tung—who are also facing two charges for inciting and participation in last year’s vigil— conducted the annual commemoration ritual in front of the Pillar of Shame at the Hong Kong University campus. AFP Hong Kong correspondent Xinqi Su recorded the event:
“Even if the regime wants to criminalise our candlelight (to commemorate June 4), we will persist,” said HK Alliance leader Chow Hang-tung. “We also hope everyone can remember the day, remember the massacre.” pic.twitter.com/cL1mbFVOyS
— Xinqi Su 蘇昕琪 (@XinqiSu) May 2, 2021
After the court's ruling, Chow stressed:
June 4 is coming again – we have been lighting candles in Victoria Park for 31 years and we will continue.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Imagining the Caribbean’s architectural alphabet · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The ABCDEs of the Caribbean architectural alphabet, by artist Nicholas Huggins. Instagram images used with permission.
Trinidadian artist and graphic designer Nicholas Huggins recently completed an interesting experiment. There's an annual online project called 36 Days of Type, which “invites designers, illustrators and graphic artists to express their particular interpretation of the letters and numbers of the Latin alphabet” for 36 consecutive days. Having observed the submissions over the past few years, Huggins decided to take up the challenge by doing something different—creating an architectural alphabet of the Caribbean.
In an email interview, Huggins admitted that because it was “a bit daunting to create something new every single day for 36 days,” he wanted to set additional parameters to his interpretation of the letters: “That's how I came up with the idea of trying to make [them] in the shapes of local architectural forms.”
The result is a series that captures the vernacular of Caribbean architecture, as well as its vibrant spirit and history, a process that began with observation. “I have a collection of photographs on my phone that I take when stopped at red lights, or when I go on walks,” Huggins says, “and these form the basis of where I pull certain elements from. Sometimes I may be driving or I'll be without my phone so if I see something I make a mental note of what I've seen and I use different techniques to help me remember, and once I'm at home I make a sketch of whatever it was.”
Artist Nicholas Huggins working on the Caribbean alphabet series on his iPad. Photo courtesy Huggins, used with permission.
For this project, he drew all the letters in his sketchbook, and once he was satisfied, used the Procreate app to illustrate the final pieces. Stylistically, he was going for a modern aesthetic, even though some of the images pay homage to local heritage buildings, the architectural styles of which tend to lean towards Baronial, as in the case of Stollmeyer's Castle, or Indian Empire, as with the Roman Catholic Archbishop's residence.
Huggins purposefully interspersed such landmarks located around the Queen's Park Savannah, and which are part of  Trinidad's famous Magnificent Seven, with more generic buildings that speak to a regional design aesthetic. “That way,” he says, “people can imagine their own experiences and connect the illustrations to their own memories of Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.”
While some letters organically lent themselves to being converted to an architectural shape, Huggins had to push his creative boundaries to get more difficult letters to appear credible, such as his depiction of Trinidad and Tobago's Eric Williams Financial Complex, home to the country's Central Bank and affectionately referred to as the Twin Towers, to represent the letter X.
A post shared by Nicholas Huggins | Creative (@nicholashugginscreative)
Interestingly, the drawing can also be interpreted as a suspension bridge or even a Bailey bridge, quite common sights throughout the region.
Another challenging letter was Z. “I had no clue what to do,” Huggins explains, “until that morning I was driving and passed by a recreational ground and the shape of the pavilion stood out to me immediately as a Z … by that time in the project, every drive had me looking at buildings as potential letter forms.”
A post shared by Nicholas Huggins | Creative (@nicholashugginscreative)
The sketch also looks very much like a detail of the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain.
Huggins says the most difficult letter to come up with an idea for was V, although “most of those letters at the end of the alphabet all posed unique challenges.”
A post shared by Nicholas Huggins | Creative (@nicholashugginscreative)
While Huggins’ interpretation of the staircases typically seen on the exterior of homes in central and south Trinidad, many of which are built on stilts, immediately conjures up a Caribbean aesthetic, his favourite is a toss-up among A, J, or N.
A post shared by Nicholas Huggins | Creative (@nicholashugginscreative)
The letter A was obviously the first one Huggins did for the 36-day challenge, and he says the concept popped into his brain as “a really pure idea” that required no time trying to figure out.
A post shared by Nicholas Huggins | Creative (@nicholashugginscreative)
J is meaningful to him because it reminds him of his neighbourhood fruit stand, and he spent a lot of time on N—maybe because it's the initial of his first name, he admits—trying to get the details to look on point, especially because the adapted Art Nouveau Boissiere House, which it represents, is considered an iconic piece of heritage architecture.
A post shared by Nicholas Huggins | Creative (@nicholashugginscreative)
As a cohesive series, the Caribbean architectural alphabet comes across as a melding of regional architecture and language. “In my work,” Huggins explains, “I'm constantly trying to define, or to figure out a Caribbean aesthetic. I try to do it through my illustration as well as through my graphic design practice:
Caribbean architecture is something that is so unique and maybe something that is taken for granted by the average person. Even if you just look at the colours we see on a daily basis, which are all choices made by each individual homeowner, it creates a mishmash of bright colours that dot our cities and towns; and of course we are fortunate that this is against a backdrop of blues and greens.
In other words, it's authentically Caribbean. Check out the entire series on Instagram or Facebook.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Inside Myanmar: Testimonies of survival and resistance · Global Voices
Global Voices South East Asia

