Singapore Democrats

FSI 2010
ICNC is now accepting applications for the 2010 Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict at Tufts University. This week-long Institute, now in its fifth year, will run from June 20 - 26 and brings together international professionals and journalists from around the world to learn from top practitioners and scholars about strategic concepts and present applications of civil resistance.
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As Fiji regime stays silent, concern grows over politician seized by soldiers
By: Radio New Zealand International, March 11, 2010
The Australia-based Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement has expressed its concern about a former parliamentarian, Peceli Rinakama, who has not been seen since last Friday. Reports say he was seized by soldiers, but the military and the interim government refuse to comment.
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Gambia row over wave of arrests
By: BBC News, March 11, 2010
An opposition leader has criticised a wave of arrests in The Gambia, saying detainees - including a former minister - do not know why they are being held.
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Nigeria women protest at Jos killings
By: BBC News, March 11, 2010
Hundreds of women have taken to the streets of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, and the central city of Jos in rallies against Sunday's massacre near Jos.
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We will fight for the soul of Nigeria
By: Tolu Ogunlesi, CNN, March 11, 2010
Nigeria is a strange country, a veritable laboratory of ironies. We are simultaneously one of the world's most corrupt and most religious countries. But that litany of woes is not the whole story, or even the real one. The real story is not about the severity of Nigeria's woes, but about the audacity of its people. We have therefore resolved to actively participate in the offline battle for the soul of Nigeria.
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Nigeria: Young people power
By: Tolu Ogunlesi, March 11, 2010
Where two or three young people are gathered, there is bound to be incurable enthusiasm, or frustration, if those young people happen to be Nigerian. We watch, helpless, as masses of youngsters - who should be holed up in the laboratories and research institutes, creating the wonder drugs and environment-friendly cars of tomorrow - now see a future only in the seven-and-half minutes of fame that a reality TV show will bring.
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UN says Congo rights situation remains 'problematic'
By: Michael J. Kavanagh, Business Week, March 10, 2010
The human-rights situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains "extremely problematic," said Navi Pillay, the United Nations' human-rights commissioner. Improvements, which are "critical to achieving a well- functioning democracy, have been limited," Pillay said in an e- mailed report that will be presented to the UN's Human Rights Council on March 24.
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The subjugation of the people of Zimbabwe for the sake of power
By: Ben Freeth, SW Radio Africa, March 2010
Are Zimbabwe's "Land Reform program," "the new Indigenisation Laws" and "Political Subjugation of the People for Power," the same thing? And what should people do about breaking the dictatorship so that Zimbabwe can be rebuilt on the right foundations?
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Internet restrictions curtail human rights, says US
By: BBC News, March 11, 2010
Many governments have used the internet to curtail freedom of expression at home, the US state department says in its latest annual human rights report.
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U.S. recognizes Afghans, Iranian as among 'International Women of Courage'
By: Heather Maher, RFE, March 11, 2010
Ten extraordinary women have been recognized by the U.S. State Department in a ceremony in Washington. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared alongside first lady Michelle Obama to praise the group of women that she and her staff have chosen as this year's International Women of Courage.
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US: Human rights defenders receive the International Women of Courage Award
By: Amnesty International, March 10, 2010
Three women, whose courageous efforts to defend human rights were highlighted by Amnesty International, were honored today by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the annual International Women of Courage Award Ceremony.
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US: Students to 'come out' as undocumented
By: Chicago Public Radio, March 10, 2010
Today a group of undocumented Chicago students is trying to break a stalemate in the nation's immigration debate. We report from our West Side bureau. The students are frustrated that President Barack Obama isn't pushing harder for an immigration overhaul. They're leading a march in downtown Chicago this afternoon.
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US: U.N. Security Council action required immediately
By: US Campaign for Burma, March 10, 2010
The United States Campaign for Burma today strongly denounces the military regime in Burma that has ruled the Southeast Asian country for nearly five decades, for its failure to release all political prisoners, including 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and banning them from participating in the upcoming election.
