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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Download the application form...

ICNC Academic Webinar Series - "When Repression Backfires"
On Thursday, February 18th at 1:30pm - 2:30pmET, Dr. Lester Kurtz, Professor of Sociology at George Mason University, will explore the paradox of repression - efforts by elites to repress a movement that often end up strengthening a civil resistance movement.
Register

Guatemala: Anti-mine activists encouraged by Canadian ruling
By: Danilo Valladares, Truthout, February 16, 2010
Ecologists in Guatemala see a recent ruling by Canada's Supreme Court, which ordered Canadian mining companies to carry out rigorous environmental assessments, as a positive precedent that could help improve environmental controls over the mining industry in this Central American country.
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Honduras: 27 year old union leader, mother and nurse assassinated
By: Axis of Logic, February 16, 2010
The right to organize is a basic human right of every worker. But the murder of the  leader of the SITRAIHSS labor union, Vanessa Zepeda, who was abducted when she was leaving a union meeting, leaves no doubt in our minds that this is an official policy and official cover-up by the fraudulently elected Lobo government.
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Interview: Tortured, exiled Honduran journalist recalls his experiences
By: Tamar Sharabi, Axis of Logic, February 16, 2010
Cesar Silva: "The night of June 27, I was at the Presidential Palace until midnight and in the early morning I left towards Olancho. When I passed the town of Guaimaca (a town 90 km from Tegucigalpa) the President was being captured. There, police and the army captured me as well."
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Anti-coup activists in Honduras still facing human rights abuses
By: Democracy Now, February 16, 2010
Reports are emerging from Honduras that critics of last summer's coup are still facing grave human rights abuses even after the election of President Porfirio Lobo last month. According to the website World War Four Report, Julio Funes Benítez, a local leader of the anti-coup National Resistance Front, was shot dead on Monday.
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Belarusian police detain dozens at Valentine's Day rally
By: RFE/RL, February 15, 2010
Belarusian police dispersed a St. Valentine's Day gathering in Minsk and detained some 30 young political activists, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports. The activists, mainly members of the Youth Front movement, were released by police after about two hours on February 14 and were not charged.
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Wikileaks and Iceland MPs propose 'journalism haven'
By: Chris Vallance, BBC News, February 12, 2010
Iceland could become a "journalism haven" if a proposal put forward by some Icelandic MPs aided by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks succeeds. The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI), calls on the country's government to adopt laws protecting journalists and their sources. It will be filed with the Althingi - Iceland's parliament - on 16 February.
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Ukraine's election was victory for colored revolutions
By: Dennis Sammut, RFE, February 11, 2010
Ironically, the narrow victory of Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine's presidential election marks the high point in the story of the so-called colored revolutions that between 2003 and 2005 challenged the post-Soviet order from Kyiv to Bishkek.
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Moscow protests: Groundhog Day in Triumfalnaya Square
By: Tanya Lokshina, Open Democracy, February 11, 2010
Tanya Lokshina, Russia researcher for Human Rights Watch, attended a recent demonstration in her professional capacity and was detained by the police three times in thirty minutes. She gives a graphic description of the evening's events.
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Ukraine's revolution lives on
By: Natalia Shapovalova, The Guardian, February 9, 2010
What has happened to Ukraine? Does it mean the Orange Revolution has failed? Not at all. In reality, it has won, as the country enjoys free and fair elections resulting in huge electoral turnarounds, such as the one we have seen this week.
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Iran: Expulsion and suspension of 30 students from Qazvin University
By: Iran Human Rights Voice, February 16, 2010
On Thursday, February 11, an authority in International Imam Khomeini University in the city of Qazvin announced that thirty students had been expelled or suspended from this university. The authority said: "[I] believe the university is a place for thinking and research, and it must remain a free-thinking place...But a number of people chose to be radical...[and] got themselves into trouble."
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Palestine: Reclaiming land, one tree at a time
By: Palestinian Solidarity Project, February 15, 2010
PSP had organized a series of tree-plantings along with Israeli anti-occupation activists last month. The Israeli military attempted to prevent the tree-plantings and went so far as to announce they would uproot hundreds of the trees planted in the area (this is currently being challenged in the Israeli courts).
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Palestine: Popular protest gaining ground in the West Bank
By: Gidon Belmaker, Epoch Times, February 15, 2010
For five years now, the villagers of Bil'in, together with Israeli and international activists, have been conducting weekly protests against the security fence built by Israel near their village. Marked by a creative approach and high profile in the media, this kind of protest-defined as "nonviolent"-is now spreading to other regions in the West Bank. It has even been adopted by the Palestinian Authority as a strategy for struggle.