An anti-coup rally in Myanmar. Photo shared by a citizen journalist, used with permission
Three months after grabbing power, the Myanmar military government continues to face questions about its legitimacy to rule the country. Despite ousting elected parliament members and detaining key leaders of the former ruling party, the junta has failed to convince large segments of the population to accept its authority in establishing a transitional government.
On April 22, Global Voices organized a webinar that tackled the situation in Myanmar and the prospects of the resistance movement. The webinar featured several testimonies from Myanmar residents who shared the impact of the coup in their communities and how people are resisting the junta. For obvious security reasons, we decided not to invite them during the webinar or publish their names in this article.
The resistance movement emerged since the first day of the coup and it continues to gather support across the country despite the terror tactics unleashed by the military against protesters, residents, journalists, and other suspected sympathizers of the opposition. One resident told us about the significance of the Civil Disobedience Movement or CDM in giving hope to those who wanted to restore civilian rule:
Since the coup, the civil disobedience movement—which most people call the CDM—has gathered support from people from a wide range of professions, led by medical and healthcare workers and later by Myanmar train workers. Bankers, lawyers, teachers and engineers across the nation have also demanded the military return the elected government to power, and are refusing to return to work. Many civilians are supporting the CDM by donating and fundraising to support CDM participants financially.
As a citizen of Myanmar, I would like to emphasize that we the people of Myanmar support the CDM and believe that it is important to resist the junta in every possible way, and the CDM is the sign of that resistance.
The full testimony was read by Global Voices editor Mohamed ElGohary:
Another testimony told of the dangerous situation in Yangon, the country’s main urban center.
Yangon, the commercial capital where I live, has been taken over by the military junta. All you see is small undernourished boys carrying guns that weigh more than them cordoning off roads, harassing and intimidating innocent civilians at checkpoints. I leave my smartphone home when I go to my local wet market. Most of us have switched to keypad phones to stay safe, plus there is no point in taking a smartphone because there is no cellular data or internet available. On top of that, there is a night curfew and night raids that have increased. If you have a house guest you need to register them. If you don’t, the ‘informers’ will do the job for you.
The full testimony was read by Global Voices editor Veroniki Bacharidi-Krikoni:
A visitor to Myanmar who got stranded during the coup described the experience of seeing several massive protests after the coup:
I witnessed thousands of people marching on the street. Everytime they passed by, the bystanders, people at the side of the street, in their cars, in their motorcycles, in their shops, in their houses, would give them a round of applause and all will flash a three-finger salute which has now become the symbol of the protest. After the march, they will hold a program where speakers will speak about the legitimacy of their cause and their demands. They will also sing revolutionary songs the most popular of which is “Kabar Ma Kyae Buu” which is sang to the tune of the “Dust in the Wind” and contained the lyrics, “we will never forgive and forget the dictators”.
The visitor asked activists to compare the anti-coup movement today and the struggle against the junta in 1988 and 2007:
I then asked them the difference between the current protest and the 8888 protest in 1988 and the Saffron Revolution in 2007. They told me the big difference is, now they have the technology and communication to coordinate their actions and to tell the world what is happening in Myanmar.
Finally, a citizen spoke of believing that the junta will not succeed in defeating the pro-democracy forces in Myanmar:
Pandemic has a vaccine to protect and patients could be recovered but there is no vaccine to protect unarmed civilians from random shootings, tortures, sending back death bodies to their families next morning after being arrested and brutal oppressions by the military butchers.
The military junta could only terrorize our country but they can't rule. They could shoot, kill and arrest our young heroes called “Spring flowers” but they can't avoid Burma's Spring.
Watch the full webinar:

author: Global Voices South East Asia


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Street art shows the clamor of the Colombian people tired of violence, corruption and poverty · Global Voices
J. Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo

“Resisting the pandemic since 1492″, “If I strike, don't shoot”, “resist”. Street art in Popayán, Colombia, May 5, 2021. Photo from Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, used with permission.
Since April 28, thousands of Colombians have filled the streets in protest as part of a nationwide strike. A nation that lay dormant rose up to challenge a tax reform and a health reform proposed by President Ivan Duque. Protests in the past have occurred, but the current strike seems to be more cohesive and constant than those before.
Misak indigenous people marching in Popayán, Colombia on May 6, 2021. Photo from Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, used with permission.
Protestors claim that the bills the government wanted to pass disproportionately affected the middle and lower classes while keeping low taxes for the rich. The proposal aimed to impose taxes on basic products in a nation severely impacted by poverty, the pandemic, and a 14.2 percent unemployment rate as of last March.
Students, workers, retirees, youth, children, farmers, afro-Colombians, and Indigenous people joined this clamor in a country where the power has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of the presidency during COVID-19 management, according to Transparency International. Colombia ranked 92 out of 182 countries in the organization's corruption perception index.
Throughout Colombia, facades of buildings, businesses, institutions have been painted with messages of anger, hope, and sadness while some communities held vigils for those injured, killed, abused, and disappeared in these protests.
On May 3, President Duque withdrew the tax proposal. Yet, the protests continued because the tax and health reforms triggered a wider outcry in a society tired of violence endured during the right-wing presidency of Duque, in power since 2018. Protests increased as reports of
Misak indigenous people marching in Popayán, Colombia on May 6, 2021. Photo from Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, used with permission.
police violence skyrocketed.
The strikers’ demands are clear: no tax and health reform, dismantling the anti-riot police unit “Esmad” and Duque's resignation.
During Duque's mandate, hundreds of social leaders, indigenous leaders, and former guerrilla members have been killed in a context of uncertainty and impunity despite the request for justice and a 2019 call from members of the European Parliament, who are concerned about the violence perpetrated against rights defenders and the difficult implementation of the 2016 Peace Agreement between the previous government of Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, commonly known as the FARC.
“We are the outcry of those who lost their voice.” Parents and children marching in Popayán, Colombia on May 6, 2021. Photo from Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, used with permission.
Colombia registered an appalling record of 126 massacres between 2020 and May 3, 2021. Yet, violence in the hands of the state, guerrilla, and paramilitary forces continues in the country and showed a barbaric side during the current strike. The Colombian NGO Indepaz reported 31 people killed, 87 disappeared, 1220 injured, 18 victims of eye injury, and six cases of sexual violence against women.
Mainstream Colombian media stigmatized the protests by overexploiting images of vandalism without showing the multiple, massive, and pacific expressions of the demonstrations which unite youth, adults, children, workers, farmers, afro-Colombians and Indigenous peoples on the streets of Colombia. At the time of writing, the strike continues. Most demonstrators want an indefinite strike until their demands are met.
The following photos were taken on May 5 and May 6 in Popayán, capital of the department of Cauca, located in the southwestern part of the country. Cauca is the epicenter of the violence against peasant, afro-Colombian and Indigenous activists and leaders. Also, during the strike, students have been injured by the police in Popayán.
“When one reads little, one shoots a lot,” during a demonstration in Popayán, Colombia, May 7, 2021. Photo from Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, used with permission.
The image below refers to the general perception purported by some local mainstream media and politicians equating strikers with looters:
“We came to vandalize your indifference” in Popayán, Colombia, May 6, 2021. Photo from Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, used with permission.
The drawing on the left speaks to the Colombian people who feel unfairly used by their government. The illustration on the right calls back the viewer to the increasing number of disappeared people in Colombia in the past years and during the strike.
On the left: “We are not the government's dogs. Transform your anger into strength.” On the right: “Where do the disappeared go? They don't even reach your memories.” In Popayán, Colombia, May 6, 2021. Photo from Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, used with permission.
The plastered image below is a dark caricature of the crest of Colombia's army, which originally bears the words “Patria, Honor, Lealtad” (Country, Honor, Loyalty). They have been replaced with the words “Lead, Horror, Betrayal”. According to recent justice investigations, the army extrajudicially killed more than 6,000 civilians between 2002 and 2008, falsely presented as insurgent fighters during Colombia's internal conflict.
“Lead, Horror, Treason”. in Popayán, Colombia, May 6, 2021. Photo from Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, used with permission.
The illustration below refers to the Escuadrón Móvil Antidisturbios, commonly known by their acronym ESMAD, Colombia's anti-riot police unit. They have been accused of murder and sexual violence.
“#ColombiaWithoutEsmad” Photo taken in Popayán, Colombia, May 6, 2021. Photo from Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, used with permission.
In another illustration depicting state-sanctioned violence, the artist reviews the question of whether the police works for citizens.
“Is this how you defend me?” Photo taken in Popayán, Colombia, May 6, 2021. Photo fromFernanda Sánchez Jaramillo, used with permission.