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Archival documentary evidence of Mexico's human rights abuses
By: National Security Archive, March 10, 2010
A Mexican human rights activist who was orphaned in infancy when her parents disappeared at the hands of government forces filed a petition before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC) yesterday, drawing on dozens of declassified U.S. and Mexican documents as evidence. Today the National Security Archive is posting a selection of the documents being used in the case, obtained by the Archive through the Freedom of Information Act and from the Mexican government.
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US lifts web sanctions on Cuba, Iran and Sudan
By: Daniel Nasaw, The Guardian, March 9, 2010
The US yesterday said it will allow export of instant messaging, web browsing and other communications technology to Cuba, Iran and Sudan, in an effort to facilitate the flow of information and promote freedom of speech.
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Read Department of the Treasury's press release...

US: Web firms under fire to protect human rights
By: Amy Schatz, WSJ, March 2, 2010
U.S. technology companies came under fire on Capitol Hill Tuesday for bowing to pressure by foreign governments to censor or block Internet sites in countries like Iran or China. Companies argue that the laws of the countries in which they operate sometimes require censorship or Web-site restrictions.
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US: Philadelphia activists rally and risk arrest to tell the EPA no more mountaintop removal mining
By: Ruckus Society, March 1, 2010
This morning activists in Philadelphia descended upon their Regional EPA branch to put an end to Mountaintop Removal mining (MTR). Decisions made here in Philly have devastating consequences for Appalachian communities and our country as a whole.
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Journalist shot dead in Honduras
By: Monster and Critics, March 12, 2010
Honduran journalist David Meza was gunned down in his hometown of La Ceiba, according to local media reports. The 51-year-old radio and television journalist was shot in his car late Thursday as he tried to escape his attackers while metres from his house in the coastal town about 200 kilometres north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, the online edition of La Tribuna reported.
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Lula irks friends and foes by comparing Cuban dissidents to criminals
By: Brazzil Mag, March 12, 2010
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has become entangled in a controversy for having compared Cuban political prisoners with jailed criminals and was even severely criticized by members of his own party.
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Cuban dissident seeks "humanitarian gesture" from Raul Castro
By: Latin American Herald Tribune, March 12, 2010
Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas, who has been on a hunger strike for the past 14 days, on Tuesday asked President Raul Castro to make a "humanitarian gesture" in favor of ailing political prisoners.
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Ailing Cuban hunger striker refuses treatment again
By: AFP, March 11, 2010
A Cuban dissident journalist on a hunger strike for two weeks was diagnosed as suffering from heart arrhythmia and severe dehydration but again refused hospitalization, a spokesman said Wednesday.
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Honduras opposition calls for day to mark coup anniversary
By: Morning Star, March 10, 2010
Honduras's National People's Resistance Front (NPRF) has declared that the opposition would organise a referendum calling for a constitutional assembly to mark the anniversary of the coup that ousted former leader Manuel Zelaya.
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Exposed: Chevron's cover-up of gross environmental abuses in Ecuador
By: AlterNet, March 8, 2010
What is a lost culture? Is it just some intangible time before? Is it an economy? Can you inventory a lost culture in the number of lives lost or rivers polluted? Chevron claims it's not responsible for dumping 18 billion gallons of industrial wastewater into the Amazon. A local leader says otherwise.
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A consolidation of democracy in Colombia
By: David Schoeller-Diaz, International Affairs Review, March 7, 2010
Over 10,000 phone messages reportedly arrived at the Colombian Presidential Palace within 24 hours of the long awaited Constitutional Court ruling, which barred President Álvaro Uribe from seeking a second reelection. Coming from the Press Chief, we can accept the figure as embellished, but nonetheless, it points to the strong emotions involved.
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Venezuelan official disputes report on human rights abuses
By: CNN, February 25, 2010
Venezuela's top human rights official on Thursday disputed findings of a report issued by an Organization of American States commission, and accused the panel of unfairly distorting statistics to show a pattern of political repression and abuses by the government.
