VOICE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BY: Anna Malinovskaya Three pieces of legislation infringing on human rights marked the first few months of Putin’s presidency and attracted fierce criticism from leading human rights activists. On June 9, 2012, changes to the federal law on assembly, rally, demonstration, and picketing came into force. They were initiated by the “United Russia” party and […]

WRITTEN BY: Anna Malinovskaya Earlier this year, leading international Human Rights organizations reported the purportedly illegal detention and mistreatment of a group of Somali asylum seekers in Ukraine. On January 19, 2012, Amnesty International (AI) announced that about 60 Somali nationals, including 20 children, went on a hunger strike to protest against their “pointless” detention, […]

  The aims of the project: After corresponding with the Initiative Middle and Eastern Europe  for the Speak Up for Human Rights! New Media! campaign, independent film makers Johannes Franke and Sebastion Hasse decided to form a documentary team to follow the project. The documentary follows a human rights seminar uniting 30 young adults from […]

By: Anna Malinovskaya   Turkmenistan, a post-Soviet state in Central Asia, has appeared in the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International news recently. Information on human rights in Turkmenistan is scarce, because the country is known to impose severe limits on international human rights monitoring. According to Amnesty International, the authorities have denied international non-governmental […]

By: Anna Malinovskaya A recent news report by Human Rights Watch calls attention to the critical political situation in Hungary and the resulting tensions between the state’s ruling party and a few European political bodies. According to HRW, Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party is “using its super-majority in the parliament, spent its two years in office […]

By: Anna Malinovskaya A recent series of articles on corruption in Russia’s education system has attracted my attention. Most of the articles try to estimate the bribes annual turnover or quote officials from the Ministry of Education on the measures they take to combat corruption. For example, according to the Russian online newspaper Nezavisimaya (“Independent”), […]

  By: Anna Malinovskaya Russian newspaper Sobesednik has called Russia’s recent parliament elections “the dirtiest in Russia’s history.” German media company Deutsche Welle released an article titled “Independent observers: these are the dirtiest elections over the last decade.” Independent observers from Deutsche Welle, registered many violations during the elections of December 4th. One of such […]

2011 has been an incredible year. From the Arab Spring and Wallstreet protests to the Eurpean debt crisis and the death of Osama Bin Laden, 2011 has definitely been a year to remember. As we look back on the year and reflect, let us look back on the photos that captured those life changing moments […]

RUSSIA.— Gadzhimurat Kamalov, one of Russia’s leading investigative journalists has been shot dead in Russia’s North Caucasus region. Kamalov was the  founder of Chernovik, a newspaper well known for its investigation into government corruption. Authorities say Kamalov was shot eight times by an unidentified gunman as he was leaving his office at Chernovik in the capital […]

MOSCOW.— Chechen poet, academic and anti-separatist Ruslan Akhtakhanov has been shot dead outside his Moscow apartment. Russian authorities are considering the murder a contract killing. Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said, “The way in which the murder was carried out suggests it had been ordered.” Akhtakhanov was well-known for his anti-separatist views, believing that Chechnya […]

Retired police Lt. Col. Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov was arrested on Tuesday for organizing the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Pavlyuchenkov is claimed to have formed the group tasked with killing Politkovskaya. Authorities have accused the colonel of receiving payment for plotting the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and forming the group to […]

BELARUS.— Several international organizations have condemned the arbitrary arrest of the prominent Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski. Ales Bialiatski, President of Human Rights Centre Viasna and Vice-President of the International Federation for Human Rights, was detained on 4 August in central Minsk. Ales Bialiatski was allegedly detained by men in plain clothes claiming to […]

LIBYA— On May 13th, five-year old Malaak Al-Shami was severely injured when a Grand rocket hit her bedroom wall in Misrata, Libya. The missile, launched by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, crashed into the bedroom while she was having an afternoon nap with her younger brother and sister. Malaak’s right leg was nearly severed, her […]

IRAN.— On Sunday, July 10, 2011, four Iranian law enforcement officers entered Pegah Ahangarani’s house, taking her and some of her personal belongings into custody. The Iranian actress and blogger was arrested as she prepared to leave for Germany to write a blog for the Deutsche Welle radio station about the women’s football World Cup. Pegah Ahangarani […]

HUNGARY.— On Monday, a Hungarian court acquitted Sandor Kepiro, one of the world’s most wanted Nazi criminals, claiming there was insufficient evidence to convict him of the murder of over 30 people of Novi Sad, in 1942. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Court of Budapest said Kepiro was acquitted due to lack of evidence. The […]

PALESTINE- ISRAEL.— On April 14th, Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni was abducted in Gaza, the following day he was found dead. Arrigoni was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) an organization resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using non-violent methods. “Staying Human” follows Arrigoni in his resistance campaign as he recounts his experiences […]

PALESTINE- ISRAEL.—A group of US citizens is defiantly rejecting the Obama Administration’s attempt to impede their aid mission to the Gaza strip. Up to 50 Americans are set to sail from a Greek port on a U.S. flagged- ship called “The Audacity of Hope”. The boat is part of an international flotilla carrying aid for […]

SOMALIA.– A Somali court has jailed six foreigners, an American, three Britons and two Kenyans,  for illegally bringing $3.6 million dollars into the country reportedly to pay ransoms to pirates. Two men received 15-year sentences and fines of $15,000, the others faced sentences of 10 years in jail and fines of $10,000 each. This marks […]

AFRICA.— Farmers in Africa are being driven off their traditional lands to make way for new industrial farming projects backed by European hedge funds seeking profits, and foreign countries looking for cheap food. The “land grab” is leading to the potential displacement of hundreds of thousands of farmers The Oakland Institute, says investors have bought […]