author: J. Fernanda Sánchez Jaramillo


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Facebook removes Ukrainian pro-government and opposition networks for ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Facebook found coordinated influence campaigns with ties to Ukrainian pro-government and opposition politicians. Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay.
In a May 6 report, Facebook said it had removed two networks of accounts targeting Ukrainian users for ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ – a term the platform uses for accounts that were set up to engage in coordinated manipulation of public opinion or to share disinformation. The intriguing part? One of the groups was found to have ties to Ukraine's ruling party, Sluha Narodu (Servant of the People).
Ukraine is no stranger to social media manipulation: botnets, astroturfing in the comments, coordinated account blocking, and sock puppet Facebook accounts have all appeared in its online public sphere. Though most suspicious activity is said to originate outside of the country (GV's own investigations have found bot accounts and fake websites linking back to Russia), the country's own political players are also increasingly competing for influence online.
According to a 2019 report on the snap parliamentary elections in Ukraine by OPORA, a civil rights network and election monitor, online political advertising was used by all political parties, who collectively spent circa 1.8 million dollars on Facebook ads. Though Ukrainian electoral laws don't regulate online political advertising, these materials are guided by a specific set of rules on Facebook and are officially stored in the platform's Political Advertising Library. This allowed OPORA researchers to analyse the ads and assess party spending on online PR.
Beyond official political ads, however, experts suggest the Ukrainian political social media space is rife with “black PR” and emotionally charged orchestrated comment campaigns. Identifying them as such is tricky, as they are not subject to the same transparency requirements as mainstream political ads. This is why official notice from Facebook and other platforms about such activities is important.
In its report, Facebook indicated it had removed two different networks of accounts that had engaged in coordinated inauthentic behaviour. The first one consisted of “105 Facebook accounts, 24 pages and five Instagram accounts that originated in and targeted Ukraine”. Facebook said the suspicious activity came to their attention through an investigation by Bukvy, an independent news media outlet in Ukraine.
The people running the network combined fake and authentic accounts to share a mix of legitimate news and their own content with their 23,000 followers and also managed what looked like news pages to drive traffic to websites posing as legitimate media sources. Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities and the coordinated actions, Facebook's investigation found links to individuals associated with Sluha Narodu (Servant of the People), the ruling political party in Ukraine on whose ticket President Zelenskyy was elected and whole title mirrors the TV series which propelled him to fame.
The people behind this activity posted in Ukrainian and Russian about news and other topics like corruption; politics; automotive industry; satiric content about COVID-19; supportive commentary about the Sluha Narodu party and the current Ukrainian government; and criticism of opposition parties and politicians including former president Poroshenko and the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko.
An example of content shared by the account network tied to the Ukrainian Sluha Narodu party. Image: press handout by Facebook.
Another, significantly larger group of accounts was identified and removed by Facebook on a tip from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations. A total of 477 Facebook accounts, 363 pages, 35 groups (followed by 2.37 million people) and 29 Instagram accounts (with a following of less than 30,000) that originated in and targeted Ukraine were taken down. The accounts also spent close to 0.5 million dollars in advertising on Facebook to promote their posts.
Facebook's investigation attributed this network to “entities and individuals sanctioned by the US Treasury Department” in January 2021 — namely, politicians Andrii Derkach, Petro Zhuravel, and media companies linked to the sanctioned Begemot Media, as well as political consultants associated with two other political actors: Volodymyr Groysman and Oleg Kulinich.
While Derkach and others were sanctioned for alleged interference in the U.S. elections, their Facebook activity in this case focused solely on Ukrainian audiences and themes and was part of a larger “deceptive influence operation” encompassing different social media platforms and websites.
They built a ready-made network of seemingly independent media websites and social media assets that worked to promote content favorable to the three politicians and their political groups, while also engaging in similar behavior in support of other political actors across the entire political spectrum, likely for hire. This included competing political parties in Ukraine. The operation posted consistently anti-Russia content.
Two odd things about this operation.
First, structure. Three teams, each linked with a different politician, but all working together to mislead people. They didn’t just promote “their” politicians, but other ones too, even competitors.
— Ben Nimmo (@benimmo) May 6, 2021
The other odd thing was its anti-Russia content.
A consistent drumbeat of articles and memes – most of them copied from elsewhere, like this copy of @bobscartoons. pic.twitter.com/rYOM770Vxf
— Ben Nimmo (@benimmo) May 6, 2021
Ben Nimmo, Facebook's Global IO [influence operations – GV] Threat Intelligence Lead, noted in the report that Ukraine is “among the top sources” of coordinated inauthentic activity that the platform has identified and removed in recent years and that “the vast majority of deceptive campaigns” have targeted domestic audiences. In Nimmo's view, this signals a worrying development for “the burgeoning industry of what we call IO-for-hire that offers media and social media services involving inauthentic assets and deceptive amplification across the internet”.
At the same time, Nimmo said Facebook recognises the role of non-governmental organisations and independent investigative reporters in Ukraine “who continue to uncover and report on these deceptive campaigns” and suggested it would be worthwhile to assess the impact these public interventions are having on the success or failure of such influence campaigns.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Azerbaijan’s former ‘graffiti prisoner’ Bayram Mammadov found dead in Turkey · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Bayram Mammadov. Photo courtesy of Vahid Aliyev shared with permission
May 10 marks the birthday of former president of Azerbaijan, Heydər Əliyev. Five years ago two men were jailed over spraying graffiti on the statue of the former president ahead of the celebrations. On May 2, 2021, one of the young men, Bayram Mammadov who was unlawfully jailed, was found dead in Istanbul. For friends and family of the former political prisoner, that sentence and the inhumane treatment during imprisonment is what ended his life abruptly, at the age of 26.
Theirs was an act of civil disobedience. In 2016, armed with spraying paint, two youth activists Bayram Mammadov and Giyas Ibrahimov, had a message to give. The two, sprayed “Qul Bayramınız Mübarək” (Happy Slave Day) and “F*** the system” on the statue of former president of Azerbaijan, Heydər Əliyev ahead of “Flower Celebration”, a day marking the birthday of the former president. Little did both men know that this would cost them three years of their lives, aside from being subjected to torture, and other forms of intimidation, not to mention permanent damage to their livelihood.
“Qul Bayramınız Mübarək” was a play on words – “Gül” in Azerbaijani means flower, while “Qul” means slave. When Giyas and Bayram were arrested, they were accused of drug possession. The ministry of the interior allegedly “found” two kilograms of heroin at both men's homes. In a sham trial, Giyas and Bayram were first sentenced to four months pretrial detention. In October 2016, Giyas, 21 at the time, was sentenced to ten years. While Bayram, 21, received similar sentence in December 2016. In March 2019 both men were pardoned and released from jail.
There were no celebrations in 2016. According to local media reports, President Ilham Aliyev (the son of the former head of state) cancelled all of the celebrations in memory of Azerbaijani soldiers who died during April clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Interestingly, just six years earlier, when a deadly shooting killed students and academics at Azerbaijan's State Oil Academy on April 30, the president, did not bother cancelling the celebrations.
In the following years, the celebrations that cost government coffers millions of dollars stopped all together.
The tradition behind the Flower Day began in 2000 while Heydər Əliyev was still the president. Originally marked on May 11, as of 2004, it was celebrated on May 10 to mark the president's birthday (Heydər Əliyev died in 2003).
Although officials dismissed any questions about the costs of the Flower Day, some experts estimated millions of dollars. Economist Rovshan Agayev said the country footed a 117millionUSD bill for the lavish celebrations between 2004 and 2013. Each year, flowers from Europe, Latin America, U.S., Israel, and Turkey were purchased only to last for two days before they were cleaned up and thrown into trash.
The annual celebrations were a cause of criticism against the government by opposition groups calling for accountability. There was also the financial crisis, with the national currency plummeting at least twice in 2015 and 2016.
Some however speculated that the reason for cancelling the celebrations was the arrest of Bayram and Giyas.
The two activists were called “graffiti prisoners” or “statue prisoners”. In February 2020, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the trial, and the sentence of Bayram and Giyas was in violation of several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights and ordered the government of Azerbaijan to pay both men 36,000EUR (USD 43,700) in compensation.
Bayram was planning to use that money for his education abroad. He relocated to Istanbul, in November 2020, to study for English language exams, and continue applying to universities abroad.
His friends saw him last on April 29 before Turkey went into a countrywide lockdown.
The last time he talked to any of them was May 2. Later that afternoon, coast guards found his drowned body after eyewitnesses informed the police seeing a young man jump into the water.
His family and friends only learned of Bayram's death on May 4.
While investigation into his death is ongoing, Bayram's father, traveled to Istanbul to bring home his son for the final farewell. Bayram was buried on May 9, a day before the Flower Day celebration that got him jailed in 2016.
It is still too early to say what really happened to the young activist but one thing his friends agree on it was the unjust sentence and the inhumane treatment Bayram was put through while in jail. It is not easy to be a political activist in Azerbaijan. Intimidation, persecution, family pressure, and detention are common forms of punishment used in the country. Over the last decade, scores of activists, journalists and rights defenders have been prosecuted. Bayram was one of many voices the government tried to silence.
On May 10, 2021 two police officers were seen guarding the statue of the former president where five years ago, Bayram and Giyas became the “graffiti prisoners”.
Writing about his friend, Giyas, who is currently in Baku, said:
İndi iki şeyə inanmaq dəhşətli dərəcədə ağır gəlir mənə; düz 5 ilin keçdiyinə bir də düz 5'ci və daha sonrakı illərin artıq Bayramsız keçəcəyinə.
— Giyas (@GiyaSol) May 9, 2021
I find things extremely difficult to believe in; that it's been exactly five years and that exactly five years from now, and the following years, will be spent without Bayram.
Giyas was in Istanbul until recently, where he received a one-year residency permit. On April 16, 2021, while traveling to Azerbaijan, Giyas spent an hour being questioned by the airport police and was told that he has been placed on an indefinite travel ban. His residency permit was cancelled. No further explanation was given to Giyas. He is currently seeking legal remedy to find out what was the real cause behind his deportation.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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Human rights groups propose #7FirstSteps to mend Egypt’s ‘dismal’ record · Global Voices
Dahlia Kholaif