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Ukraine's election and the future of democracy
By: Washington Note, March 10, 2010
Like the Iraqi vote, the Ukrainian one was closely watched by international observers and domestic officers. For Ukraine, the elections were peaceful and smooth. International monitors declared the poll clean and observers around the world applauded Viktor Yanukovich's peaceful transition to power, hailing his inauguration on February 25, 2010, as a symbol of Ukraine's strengthening democracy.
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Russia: Grozny, rebuilt, fearful and (almost) forgotten by the West
By: Tanya Lokshina, Open Democracy, March 10, 2010
Downtown Grozny, Chechnya's capital, is ablaze with lights and full of chic shops now. But the paralysing fear remains. Human Rights Watch's Tanya Lokshina and her Memorial colleagues tell a rare visitor from the West about the kidnappings, about the relatives too fearful to complain.
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Tide of protest engulfs more Russian cities
By: Claire Bigg, RFE, March 10, 2010
Tatyana, a 50-year-old preschool teacher in the central Russian city of Penza, must now spend 5,000 rubles ($168) per month on water, gas, and electricity. This leaves her with just 2,300 rubles ($77) to feed her two teenage children and her husband, an invalid whose health problems prevent him from working. Panicked, Tatyana decided to take to the street. She joined a rally in Penza organized by the opposition this past weekend to protest worsening living conditions and call for the ouster of local leaders. As many as 10,000 people rallied in Kaliningrad in January.
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Turkish reporters unite to protest YouTube ban
By: Clothilde Le Coz, PBS, March 9, 2010
The Turkish courts banned YouTube in May 2008, and now a new protest campaign launched by the editorial team of the Milliyet newspaper is drawing attention to how long the country has been prevented from using the website.
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UK: Environmental activists may soon benefit from "paradox of repression"
By: Bryan Farrell, Waging Nonviolence, March 9, 2010
According to The Guardian, the head of a right wing group known as the Young Britons' Foundation has called for trespassing environmental activists to be "shot down" by police. His words are more than just bluster, however, considering that the Young Britons' Foundation is in the business of training Tory parliamentary candidates.
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Beit Sahour professor faces arrest by Israeli military for nonviolent protest
By: Carol Sanders, The Only Democracy, March 11, 2010
Mazin Qumsiyeh reports on his likely arrest next week by the Israeli military when he returns from a lecture tour in the U.S. to his village in Beit Sahour near Bethlehem.  His crime?  Participation in nonviolent protests against the military takeover of the only remaining open land in Bethlehem, which the Jewish-Israeli settlers covet for themselves.   
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Report: Iran sentences professor to six years
By: AP, March 11, 2010
An Iranian appeals court sentenced a university professor to six years in prison for suspected involvement in the country's postelection turmoil, local media reported Thursday.
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Dancers protest Iran's treatment of women
By: RFE, March 11, 2010
A group of Iranian women protested against what they described as gender and ethnic discrimination in the Islamic Republic by dancing in front of Tehran's embassy in Ottawa on International Women's Day. Iranian women have been banned from dancing in public since the 1979 revolution because dancing is considered un-Islamic.
Watch the video...

Iran tops list of jailers of journalists in world
By: Scheherezade Faramarzi, AP, March 10, 2010
Journalists have become a prime target in an Iranian government crackdown on the opposition following last June's disputed presidential election, with 52 of them currently held - making Iran the top jailer of journalists in the world, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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Iran blocking foreign, domestic Web sites to curb anti-government activists
By: Thomas Erdbrink and Kay Armin Serjoie, Washington Post, March 10, 2010
Ever since the disputed victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June elections led to wide-scale protests, Iran's leaders have been cracking down on the tech-savvy opposition movement with the Revolutionary Guard and police blocking millions of foreign and domestic Web sites, including some Google services, CNN and the BBC.
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Two multinationals pull back from Iran
By: Rom Nixon, NY Times, March 10, 2010
Royal Dutch Shell and Ingersoll-Rand this week became the latest major corporations to announce they would cease or cut back business operations in Iran. The announcements came as the United States and its European allies stepped up their efforts to win a tough new round of United Nations sanctions aimed at pressing Iran to rein in its nuclear program.