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Iranian regime rejects family's charge that protester was tortured
By: New York Times, Nazila Fathi, February 15, 2010
The prosecutor general in Tehran on Monday dismissed accusations by the wife of an opposition leader who said her son was arrested and tortured while in detention, the semiofficial ILNA news agency reported.
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Video:  What's happening to the green movement in Iran?
By: Flynt Leverett and Barbara Slavin, Bloggingheads, February 15, 2010
Video debate covering issues such as: "Did Feb. 11th show that the Green Movement is in decline?" and "Is Obama or Iran to blame for the current impasse?"
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Iran: The financial power of the Revolutionary Guards
By: Julian Borger and Robert Tait, The Guardian, February 15, 2010
The extent of the Revolutionary Guards' control over the Iranian economy is apparent as soon as you enter the country. They run the main international airport, and the manner in which they acquired it was a bruising demonstration of the way big business is now done in Iran.
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Iran's opposition 'has no real leader'
By: BBC, February 15, 2010
Haleh Esfandiari, Iranian dissident and academic, has had first-hand experience of just how brutal Iran's regime can be. At 67 years of age she was held for four months at Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, accused of trying to topple the Islamic establishment.
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Western powers challenge Iran over 'bloody repression'
By: Iran Focus, February 15, 2010
Western powers accused Tehran of waging "bloody repression" since elections last year as they challenged Iran to open up to international scrutiny during a UN human rights meeting Monday. In a public review of Iran's record at the UN Human Rights Council, Britain, France, the United States and other Western nations expressed deep concern about reports of killings, arrests and torture in a clampdown on dissent.
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Iran defies West on human rights at U.N. forum
By: Reuters, February 15, 2010
Iran, already in confrontation with big powers over its nuclear program, defied the West over human rights, declaring that it was an open democracy where free speech and justice were guaranteed. Rejecting charges from the United States, France, Britain and other countries that torture and murder of dissenters were rife in Iran, a senior Tehran official told a United Nations body they were playing politics to undermine his country.
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An Iranian civil rights movement?
By: Ian Morrison, Tehran Bureau, February 15, 2010
For most observers of the Green Movement, the most salient question is how the current political movement in Iran mirrors the Islamic Revolution. But another parallel comes as a close second: Is the Green Movement pushing forward a civil rights agenda, comparable to the American Civil Rights Movement of the late 1950s and 1960s?
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Iran protests: What went wrong?
By: Open Democracy, February 15, 2010
To support the Green Movement - in the delicate capacity I have to do so from outside Iran - means to be honest about its strengths and weaknesses. To date, the Green Movement has impressed me with its many strengths. But the Green Movement has shortcomings. Its tactics are nebulous - and in the case of 22 Bahman, ill-conceived.
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Iran's bus drivers union calls for green-labor unity
By: Hamid Farokhnia, PBS, February 15, 2010
In a potentially significant development, a leading constituent of Iran's labor movement has now unequivocally aligned itself with the Green Movement. On February 12, Tehran's Bus Drivers Union circulated posters throughout Tehran declaring itself fully on the side of the democratic movement and called on the Greens to support the beleaguered union through acts of civil disobedience.
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Iran: Videos show crowd sizes at 22 Bahman rally
By: LA Times, February 14, 2010
Newly uploaded videos of the Islamic Republic's 31st anniversary celebrations and protests Thursday gives a better idea of what happened. The video above shows a fairly large crowd of demonstrators trying to gather on a major Tehran thoroughfare before they are frightened off by approaching security forces.
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Iran: Wife of Karroubi addresses Ayatollah Khamenei about the torture of her son
By: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, February 14, 2010
The wife of opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi has published an open letter to Iran's Supreme Leader detailing her son Ali Karroubi's torture following his detention on 11 February, as the authorities stifled opposition demonstrations, and appealed for an end to such abuses.
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Opposition in Iran meets a crossroads on strategy
By: Robert F. Worth, NY Times, February 14, 2010
Many of Iran's opposition supporters expected last Thursday to be a moment of climactic triumph, with calls for a vast street protest on the 31st anniversary of the country's Islamic Revolution. Instead, the day set off a flood of self-criticism by the opposition. Now, dejected opposition supporters are re-examining their tactics and struggling to find a new catalyst for the movement.
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Dissident set for return to Egypt despite arrest threat
By: Nouruddin Abuzant, Gulf Times, February 14, 2010
Exiled Egyptian sociologist and political dissident Saadeddin Ibrahim plans to return to Egypt in June despite a risk of being arrested on his arrival. Ibrahim said he believes there is a "real" risk he will be arrested again, as there are six pending cases against him filed by Egypt's National Democratic Party.