Former U.S. President Donald Trump had described Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as his “favorite dictator.” Above, Trump welcomes the Egyptian president to the White House in April 2017. Photo: Office of the President of the United States. Public domain.
On May 8, Human Rights Watch endorsed a list of seven measures put forward days earlier by several leading Egyptian human rights groups, which the groups said was meant to test recent claims by the government of its intention to rectify its poor record of human rights violations.
The #First7Steps put forward by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression, El-Nadeem Center against Violence and Torture, Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms are, according to the groups:
the minimum to gauge meaningful improvement in the dismal human rights situation, and only include immediate measures that can implemented tomorrow morning if a political decision is made to that effect.
The proposed steps, which were also supported by Amnesty International and PEN, included freeing the thousands of political prisoners detained or imprisoned for their peaceful actions—regardless of their backgrounds or political beliefs. Egypt has come under increasing and repeated international criticism for having jailed thousands of people since the 2013 military takeover, with human rights groups saying the crackdown on dissent which ensued has led to around 41,000 people being arrested or prosecuted. An Interior Ministry official said in July 2014 that 22,000 people had been detained since July 2013.
The groups also called on the government to terminate the “endless” detentions that have been systematically used as a “tactic to keep critics in indefinite pretrial custody by launching multiple cases against them.” According to a report published by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in February:
In recent years, Egyptian authorities have increasingly turned pretrial detention from an exceptional legal measure to a punitive tool used regularly against human rights defenders, journalists, and individuals perceived to be critical of the government. They have done so both using the law and working outside of it—most recently in reliance on two practices: “rotation” (tadweer) and detention pending multiple cases.
The #First7Steps were circulated as Egyptian authorities took a number of decisions in recent months that were welcomed, amid a restrained and unsafe political and civic space. On April 14, authorities released two local journalists, Solafa Magdy and her husband Hossam el-Sayyad, after they had spent about a year and a half in pre-trial detention.
A picture worth a thousand emotions.
Egyptian journalists, Solafa Magdy and Hossam alSayyad released & reunited with their family. Their son, Khaled, now has both of his parents back.
Both had been arrested since Nov 2019. #Egypt pic.twitter.com/b1Sinwnp3u
— The Freedom Initiative (@thefreedomi) April 13, 2021
Khaled Dawood, an opposition leader and former head of the liberal Dostour political party who had spent more than a year and a half in pre-trial detention, was released the day before.
Also, earlier in April, an Egyptian court dropped a case against 20 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for what had been dubbed the “foreign funding” case. This was the latest development in a drawn-out trial that began in 2011, and in which dozens of local and international NGOs had been charged with receiving foreign funds illicitly and using them to conduct banned activities. While a verdict was pending, many local human rights organisations were harassed, and dozens of activists had their assets frozen and were barred from traveling abroad.
The court's ruling and a similar one in December regarding several organisations were seen as signs of goodwill offered by the Egyptian government towards U.S. President Joe Biden, who had pledged in his presidential campaign that there were to be “no more blank checks” for his predecessor's “favourite dictator,” using Donald Trump reference to Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi:
Mohamed Amashah is finally home after 486 days in Egyptian prison for holding a protest sign. Arresting, torturing, and exiling activists like Sarah Hegazy and Mohamed Soltan or threatening their families is unacceptable. No more blank checks for Trump’s “favorite dictator.” https://t.co/RtZkbGh6ik
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 12, 2020
While charges have been dropped in several of these cases, other NGOs and activists are still facing trial. This led the #7FirstSteps demand for an end to “criminal prosecutions of human rights activists and [to] close the infamous Case 173 of 2011 (“Foreign-Funding” Case) targeting civil society organisations.”
The human rights groups’ seven steps also included lifting the state of emergency which was imposed in 2017 “in violation of the Constitution that authorities have exploited to suspend all due process rights.”
Suspending all executions in political and criminal cases until they are reviewed by a specialized presidential pardon board, was also among the groups’ demands. In recent years, Egypt has seen numbers of executions soar. A December statement by Amnesty International noted:
The Egyptian authorities have embarked on a horrifying execution spree in recent months, putting scores of people to death, in some cases following grossly unfair mass trials
The human rights groups also demanded the withdrawal of the draft personal status law which women say is worse in terms of legal rights than a current law that is already restrictive. Among many issues, the law would prevent women from signing their own marriage certificates, registering their child’s birth or traveling abroad without a man’s consent. The law stoked outrage in March, with women's rights groups deeming it discriminatory. Taking to social media after the draft bill was leaked by the press, and using the hashtag #Guardianship_is_my_right, women and men shared personal stories of how the current law has caused them hardships by denying mothers and wives full legal guardianship over themselves and their children.
Finally, the #7FirstSteps also urged Egyptian authorities to reverse the blocking of websites “imposed illegally in the absence of court orders to censor critical media and content.” According to Freedom House, 546 websites were reported blocked by the authorities at the end of the first quarter of 2020.
The joint statement announcing the #7FirstSteps also said:
The five groups called on all civil society organizations, political parties, unions, individuals, and Egyptian communities abroad and regional and international bodies to endorse these seven steps as minimum requirements to begin restoring the dignity and rights of all Egyptians.
The Egyptian government, which has previously denied holding any political prisoners or any violations of human rights, has not yet commented publicly on these calls.