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Shell ends gas sales to Iran
By: VOA, March 10, 2010
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell says it is no longer selling gasoline to Iran, the latest in a growing number of oil firms to halt supplies to the Islamic Republic.
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Iranian women's rights advocate dedicates her prize to jailed activist
By: RFE, March 10, 2010
Iranian human rights lawyer and women's rights advocate Shadi Sadr has dedicated her "Women of Courage Award," given by the U.S. State Department, to jailed human rights activist Shiva Nazar Ahari.
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Iran calls political opponents enemies of Islam
By: Brian Murphy, AP, March 10, 2010
A traditional Islamic concept about protecting the faith and its followers has become a judicial weapon for Iran's rulers: charging opponents as so-called enemies of God with the threat of possible death sentences.
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Boyfriend of Neda, murdered Iranian protester, talks
By: Alix Rijckaert, AFP, March 10, 2010
The boyfriend of an Iranian woman, who became an opposition icon after images of her death at a Tehran protest spread across the Internet, says the event has turned him into a staunch activist.
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Women's rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Supporting the fight for freedom and equality
By: Sarah Trister, Huffington Post, March 10, 2010
While the rest of the world commemorated International Women's Day on March 8, women in the Middle East had less to celebrate than most. A new Freedom House survey finds that despite modest gains in the last 5 years, women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continue to suffer from a dismal deficit in human rights.
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Morocco 'violently' repressed protests in W. Sahara
By: Expatica, March 10, 2010
Moroccan authorities "violently" put down peaceful protests in Western Sahara earlier this week, Western Sahara human rights activist Aminatou Haidar said Wednesday.
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Moroccan police brutally disperse self-determination protest in Western Sahara
By: ASVDH, March 10, 2010
Yesterday twenty Sahrawi citizens were injured during a violent intervention by Moroccan police to disperse a peaceful demonstration on the main street of the Maatallah quarter in El-Aaiun, Western Sahara.
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Armenia: U.S. embassy honors prosecuted Armenian activist
By: RFE, March 10, 2010
The U.S. Embassy in Armenia has publicly honored a young Armenian activist who was prosecuted for publicizing alleged sexual and other abuse at a Yerevan boarding school, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reports. U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch presented the embassy's Women of Courage award to Mariam Sukhudian, a leader of the environment protection group SOS Teghut.
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Israelis against Israeli settlements
By: Robert Mackey, NY Times, March 10, 2010
The strength of feeling among Israelis who oppose moving more Israelis into Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem was demonstrated just last Saturday, when a large protest took place against the eviction of Palestinian families from homes in the city's Sheikh Jarrah district.
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Nonviolent struggle in Palestine and Israel
By: David Hartsough, Pulse, March 10, 2010
When some people think of Palestine and Israel, they often picture Palestinians as suicide bombers and terrorists while the Israeli military are seen as bombing whole neighborhoods in Palestine. However, I found something very positive and hopeful and perhaps the key to a peaceful resolution of this tragic conflict - and a possible path toward a peaceful future for both peoples.
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With 52 journalists in jail, Iran hits new, shameful record
By: CPJ, March 9, 2010
The number of journalists in jail rose in February as a relentless media crackdown continues in Iran. Authorities are now holding at least 52 journalists in prison, a third of all those in jail around the world, according to the latest monthly survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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Iran: Students keep opposition fires burning with small campus protests
By: LA Times, March 9, 2010
Students at two Iranian universities staged small protests Monday and Tuesday, video footage uploaded to the internet showed, in the latest sign that the opposition movement unleashed by the country's disputed elections last year has not been stamped out.
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Iran torture trials begin
By: Huffington Post, March 9, 2010
The trial in Iran opened Tuesday for 12 suspects accused of torturing to death three anti-government protesters tortured in prison during the turmoil following the June elections, the official news agency reported.
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Iranian Nobel Peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi presses Iran on human rights and warns against international sanctions
By: Democracy Now, March 8, 2010
The Obama administration is working to gather international backing for a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Leading Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi argues the UN should focus on pressing the Iranian government to restore democracy and human rights, rather than imposing economic sanctions.