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Iran, Facebook, and the limits of online activism
By: Cameron Abadi, Foreign Policy, February 12, 2010
Iranian activists have long reaped the benefits of Internet communication, but especially in the months since the June 12 election, they have also fallen prey to its pitfalls. Reassured by their own online echo chambers, activists and participants allowed their optimism to grow like a market bubble -- a bubble that, many say, was popped on Thursday.
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Iran: A government show of force and an opposition display of courage
By: Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL, February 12, 2010
The Iranian government went on the offensive on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, using the opportunity to flout international efforts to rein its nuclear ambitions and stymie internal dissent with a massive show of force. Members of the Green Movement, prevented from exhibiting their opposition to President Mahmud Ahmadinejad en masse, displayed their courage by protesting in vulnerable pockets of resistance.
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Iranian regime's 'legitimate', 'restrained' response to Green protesters?
By: Michael Allen, Democracy Digest, February 12, 2010
Recent experience suggests that sustainable democratization is more of a process than an event and the disappointing trajectory of some color revolutions has further fed skepticism of such dramatic ruptures. But isn't there something distasteful in Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett's gloating at the Green Movement's setback following yesterday's demonstrations on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution?
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Israel: Work begins to reroute barrier
By: Isabel Kershner, NY Times, February 12, 2010
More than two years after a Supreme Court ruling, Israel has started work to reroute its security barrier near Bilin, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, Israeli officials and activists in the village said Friday. The village became a symbol of the Palestinian struggle against the barrier because of its legal battle and because of the weekly protests held by activists near the fence line.
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Palestinians against Israel's separation barrier
By: The Telegraph, February 12, 2010
Protesters dressed as Na'vi characters from the movie Avatar march in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah to draw attention to their campaign against the controversial Israeli barrier. Israel says the barrier is needed for security, but Palestinians consider it a land grab.
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Peaceful Palestinian resistance is paying off
By: Ben White, Christian Science Monitor, February 11, 2010
For many, the idea of Palestinian resistance is synonymous with terrorism, conjuring up images of suicide bombings and rockets. This is a distortion shaped by the media and our politicians. Beyond the headlines, Palestinian resistance has always included nonviolent tactics.
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Iranian revolution anniversary through the eyes of protesters
By: Shehani Fernando and Chavala Madlena, The Guardian, February 11, 2010
With an internet blackout in Iran, footage of protests has been trickling through websites including YouTube. Here are some of the highlights, with commentary by Mehdi Saharkhiz, who has been helping to get video on to the web.
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Putting political change in Iran first
By: Richard N. Haass, Council on Foreign Relations, February 11, 2010
Iran's future is unlikely to be determined on the streets of Tehran this month, the thirty-first anniversary of the revolution that ousted the Shah and brought Islamic rule to Iran. Still, a decision to reorient U.S. policy toward promoting political change in Tehran is warranted.
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Iran boasts of capacity to make bomb fuel
By: Michael Slackman, NY Times, February 11, 2010
Iran's president boasted Thursday that his nation had the capacity to make weapons-grade nuclear fuel if it chose to, in a speech intended to rally the nation as it marked the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
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The sanctions on Iran are working
By: Mark Dubowitz, Foreign Policy, February 10, 2010
After months of fruitless efforts to engage the regime in Tehran, and a raging Washington debate about "targeted" versus "broad-based" sanctions, Barack Obama's administration has finally moved to punish Iran for failing to come clean about its suspicious nuclear program. The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it has designated the four subsidiaries of a major engineering and construction firm, as well as the firm's commander.
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Iran arrests revolution day 'plotters'
By: BBC News, February 10, 2010
Iranian police say they have arrested a number of opposition supporters planning demonstrations during the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Police chief Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam did not give any details of the arrests, the Fars news agency said.
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Second open letter to Iran
By: Elie Weisel Foundation, February 7, 2010
As published in The New York Times on February 7, 2010 and The International Herald Tribune on February 9th, 2010: Dear President Obama, President Sarkozy, President Medvedev, Prime Minister Brown and Chancellor Merkel, how long can we stand idly by and watch the scandal in Iran unfold?
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Uzbek photographer found guilty of 'slandering nation'
By: BBC News, February 10, 2010
A prominent photographer and film-maker in Uzbekistan has been found guilty of slandering the nation through her work. Umida Akhmedova had been facing up to three years in prison for a series of photos and a film portraying people in Uzbekistan as backward and poor.