author: Dahlia Kholaif


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Public distress as Turkey institutes yet another COVID-19 lockdown · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

COVID-19 CG illustration by Yuri Samoilov on Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
On April 26, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced new lockdown measures in a bid to curb rising COVID-19 infections that at some point reached 60,000 cases per day. The new restrictions, effective April 30 and lasting until May 17, are the strictest so far. They include the closing of retail shops, and other services considered non-essential, a ban on sales of alcohol, stationery, electronics—and even feminine hygienic pads—while previously there were only partial lockdowns and weekend curfews.
Turkey began its vaccination campaign in mid January and, so far, 12 percent of its 85 million population have been fully immunized.
The new measures were met with much criticism, especially among working-class people who received very little or no financial support during the last year and a half of the pandemic. The farming industry was one of the hardest hit as all markets were shut down, and farmers across the country had to throw out much of what they cultivated. In an attempt to address this, the government decided to open farmers’ markets but only on Saturdays. The farmers union, however, did not agree that this would be enough to solve the growing crisis.
According to IPSOS's April research figures, 61 percent of respondents in Turkey reported a decline in their emotional and mental health. Cases of suicide have been on the rise. Speaking to Turkish newspaper BirGün, psychiatrist Dr. Burhanettin Kaya said the main reason behind the recent spike in numbers is “increasing impoverishment”:
Unlike in countries where suicide rates were high, including the Scandinavian countries, where it was possible to reduce the rate as a result of adopted social policies, in Turkey, this has been the opposite, with each year, numbers growing. More recently, the main reasons driving people to suicide are hopelessness, economic policies, increasing impoverishment, growing economic crisis, class gap, and other factors contributing to lost opportunities, all of which have gradually led people to dissolve their ties to life.
This sense of hopelessness touches everyone. According to the Musicians and Performers Union (Müzik-Sen), statistics from September 2020, at least 100 musicians have committed suicide during the pandemic. Many of the country's one million registered musicians do not have insurance and therefore cannot claim state support benefits. Also, weddings and large music events have been banned since the start of the pandemic. In an interview with Arab News, Muzik-Sen’s Hasan Aldemir said, state authorities “haven’t protected musicians under these harsh conditions.”
The main opposition, the Republican's People party and other critics tried to get the government to explain the legal basis of the ban—but there was none.
On May 4, the Ministry of the Interior issued a statement regulating the sale of certain products at stores. According to the new measures, all non-essential products, including alcohol would be banned, including things like potting soil, stationary and cosmetic products, effective May 7. These measures prompted many people to react on social media:
Turkey bans alcohol sale during the lockdown lasting until May 17th triggering a Twitterstorm.
Longest ban of alcohol sale that I can remember. https://t.co/gUWR1oiIOC
— Fercan (@FercanY) April 27, 2021
The alcohol ban was briefly reversed after a public outcry:
Turkey reverses 17-day ban on alcohol sales during lockdown: Cumhuriyet https://t.co/AgDHOtEvCW
— Piotr Zalewski (@p_zalewski) April 30, 2021
Only to be reintroduced once again on May 4, 2021:
Under new lockdown rules, Turkey bans sales of “nonessential” products (alcohol, makeup, perfume, electronic goods, toys, stationery, clothing, auto accessories, to name a few) starting May 7th. https://t.co/D6flsAckJ1
— Piotr Zalewski (@p_zalewski) May 4, 2021
Ahead of the new measures, many criticized Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party restrictions as one-sidedness, as in February and March, the party organized congresses with thousands of people shown often to not be wearing masks, all overcrowded indoors.
One member of the opposition Republican People's Party shared this video of Turkey's map with its cities slowly turning red as President Erdogan calls them out during the congress:
Kısa bir lebaleb turu yapalım mı? pic.twitter.com/RGZ2VS7aTN
— Deniz Demir (@demirdenizchp) April 18, 2021
Shall we do a short tour of lebaleb (meaning full to the brim)?
The word “lebaleb” trended for a while as a result.
The president was also seen at an overcrowded funeral before the new restrictions were introduced and more recently on May 2. According to new lockdown measures, funerals are to be held with no more than 30 people.
The list of new restrictions includes work from home; permission to be outside only for essential shopping and/or medical treatment; ban on inter-city travel unless there is an official permission slip; closing down of schools; closing down of all retail shops; banning the sale of other non-essential products such as perfume, make-up, stationery, batteries, and electronic products.
But the ban goes further. As of May 7, Turkish Twitter users started #PedYasaklanamaz (“you cannot ban the sale of hygienic pads”) in response to what looked like a ban on feminine hygienic pads, too.
Rakı şarap satışını yasaklamak için İçişleri Bakanı talimatıyla acilen karar çıkaran İl Umumi Hıfzıssıhha Kurulları, il sağlık müdürlükleri, ped yasağını öylece seyrediyor. Kadın sağlığı sizin ilgi alanınıza girmiyor mu beyler? #PedYasaklanamaz pic.twitter.com/uJUPH25fkA
— Banu Guven (@banuguven) May 7, 2021
The Provincial Public Health Councils and Provincial Health Directorates that rushed to ban the sale of raki and wine by the order of the Ministry of the Interior, are simply watching the ban on pads. Women's health isn't on your interest area gentlemen?
The public outcry over a ban on sale of hygienic pads prompted the Ministry of the Interior to issue a statement on May 9, clarifying that the sale of hygienic products was not banned. However, the ministry did not explain the reason why some supermarket chains were refusing to sell these products to customers.
There was plenty of other confusion, too, for example, a statement by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu who said any Turkish people who came into close contact with tourists would be vaccinated. This he later clarified, saying he actually meant to say that Turkey would be vaccinating those working in the tourism industry as the country opens up this summer. But that explanation was not enough to stop the public outcry:
Alman turist görene biontech, Çinli turist görene sinovak, Rus turist görene de sputnik V aşısı yapılacaktır. Aşılama ücretsiz olup turistlerin yüzüne bakmak yeterli olacaktır. #AKParti nin bir hizmeti daha!..
— DEVA Hareketi ?? (@Deva_021) May 6, 2021
Those who see German tourists would get Biontech, those who see Chinese tourists would get Sinovac, those who see Russian tourists would get Sputnik V vaccine. Vaccines are free of charge and only require you to look at tourists’ faces. Another service by AK Party.
Tourists are currently exempt from the restrictions. And if anything, it looks like the government's measures were specifically aimed to boost the tourism industry that suffered great losses last year. According to DW, the number of visitors “dropped by some 15.9 million people, and the tourism sector suffered losses of €8.3 billion ($10.1 billion). Revenue fell by 65 per cent and more than 320,000 people lost their jobs.”
The special privileges for tourists did not go down well with everyone, however:
Is there any other country in the world that has forced its own citizens into full lockdown while allowing bacchanalian orgies for any and all foreigners who fly in?pic.twitter.com/lsgV6tqBof
— Can Okar (@canokar) May 2, 2021
For millions of Turks, stranded at their homes, and especially for those, struggling to get by, frustrations continue to grow, exacerbated by the lack of trust in the government's promises to vaccinate everyone by the end of summer.