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tyranny 'is crushing Iran's artists'
By: Lizzy Davies, The Guardian, March 7, 2010
Golshifteh Farahani knows how dangerous it is now to be an artist in Tehran. By the time Body of Lies was released, she was an exile in Paris. She does not know when she will go home. Last week, as the Iranian diaspora reeled from the arrest of Jafar Panahi, the most outspoken film director still living in Tehran, Farahani felt a fresh rush of fury towards a regime which critics say is taking ever greater steps towards a total crackdown on free speech.
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Israel: 5,000 protest in Sheikh Jarah
By: Rabbi Brian, Rabbi Brian's Blog, March 7, 2010
I returned to Israel on Friday, just before Shabbat, after a five day visit to the U.S.A. where I attended the Christian Muslim Summit at the Washington Cathedral.  After sleeping many hours on Shabbat, I attended the demonstration at Sheikh Jarrah on Saturday night.  This was the largest demonstration so far (5,000 people!) and marked a significant point in the struggle to end the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah.
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How Nokia helped Iran "persecute and arrest" dissidents
By: Nate Anderson, ARS Technica, March 5, 2010
A new report out of Finland suggests that the country's corporate poster child, Nokia Siemens, has been involved in some pretty tawdry dealings with Iran, dealings that go beyond the company's admitted involvement with the Iranian regime.
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King and the Palestinian struggle for freedom
By: Sanna Towns, Race Talk, March 4, 2010
Today there is a growing community of human rights activists in the U.S., around the world, and especially in Palestine-Israel whose behavior mirrors and extends Martin Luther King, Jr.'s confrontation with injustice in their own efforts to break the silence on the injustice of the cruel, oppressive Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian people.
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Iran women rights defenders continue undeterred by prison detention
By: Elahe Amani, Truthout, March 3, 2010
Today on a daily basis, personal memoirs of ongoing encounters of government crackdown and resistance in Iran are being written in print and in cyberspace by countless Iranian civil rights activists, scholars and women human rights defenders.
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Azerbaijan court rejects 'donkey video' bloggers' appeal
By: Emil Guliyev, AFP, March 10, 2010
An Azerbaijani court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by two bloggers jailed after satirizing the government with an Internet video that showed a donkey giving a press conference, their lawyer said.
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Tajikistan: Independent newspapers prosecuted
By: Suhrob Majidov, CACI Analyst, March 3, 2010
On February 23, a preliminary hearing took place in a lawsuit against three independent weekly newspapers and a lawyer that were accused of libel for publishing the content of a press conference.The judges demanded to defend their honor and dignity and to recoup moral damage at a total amount of 5,5 million somoni (approximately US$1,2 million).
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Transparency International calls for protection of civil society organisations in Sri Lanka
By: Transparency International, March 11, 2010
Transparency International (TI) is alarmed by the intimidation tactics and public allegations threatening civil society organisations in Sri Lanka, and in particular those against the TI chapter, Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL). Transparency International appeals to the Government of Sri Lanka to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of Weliamuna and all other officials and staff of TISL.
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Six killed in attack on World Vision office in Pakistan
By: BBC News, March 10, 2010
Militants have attacked the office of a Western aid agency in north-western Pakistan, killing six people, police and the agency have said. The victims, including two women, were all Pakistani nationals working for World Vision in Mansehra district.
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Burma's leaders annul Suu Kyi's 1990 poll win
By: BBC News, March 11, 2010
Burma's leaders have formally annulled the National League for Democracy's 1990 election win, under laws enacted for polls expected later this year.
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Burmese opposition displeased with electoral law
By: Mizzima, March 11, 2010
Burma's military rulers on Tuesday announced the Electoral Law for its planned general election to be held later this year. But the country's main opposition party, National League for Democracy (NLD), said the Electoral Law is yet another set of rules to ensure the election is neither free nor fair and instead conducted primarily to further the regime's interests. Mizzima was able to contact NLD legal advisers Nyan Win and Aung Thein to gain further insight into the position of the political opposition.