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Nepal: UN human rights office condemns threats to journalists after killing
By: UN News Centre, February 15, 2010
United Nations human rights officials in Nepal voiced alarm today over the threats made against journalists reporting on the recent murder of the media entrepreneur Jamim Shah, stressing that freedom of expression must be upheld in the Asian nation.
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Nepal: Torture vs democracy
By: Meenakshi Ganguly, Open Democracy, February 15, 2010
The transition from war to peace and a political settlement in Nepal has been difficult. Even the election in April 2008 of a new constituent-assembly charged with drafting a new constitution - which was won by the Maoists' political party and led to the establishment of a coalition government - has not been able to resolve the country's deep-rooted difference.
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Pakistani lawyers boycott courts over judges row
By: Kamran Haider, Washington Post, February 15, 2010
Many Pakistani lawyers boycotted courts on Monday in a protest against President Asif Ali Zardari, who is embroiled in a potentially destabilizing dispute with the judiciary over the appointment of judges.
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India: Tibetans shun New Year celebrations for second year
By: Ashwini Bhatia, AP, February 14, 2010
Tibetans have decided against celebrating the Lunar New Year for a second year in remembrance of the suffering of people inside Tibet, the Dalai Lama said Sunday. The Tibetan spiritual leader asked his followers not to lose hope, saying people in Tibet have shown great courage and sincerity in facing China's crackdown after uprisings in March 2008.
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Myanmar must end minority repression before polls: Amnesty
By: Democratic Voice of Burma, February 16, 2010
A leading rights group Tuesday called on Burma's military government to end repression of ethnic minority groups ahead of polls this year, as a UN envoy visits the country for talks on human rights. Amnesty International accused the regime of arresting, jailing, torturing and killing minority activists in a bid to crush dissent, in a report released in Bangkok Tuesday.
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Myanmar's human rights reality
By: Kate Allen, The Guardian, February 16, 2010
This morning Amnesty International has released a new report, The Repression of ethnic minority activists in Myanmar. It paints a bleak picture of human rights in Burma - and is essential reading for the prospective tourist to the south-east Asian state.
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Myanmar: 'Prayer' activists sentenced
By: Naw Noreen, Democratic Voice of Burma, February 16, 2010
Four detained organizers and participants of weekly prayer ceremonies that called for the release of Burmese political prisoners were each sentenced to two years' imprisonment with hard labour by a court in Rangoon yesterday. "The punishment is unacceptable legally, and I am making preparations to appeal," their lawyer Kyaw Ho said.
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Myanmar frees NLD leader Tin Oo
By: BBC News, February 13, 2010
Burma has freed the vice-chairman of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). in Oo, 82, has been in prison or under house arrest for more than a decade. The release comes as Burma's ruling military junta prepares to hold national elections in 2010, though no date has yet been set.
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Indonesia bans book on West Papua
By: Survival International,  February 12, 2010
The Indonesian government has banned a book on the repression of human rights in Papua. The book, by respected Papuan churchman Rev. Socratez Sofyan Yoman, is one of five books to have been banned in a move that appears to hark back to the authoritarian Suharto era.
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China: What will shutting down Beijing's liaison offices do for petitioners?
By: John Kennedy, Global Voices, February 16, 2010
It's last month's news, but the story first reported by Outlook Weekly that most of China's version of K Street, several thousand 'Beijing liaison offices' scattered throughout the city, will be shut down before July, has potentially wider impact than just helping to curb rampant corruption.
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Japanese human rights activists pressure North Korea
By: Akiko Fujita, VOA, February 15, 2010
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il will celebrate his birthday tomorrow. Human rights advocates in Japan are using that anniversary to step up pressure on the isolated country. They are calling on North Korean citizens to overthrow their government and asking Japan to help fund the effort.
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Activist 'boards' Japan whaler
By: Al Jazeera, February 15, 2010
Anti-whaling activists claim one of their group has boarded a Japanese whaling ship in the waters of Antarctica to attempt a citizen's arrest of crewmembers. According to the Sea Shepherd group, New Zealander Pete Bethune, who previously captained a vessel that was sunk in clashes with Japanese whalers last month, boarded the ship under cover of darkness on Tuesday night.
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Without human rights China's boom will turn to bust
By: The Observer, February 14, 2010
As a new Chinese year dawns, Beijing is feeling empowered on many fronts. Its seat is assured at the top table of every global summit, whether on financial matters, security or climate change. That changing relationship has been accompanied by more Chinese assertiveness, both in foreign policy and domestic affairs. But it would be a mistake to see in that trend only Chinese strength.