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A proposal by a Brazilian senator resurrects ideas of restrictive abortion law · Global Voices
Lobato Felizola

Women protest in Brazil's capital Brasília for safe and legal abortion in the country, in 2018, wearing The Handmaid's Tale's costumes | Image: Mídia Ninja/CC 2.0
A bill pending in the Brazilian Senate seeks to make access to legal and safe abortion more difficult even in cases when it's guaranteed by law.
The initial proposal says it will “safeguard the unborn child's life since conception” and proposes the creation of a social financial aid fund for rape victims’ children if the woman carries the pregnancy to term. In addition, the bill states that the woman must provide information to the father about the child, even if he is a sexual abuser.
Abortion is currently legally allowed in Brazil in only three situations: when the pregnancy is life-threatening for the woman, if the fetus is anencephalic (when the brain is not fully formed), or when the pregnancy is the result of rape.
Outside of these contexts, the practice is considered a crime, with a prison sentence of one to three years for the woman, and one to four years for those who perform the procedure.
A protester, in 2017, with a sign saying: “It's for women's lives. A rapist is not a father. No to #PEC181 (law that could affect rights to legal abortion) | Image: Mídia Ninja/CC 2.0
The pending bill is not exactly a new idea — a few years back, a similar proposal was presented in the National Congress, known as the Unborn Statute, which would have forbidden abortion in all cases in the country. Another one was a theme in protests in 2017. An online petition against a rape subsidy has garnered more than 192,000 signatures since 2018 when it was launched in protest of the Unborn Statute.
For critics, the new bill is an imitation of this old proposal.
The bill was presented by senator Eduardo Girão of the center-right “We Can” Party (Podemos in Portuguese) last December. Girão proposed what he named as the “Pregnant Woman's Statute” that he said would be an advance in the “humanitarian point view” by protecting pregnant women and holding men accountable.
Feminist movements, on the other hand, see the financial aid as an excuse to avoid the right to safe abortion and called the idea a “rape subsidy.“
Since the proposal is set to be voted in the National Senate soon, reproductive rights activists started to use hashtags such as #GravidezForcadaÉTortura (Forced Pregnancy Is Torture) and #BolsaEstupro (Rape Subsidy) on Twitter to protest against it.
After the criticism, the project's rapporteur, senator Simone Tebet of the center-right Brazilian Democratic Movement (known by its acronym MDB) declared she would be working on changes to the original text. Senator Girão himself said in March he would withdraw the aid proposal from the project, according to Crescer magazine.
Global Voices reached out to Tebet's office, but didn't have a reply until the publication of this article.
An international network of doctors who defend access to comprehensive reproductive health care, Global Doctors for Choice, released a public statement calling the proposal a “true setback to fundamental human rights in country.”
“It doesn't solve it just to decide to remove articles from the statute. We, the women's movement, are fighting for it to be shelved,” physician Maria José de Oliveira Araújo, a member of the group, told newspaper Brasil de Fato back in April.
Jolúzia Batista, who works at the Feminist Center for Studies and Advisory (CFEMEA for the Portuguese initials), a feminist and antiracist NGO, also told to the same newspaper, that the project is a conservative trap to take away women's autonomy over their own bodies.
“The statute removes the possibility for a woman to decide over her body, her life and life projects she wants for herself. We understand that, in order for us to achieve a true democracy, one of the key points is that women should be able to decide over their own bodies,” she said.
Despite being called “Pregnant Woman's Statute,” the bill doesn't actually include public policies or elements directed at pregnant women's rights, according to activists.
For instance, Article 8, an excerpt that has been strongly repudiated by women's rights organizations, prohibits any kind of harm to an “unborn child” due to “the act or decision of any of their parents,” which could penalize doctors who perform legal abortion.
Women's rights organizations also criticize Article 10 since it forbids pregnant women “to deny or omit” information about paternity to biological fathers. This means that she would be required to provide information to the father  — in some cases, a rapist — about the child under a “liability penalty.”
“This obligation to inform the father about the child — a rapist — under a ‘liability penalty,’ is too violent. It is as if the woman has no rights at all, but the unborn child, and the man, have them all,” Luciana Boiteux, professor of law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and author of motions at the Brazilian Supreme Court for the decriminalization of abortion in the country, told the site Congresso em Foco.
Abortion is considered a crime under some or all circumstances in most countries in Latin America, according to a study by the Center for Reproductive Rights. In Brazil, there are 40 projects at the Lower Chamber proposing some kind of restriction to the current legislation, according to UOL news outlet.
Even where it is allowed, terminating a pregnancy is not always easily available due to social criminalization and stigma, the lack of facilities and qualified professionals, and the absence of family planning and sex education policies.
There is also the concept of “conscientious objection” — when physicians recuse themselves of performing abortions claiming personal reasons. To Brazilian anthropologist and researcher, Debora Diniz, this has been used as an instrument of power and abuse, as she pointed out during the GV panel “Breaking the taboo on abortion,” on April 7.
“When we ask if someone is pro or against abortion, what we get is not what people do, we get lies. What dominates is morality based on public opinions, which do not represent the needs, rights or tastes of women. They represent the patriarchy and hegemony of how to answer this question correctly,” she said during the panel.
Latin America and the Caribbean have some of the highest abortion rates in the world and the strictest laws, which can put women in prison for suspected abortions, according to Diniz.
The Guttmacher Institute points out that the rates of unwanted pregnancies are higher in countries that restrict access to abortion and lower in countries where the procedure is legal.
“In some part of life, Brazilian women will cross the line between legality and clandestinity, because one in five women commit abortions up to the age of 40,” said Diniz.
On Dec. 30, 2020, Argentina became one of the few Latin American countries where abortion is legal no matter the reason, if performed in the first weeks of pregnancy and according to the guidelines established by law, along with Uruguay, Cuba, Guyana, French Guiana and Puerto Rico.
Abortion is also legal in Mexico City and the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Some Mexican states, however, still consider the termination of pregnancy punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Abortion is illegal under all circumstances in El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and Haiti. Other countries in the region allow abortion under certain circumstances.
Hours after Argentina approved abortion legalization, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tweeted saying he was deeply sorry for the decision and stating: “As far as it depends on me and my government, abortion will never be approved. We will always fight to protect the lives of the innocent.”
- Lamento profundamente pelas vidas das crianças argentinas, agora sujeitas a serem ceifadas no ventre de suas mães com anuência do Estado. No que depender de mim e do meu governo, o aborto jamais será aprovado em nosso solo. Lutaremos sempre para proteger a vida dos inocentes!
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) December 30, 2020
A poll from 2017 indicated that almost 60 percent of Brazilians were in favor of legalizing abortion in cases of rape. A poll conducted at the Senate's page shows about 87 percent of Brazilians oppose Girão's bill, with more than 291,000 votes against the proposal versus 42,560 in favor.
“Criminal laws are not the best way to protect health needs, and abortion is a health need,” said Diniz.