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Vietnam: Dissident lawyer detained, freed
By: Cathnews Asia, March 11, 2010
A Vietnamese Christian lawyer, detained for four hours shortly after her release from three years in prison, has been freed, Church sources say.
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Vietnam dissident vows to carry on struggle after prison
By: AFP, March 10, 2010
A Vietnamese lawyer and dissident vowed on Wednesday to carry on her struggle for democracy days after leaving jail, where she spent three years for challenging the Communist authorities.
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Burma, frozen in tyranny
By: Financial Times, March 10, 2010
The end of the cold war unfroze deadlocked political situations all over the world. But political freedom did not advance everywhere in 1989. Most obviously that was the year that the Chinese government sent the tanks into Tiananmen Square. And 1989 was also the year that Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest in Burma. Who would have believed that twenty-one years later, this heroic woman would still be a political prisoner?
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New law barring Burma opposition leader condemned
By: AP, March 10, 2010
A decision by Myanmar's military junta to bar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from upcoming elections drew sharp criticism from around the world, with one of the country's Southeast Asian allies Thursday calling it "a complete farce."
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Burma: Election laws may shut down opposition parties
By: Human Rights Watch, March 10, 2010
Newly issued laws in preparation for 2010 elections in Burma are designed to exclude the main opposition party and ensure a victory for the ruling military, Human Rights Watch said today.
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Burma bans imprisoned dissidents from up-coming elections
By: Mizzima, March 9, 2010
In preparation for the upcoming national election set to take place this year, Burma's military regime has issued a political party registration law which severely restricts the rights of political parties.
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Burma: Meet the badass group battling a monstrous regime responsible for waging the world's longest-running war
By: Mac McClelland, AlterNet, March 9, 2010
Mac McClelland went to Thailand to volunteer and ended up living with refugees from Burma. They turned out to be survivors of a nearly unreported genocide the Burmese army is currently waging against an ethnic minority, in retaliation for ethnic insurgents' fighting a war against the government for the last sixty years.
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Burma: Citizen-journalist sentenced to 13 years for non-existent illegal video footage
By: Asian Human Rights Commission, March 4, 2010
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained the details of the case against a journalist who has been imprisoned in Burma for sending video footage abroad. Ngwe Soe Linn was sentenced to 13 years in jail for supposedly sending illegal clips and going illegally into Thailand, even though there was no evidence against him for either of the charges, and despite the fact that he was tried in a closed court in violation of the domestic law.
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Chinese law-makers take to microblogging
By: Francois Bougon, AFP, March 11, 2010
Mao Zedong used paintbrush and ink to write classic poems in calligraphy but his grandson is micro-blogging by laptop from China's annual session of parliament. The heavy-set, 40-year-old senior colonel is now one of the star users of "Renmin Weibo", a social networking platform opened by the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece newspaper.
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US: Activists rally in San Francisco for Tibetan freedom
By: KTVU, March 10, 2010
At Union Square in San Francisco Wednesday night, hundreds of people held a spirited rally to raise public awareness about freeing Tibet from the ongoing Chinese occupation.
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Dalai Lama: China attempting to annihilate Buddhism in Tibet
By: Ashwini Bhatia, AP, March 10, 2010
The Dalai Lama lashed out at China on Wednesday, accusing it of trying to "annihilate Buddhism" in Tibet and rebuffing all his efforts to reach a compromise over the disputed Himalayan region.
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Dalai Lama risks Chinese ire to back Uighurs
By: Abhishek Madhukar, Reuters, March 10, 2010
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama voiced his support on Wednesday for an ethnic minority in China's troubled Xinjiang province, risking worsening further his fraught relations with Beijing.
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China: Dalai Lama's statement on the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan national uprising day
By: His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Dalai Lama, March 10, 2010
"Today marks the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan people's peaceful uprising in 1959 against Communist China's repression in Tibet, as well as the second anniversary of the peaceful protests that erupted across Tibet in March 2008. On this occasion, I pay homage to those heroic Tibetan men and women, who sacrificed their lives for the cause of Tibet, and pray for an early end to the sufferings of those still oppressed in Tibet."
