Human Rights

( RFE/RL ) – Iranian authorities have intensified their deadly crackdown in the country’s western Kurdistan region, which has been the epicenter of the anti-establishment protests that have raged for months. Human rights groups say government forces have killed more than a dozen people in predominately Kurdish cities in the past 24 hours. The bloodshed […]

Displaced and Refugees

Anti-War Russians find a new Home in Turkey

Global Voices

By Arzu Geybullayeva | – ( Globalvoices.org) – In a lively neighborhood of Istanbul’s Kadikoy district, Grao Cafeteria is nestled in between local shops and restaurants. Grao’s owner is 32-year-old Igor, native of St. Petersburg. He arrived in Istanbul in March 2022 after a year of traveling abroad, visiting India, Nepal and Thailand. After a […]

Featured

Biden Administration Tells U.S. Court Saudi’s Bin Salman can’t be sued for Role in Murder because he is Head of State

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Stephanie Kirchgaessner at the Guardian reports that the Biden administration has made a filing with the U.S. court that was considering a civil suit against Mohammed Bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, by the widow of slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, seeking damages for his involvement in […]

censorship

Musk’s Twitter won’t Label as False the Whopper that Iran has Sentenced 15,000 Protesters to Die (It is so far 2)

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Maria Ramirez Uribe at Politifact explains that a wildly inaccurate Instagram post alleging that Iran’s parliament had sentenced 15,000 arrested demonstrators to death went viral. The allegation of 15,000 on death row was shared by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other prominent figures and then went viral on Twitter. […]

Climate Crisis

COP27: how young Climate Activists are changing International Human Rights Law

The Conversation

By Aoife Daly, University College Cork | – World leaders and climate scientists aren’t the only ones who have gathered in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for the latest UN climate summit, COP27. Children and young people are also a big part of the conference. For the first time, COP will have a Youth Envoy, Omnia […]

Arab Spring

Egypt has 60,000 prisoners like jailed dying Arab Spring Dissident Alaa Abdelfattah

Middle East Monitor

By Osama Gaweesh | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – Egyptian activist and blogger Alaa Abdelfattah wrote a book with the title You have not been defeated yet. He is being held in prison by the Egyptian regime for sharing a post on Facebook documenting the death of another political detainee in Egypt. As […]

Authoritarianism

Iran: Thousands of Detained Protesters and Activists in Peril (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities have escalated their assault against widespread dissent and protests through dubious national security charges against detained activists and grossly unfair trials, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 31, 2022, the head of Tehran Province’s judiciary said that it had issued around 1,000 indictments against those arrested […]

Displaced and Refugees

The Rise of Israeli Fascism as the Swing Vote in Parliament, and the Project of Ethnic Cleansing

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Despite Israeli propaganda about being a democracy that shares values with the liberal West, the country has for some time gone down a much darker path. Exit polling done by the major Israeli television channels in Tuesday’s election suggests that Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party, in a joint slate with […]

Houthi

UN Rights Body Fails Yemeni People, Again: Zero Accountability for War Crimes

Human Rights Watch

By Joey Shea Acting Researcher, Yemen and Bahrain | – ( Human Rights Watch ) – On October 7, the Human Rights Council adopted, without a vote, a toothless resolution on Yemen that fails to establish a credible independent and impartial monitoring and accountability mechanism. This means that grave human rights violations, including apparent war […]