author: Lobato Felizola


text:
Burqa ban in Sri Lanka would undermine national security and human rights · Global Voices
GroundViews

Women wearing the niqab at the botanical garden in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Image via Flickr by Ji-Elle. CC BY-SA 3.0.
This post by Savitri Hensman originally appeared in Groundviews, an award-winning citizen media website in Sri Lanka. An edited version is published here as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices.
On April 27, the Sri Lankan Cabinet approved a proposed ban on wearing burqas and other full-face coverings in public. The proposal is expected to be passed by parliament where the ruling Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance coalition has an almost two-thirds majority. This follows other measures by the Sri Lanka government, including a ban on cow slaughter, shutting down religious schools and a new Prevention of Terrorism regulation that targets Muslims and other minorities.
Many in Sri Lanka, and internationally, have condemned this impending ban as a breach of human rights. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ahmed Shaheed, commented that such a ban goes against international law:
Burka bans are incompatible with int’l law guarantees of the right to manifest one’s religion or belief & of freedom of expression!
Sri Lanka to ban burkas, shut Islamic schools for ‘national security’ https://t.co/w0dhgtMUc8
— Ahmed Shaheed (@ahmedshaheed) March 13, 2021
Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekara had earlier claimed that the burqa affects “national security” and was a “sign of religious extremism.” Yet, the ban is likely to damage, rather than improve, national security and is considered a dangerous distraction from attempts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. It undermines the building of trust which would help the nation to unite to counter the rise in infection.
The background to the ban includes a gradually worsening situation for Muslims and other minorities, as well as dissidents in Sri Lanka which, as in the past, has paved the way for a wider erosion of human rights and democracy. This has included harassment and attacks by hate groups misusing Buddhism to gain power, shielded by the regime. There have also been attempts to blame the entire Muslim community for the Easter Sunday bombings on April 21, 2019, despite the fact that many Muslims had previously pleaded with the authorities to act against the ringleaders, added to which Indian intelligence had provided specific warnings not long before the attacks.
After the 2019 bombings, there was a temporary ban on wearing face coverings in public that can conceal someone's identity, supposedly on national security grounds. However, that ban—while added to the stigma Muslims faced—offered little actual advantage since female security officers could have conducted checks on any woman while offering them enough privacy to unveil themselves.
Victimisation and harassment continued after the ban was lifted five months later, while repression generally got worse and human rights and democracy eroded. This took a fresh turn during the pandemic.
Cruelly, grieving relatives of Muslims who had died of COVID-19 were—for 11 months—denied the opportunity to bury the dead as is required by their faith, with the government insisting instead on cremation on the spurious grounds of public health. Elsewhere in the world, burials continued as normal, since these presented no threat to the public. In early 2021, the government finally gave way but initially chose, as a site on a remote northern island that would have been highly unsuitable. After protests, the location was shifted, although burying loved ones still involved long journeys for many.
Furthermore, on March 9, a regulation was passed allowing for people to be detained for two years without trial if accused of causing “religious, racial, or communal disharmony.” This was an expansion of the already harsh Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), allowing the state to hold people in “reintegration centres” without proof of wrongdoing. This drew international condemnation.
As the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) pointed out, freedom of religion and belief is guaranteed under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), of which Sri Lanka is a signatory. Any limitation on freedom of religion must be non-discriminatory and must be necessary and proportionate to protect public safety, order, health, morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
According to the UN Human Rights Committee, under the ICCPR “the observance and practice of religion or belief may include not only ceremonial acts, but also such customs as … the wearing of distinctive clothing or head coverings.” As the ICJ's Legal and Policy Director Ian Seiderman pointed out:
The Sri Lankan Government’s justification for banning face coverings rings hollow during a time when it has quite sensibly made the wearing of face masks in public mandatory to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of one’s choice is also guaranteed by Article 10 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka. Under Article 12, all persons are equal before the law and no citizen should be discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex, political opinion or place of birth. Article 14 (1) (e) ensures the freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
In some parts of the world, there has been support for banning the burqa because of the belief that it is oppressive to women. Yet even if people reject those strands within major religions which have more restrictive attitudes on gender, giving male politicians or police officers the power to dictate how women should dress, and to use force against those who fail to obey, is far from liberating.
Far from increasing national security, a burqa ban alienates Muslims further and promotes an approach to politics based on division and abuse of power. Such a move would result in constant flashpoints on the streets, deeper isolation of women, and a sense of humiliation even among those who would not dream of wearing burqas. This would weaken yet more the position of Muslims seeking a peaceful, multicultural Sri Lanka.
Researchers studying countries in Europe that had put restrictions on wearing veils in public spaces found, in 2019, that far from reducing extremism, these restrictions correlated with an increase in terrorist activity. The research team, Stuti Manchanda and Nilay Saiya from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore noted that “states that enforce veil bans are indeed statistically much more likely to experience more and more lethal Islamist terrorist attacks than countries where such laws do not exist.”
The burqa ban is a dangerous game to play, especially amidst a pandemic, when trust and mutual care may be vital in reining in the destructive spread of the virus. Acts of concern and solidarity which build bridges across communities may make a major difference in the long term, however grim the current situation may be.