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Chinese activist finally arrives home from Tokyo airport
By: Elaine Kurtenbach, AP, February 12, 2010
A Chinese activist who spent more than three months camped inside Tokyo's international airport as part of a protest flew home to China on Friday and was allowed into the country. His entrance into China comes after eight previous attempts since June where Chinese authorities refused to allow him in.
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Activists demand release of Chinese detainees
By: Washington Post, February 11, 2010
An international human rights group is asking IOC president Jacques Rogge to intercede with Chinese authorities to release so-called Olympic prisoners. Reporters Without Borders said Thursday it has sent Rogge a petition - signed by about 1,600 people - demanding the release of activists, bloggers and journalists detained during the 2008 Beijing Games.
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Fiji leader, NGOs have say on UN rights recommendations
By: Radio Australia, February 16, 2010
Fiji's draft response to the UN's 103 recommendations on managing human rights has drawn comment from its leader and a leading NGO. The recommendations were made last week, when the island nation came under severe criticism for banning freedom of speech and refusing to allow a return to democratic rule.
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Viktor Kaisiepo, Papuan activist, dies, aged 61
By: Survival International, February 15, 2010
Viktor Kaisiepo, the dedicated and charismatic Papuan activist, has died aged 61 in the Netherlands. Viktor was an indefatigable campaigner for the rights of the peoples of West Papua, and for other indigenous peoples. All who met him will remember Viktor Kaisiepo.
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Cyber attacks against Australia 'will continue'
By: Zoe Kleinman, BBC News, February 12, 2010
An activist group that temporarily blocked access to key Australian government websites plans to continue its cyber attacks, the BBC has learned. The group, known as Anonymous, was protesting against the Australian government's proposals to apply filters to the internet in the country.
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Dispersing the CIA myth
By: Yevgeny Bazhanov, The Moscow Times, February 16, 2010
Governments have often blamed foreign elements for instigating revolutions.But the truth is that all of these political upheavals were the result of internal forces.The Feb. 7 Ukrainian presidential election proved that the hyped-up claims of Western subversion in its color revolution was patently false.
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Attacks on the press, 2009
By: Committee to Protect Journalists, February 16, 2010
Follow the link below for a Worldwide Survey by the Committee to Protect Journalists detailing attacks, killings, and imprisonment of journalists around the world.
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Nonviolent Action News
By: Singapore Democrats, February 14, 2010
This section features a daily digest of news relating to nonviolent conflict from around the world and other interesting articles and book reviews relating to nonviolent action. The compilation is a reprint of the list distributed by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
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Using theater to overcome oppression
By: Rebecca Sargent, Peace and Collaborative Development Network, February 13, 2010
Many of the peace strategies used in current conflict zones focus on reducing the direct violence or the structural violence within the government systems while neglecting to truly address the cultural violence that lingers within the society. Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed is an approach to social change that allows for protected dialogue into an issue behind a veil of theatrics.
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Activist robots?
By: Eric Stoner, Waging Nonviolence, February 11, 2010
Over the last couple years, I've followed with intense interest the growing use of robots in war and tried to document some of the dangers (and ethical problems) of going down this path.  On this site we've also looked at the growing resistance to this trend in war. One thing I have never thought about, however, is the potential for activists to use robots to further their work.
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Global campaign against impunity
By: Committee to Protect Journalists, February, 2010
Murder is the ultimate form of censorship. One reporter is killed, and hundreds are sent a message that certain topics are too dangerous to be discussed. Now, with support from the Knight Foundation, CPJ is launching a global campaign to combat impunity.
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Peru: One man's battle for human rights in the early 20th century
By: Greg Grandin, NY Times, February 12, 2010
This book adds to Roger Casement's reputation as a pioneer of the human rights movement's tactics, including the on-the-spot investigation, the gathering of victims' testimony and the leveraging of public outrage to spur reform. Casement was one of the first to use the phrase "crime against humanity," and he judged Julio César Arana to be guilty of "not merely slavery but extermination" - what later would be called genocide.
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Scholarships for post graduate certificate in conflict resolution skills
By: Dr. Marwan Darweish, Peace and Collaborative Development Network, February 15, 2010
Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies, Coventry University, UK. July 2010. This course enables you to develop a range of practical and analytical skills that will increase your ability to intervene constructively in a range of different types of conflict situations at the inter-personal, inter-communal and international levels.
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Video report: Imprisoned in Iran
By: Committee to Protect Journalists, December 29, 2009
In this video report, Greek freelance journalist Iason Athanasiadis recounts his 2009 imprisonment in Iran. Athanasiadis, who spent 20 days in custody, most of it in Tehran's Evin Prison, describes his arrest during the government's post-election crackdown and explains how international advocacy made a difference in gaining his freedom.
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