Tag: human rights

A poisonous dictatorship has been built in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab spring

Sihem Bensedrine I was relieved when Hervé, a young man from Ivory Coast who occasionally helps me around the house, finally called. It had been four agonising days of radio silence. Since his landlady had evicted him, he had been wandering the streets of Raoued, a suburb of Tunis, trying to avoid the marauding gangs.… Read More A poisonous dictatorship has been built in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab spring

Dilip

Breaking corporate monopolies is the only way to save democracy

Nick Dearden A few months into his presidency, Joe Biden signed an executive order to promote competition in the American economy saying: “We’re now 40 years into the experiment of letting giant corporations accumulate more and more power […] I believe the experiment failed.” While those might seem unlikely words from the once centrist champion of corporate… Read More Breaking corporate monopolies is the only way to save democracy

Dilip

Russia targets its oldest human rights group, Memorial

Thomas Rowley The day started with Russian law enforcement searching the homes of nine senior members of the country’s oldest human rights organisation, Memorial. Apparently, there was reason to believe that these Nobel Prize-winning historians and rights defenders had been “rehabilitating Nazism”. Investigators had allegedly found that three names on Memorial’s list of historical “Victims… Read More Russia targets its oldest human rights group, Memorial

Dilip

Tiny Islands of Vanuatu Convince UN to seek Int’l Court Ruling on Harms of Climate Emergency

JUAN COLE Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Vanuatu, a set of South Pacific islands, is not what you would call a prominent international player. The small country of a little over 300,000 people has nevertheless made history, according to UN News. It presented a resolution to the UN General Assembly asking the UN’s International Court of… Read More Tiny Islands of Vanuatu Convince UN to seek Int’l Court Ruling on Harms of Climate Emergency

Dilip

Liberal Commitments

An interview with Michael Walzer on The Struggle for a Decent Politics Timothy Shenk From democratic socialists to right-wing populists, with plenty of anxious centrists in between, it seems like everyone agrees that liberalism is in trouble. But what about the qualities that liberals have shown at their best? In his latest book, The Struggle for a… Read More Liberal Commitments

Dilip

A million lives later, I cannot forgive what American terrorism did to my country, Iraq

NB: George Bush and Tony Blair are as culpable for war crimes as is Vladimir Putin. If we can’t see this and say it, we are at an advanced level of Orwellian doublespeak. DS Sinan Antoon In early 2003, I was living in Cairo and carrying out research for my doctoral dissertation on a famous… Read More A million lives later, I cannot forgive what American terrorism did to my country, Iraq

Dilip

Downfall of a British institution: London Metropolitan police found to be racist, sexist and homophobic

It may be an understatement to say this is a cataclysmic disaster that has befallen the Metropolitan police, the people it serves, the trust it has squandered and the bullied and overworked staff repeated leaders have let down. Lady Casey’s report details the fall of a British institution, tumbling harder than any organisation at the centre… Read More Downfall of a British institution: London Metropolitan police found to be racist, sexist and homophobic

Dilip

The invasion of Iraq was a turning point on to a path that led towards Ukraine

Peter Beaumont n 20 March 2003, as bombs and missiles from the US-led coalition rained on Iraqi cities in the opening “shock and awe” campaign against Saddam Hussein, the tectonic plates of the post-Second World War international order shifted permanently. For those of us who covered the run-up to the war, the invasion and the long… Read More The invasion of Iraq was a turning point on to a path that led towards Ukraine

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