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International lawyers urge UN to condemn detention of missing China rights advocate
By: Jaclyn Belczyk, Jurist, March 10, 2010
An international group of human rights lawyers on Tuesday petitioned the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to condemn to the detention of Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, missing for more than a year.
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China: Scholars, writers press for Liu Xiaobo's release
By: Human Rights Watch, March 9, 2010
More than one hundred leading China scholars, writers, and human rights advocates from around the world are today releasing a letter to China's National People's Congress that calls for the immediate and unconditional release of imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo.
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Record 237 nominations for 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
By: Ian MacDougall, AP, March 11, 2010
The committee that selects the Nobel Peace Prize winner will consider a record 237 nominations for the 2010 award, a Nobel official said Wednesday. Surpassing last year's record of 205 nominations, 199 individuals and 38 organizations have been nominated for the coveted prize, said Geir Lundestad, the committee's permanent nonvoting secretary.
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Evaluating the fight for women's rights
By: Tina Musuya, Amnesty International, March 9, 2010
I'm attending my first CSW and it's also my first time at the UN in New York. I arrived a few days after the start of the conference which was a relief since I heard that the first few days were really hectic with some people queuing for over seven hours just to get registered to be able to get into the UN.
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Alliance for Youth Movements summit highlights strategies to reduce violence
BY: CBS News, March 9, 2010
The Alliance of Youth Movements (AYM) , a non-profit that focuses on effecting nonviolent change through 21st century tools, is holding an event in London from March 9-11 to explore the use of technology by youth movements to diminish violence.
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Google may offer services in Cuba, Iran, Sudan
By: Doug Caverly, Webpro News, March 9, 2010
It looks like Google may be ready to wade into another controversial censorship vs. availability of services situation.  A high-ranking corporate representative has welcomed the U.S. Treasury's decision to allow the exportation of online communications tools to Cuba, Iran, and Sudan.
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Radio Erena: Une source indépendante d'information pour l'Erythrée
By: RSF, March 10, 2010
Basée à Paris et animée par des journalistes érythréens en exil, Radio Erena fonctionne depuis maintenant neuf mois. Émettant par satellite pour les Erythréens de l'intérieur et sur Internet pour la diaspora, cette station apporte une voix indépendante à un pays où la liberté de la presse n'existe pas et où tout écart par rapport à la ligne officielle est violemment puni.
Watch the video...

Les réalisateurs, la nouvelle cible des régimes autoritaires
By: Pamela Taylor, InfoSud, March 10, 2010
Un nombre croissant de réalisateurs de documentaires subissent la répression des régimes de leur propres pays. Le Festival du film et forum international sur les droits humains (FIFDH) leur dédie sa 8e édition.
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Honduras: Un journaliste assassin, "Gare à l'exploitation politique de l'affaire dans le contexte post-coup d'État"
By: RSF, March 4, 2010
Reporters sans frontières présente ses condoléances aux collègues et proches du journaliste Joseph Ochoa, de la chaîne privée Canal 51, tué de balles dans la soirée du 2 mars 2010 à Tegucigalpa, lors d'une attaque qui visait apparemment sa consœur Karol Cabrera, employée de la chaîne publique Canal 8 et de la station privée Radio Cadena Voces (RCV), grièvement blessée mais désormais saine et sauve.
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Tactics that tickle: Laughing all the way to the win
By: New Tactics, February 9, 2010
Join us for this online dialogue featuring Tactics That Tickle: Laughing All the Way to the Win from March 24 to 30, 2010. Humor is a powerful nonviolent tactic that has the ability to prevent and counter activist burnout, engage more supporters, and increase the chance of getting media attention.
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Call for papers on "Transitional Justice & Reconciliation in the Arab Region"
By: Salwa El Gantri, Peace and Collaborative Development Network, March 9, 2010
Al Kawakibi Democracy Transition Center (KADEM) is a technical non-governmental regional organization, specialized in transferring knowledge, sharing experiences and building capacities in the field of democratic transition. In the framework of its project on Transitional Justice in the Arab region, KADEM launches a call for papers on the subject of "Transitional Justice and Reconciliation in the Arab Region".
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