author: GroundViews


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Burundi is releasing thousands from jail, but many political prisoners remain behind bars · Global Voices
Liam Anderson

Prisoners from Mpimba Prison, Bujumbura, plant trees. Burundi, 2012. Photo by Flickr user Trees ForTheFuture, CC BY 2.0
On April 26, Burundi authorities released 3,000 prisoners following a presidential pardon that aims to free a total of 5,225 people — or 40 percent of the country's prison population.
The authorities seek to relieve pressure on the country's overcrowded jails as well as improve diplomatic relations. Following the violent political crisis surrounding ex-President Pierre Nkurunziza’s controversial third election in 2015, some international governments and donors, notably in Europe, imposed sanctions and suspended direct aid to the government.
Current president Évariste Ndayishimiye first announced a mass release of prisoners on December 31, and a decree came on March 5. The pardon focused on prisoners with shorter sentences, or only part remaining, and the vulnerable such as the elderly. It did not cover security charges, such as working with armed groups — an accusation often levelled against political opponents or activists.
In early April, Justice Ministry Jeanine Nibizi said all prisoners would attend “patriotic training” before release.
The president gave a speech to mark the occasion at Bujumbura’s Mpimba prison, where 1,400 prisoners received a pardon.
#Burundi En présence des Hauts Cadres de l'État, le Président de la République S.E Evariste #Ndayishimiye rehausse de sa présence les cérémonies marquant le début de la libération des détenus concernés par les mesures de Grâce présidentielle accordée le 31 décembre 2020. pic.twitter.com/3cx1nDlBQ5
— Ntare Rushatsi House (@NtareHouse) April 26, 2021
With senior state officials, the Republic’s President H.E. Evariste #Ndayishimiye graces with his presence the ceremonies marking the beginning of the release of prisoners benefitting from the Presidential Pardon granted on 31 December 2020.
In his speech, the president said that “no prisoners were held for political motives,” in reference to critics who point to exaggerated charges against various opponents and activists. Ndayishimiye also said and that authorities were ready to recognize good behaviour, “like a father”.
While Ndayishimiye said the pardons were not done to please other governments, Foreign Affairs Minister Albert Shingiro was touring several European countries just as the president was giving his speech, as part of ongoing talks to improve Burundi's image internationally.
Human rights monitors welcomed the pardons. Prisoners’ rights activist, Pierre-Claver Mbonimpa — himself in exile after an assassination attempt — told Radio France Internationale that it was “better than nothing”, but highlighted that prisons were still overcrowded and political prisoners remained in jail.
The National Independent Human Rights Commission also praised the pardon, calling for more alternative sentences, such as community work, and to avoid excessive pretrial detention. The commission also reports that some prisoners have remained in jail after their sentence ended.
The Burundian Association for Protecting Human Rights and Detained Persons (APRODH)’s March report recorded 13,532 inmates across Burundi’s prisons, over three times the capacity of 4,194; Over 5,000 were yet to be tried. It also described at least 70 cases of “arbitrary detention,” and prisoners held at irregular secret sites by intelligence services.
Data gathered by Iwacu newspaper showed a steady increase in the country's already overcrowded prison population from 2014 to 2018, while capacity stayed the same. Prisoners are also held in police station cells.
Officials also noted that a large prison population is costly. Reducing these costs would certainly be useful for authorities, given the economic difficulties resulting from the 2015 political crisis and sanctions.
Iwacu reported released prisoners’ relief, excited to see family.
The pardon of prisoners was widely welcomed as it relieved pressure on overcrowded prisons, especially during the pandemic as recently Burundi has seen more COVID-19 cases, but a number of political prisoners remain behind bars.
For example, Germain Rukiki, of Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture — Burundi, was sentenced in 2018 to 32 years in jail, although that penalty is being slowly reviewed. Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have called for his release.
Germain Rukuki was arrested in Bujumbura on 13 July 2017 and sentenced to 32 years in prison on trumped up charges of “rebellion” and “threatening State security” on 26 April 2018. https://t.co/bq58fDbR1l #FreeGermainRukuki #W4R2020 #Abacu @burundi_inkenya @GeneralNeva pic.twitter.com/glMEbZ3y2k
— Amnesty Eastern Africa (@AmnestyEARO) April 28, 2021
Nestor Nibitanga, a former representative of the organization APRODH, was sentenced to five years imprisonment in 2018.
Similarly, in October 2020, former independent parliamentarian Fabien Banciryanino was arrested, and charged days later with rebellion, threatening state security, and defamation. His lawyers said it was because of his vocal criticisms of the government in parliament. He was put in solitary confinement on March 28 after writing a letter criticizing poor prison conditions. On March 31, he left confinement, apparently following ministerial and public pressure.
The UN Commission of Inquiry’s 2020 report noted many arrests of opponents around the May 2020 elections. “While most were released after a few days or weeks, some were sentenced to relatively heavy sentences of several years in prison after hastily arranged trials with expedited procedures, while others remained in pretrial detention,” the report said. It also recorded cases of torture in detention.
In its December report, the Burundian Coalition of Human Rights Defenders — several member organizations of which have been banned — criticized forced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and disappearances after arrest.
The Burundi Human Rights Initiative’s December report says that, after Ndayishimye’s election, there were positive signs, such as the release of numerous people arrested in the lead-up to the vote. However, “barely two months later,” ruling party youth were intimidating people again, the report said. It also observed how people with political connections can have easier treatment inside prisons, such as police officer Désiré Uwamahoro — sentenced to three months imprisonment in 2017 for extortion — who has links with Prime Minister Alain Guillaume Bunyoni.
Improving prison conditions and leniency could be useful for officials to present a positive, peaceful image in a wider diplomatic push, after years of tensions. The vaunted anti-corruption drive and gestures of openness, such as the reinstatement of civil society organization PARCEM — one of those struck off in recent years — were also positively regarded.
In December, four Iwacu journalists were pardoned after being imprisoned in 2019 on widely criticized security charges, related to their reporting on an armed attack.
As researcher Carina Tertsakian observed, the government’s recent positive gestures, such as the pardon, are welcome, but work remains to really open political space and overcome impunity.,

author: Liam Anderson