The Assault on Human Rights in Belarus

As the trials of opposition politicians in Belarus approach, Amnesty International examines human rights violations committed by the Belarusian authorities in the aftermath of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s fourth re-election last December. Hundreds of people were detained and many were beaten by riot police during the dispersal of a demonstration on election night on 19 December.

The massive, exhilarating protests in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen mark a sea change for the better in the Arab world. But the implications of the uprisings for women in these countries have not yet been fully analyzed. All of the countries currently experiencing upheaval have made significant progress for women — progress that could be swept away very easily, as it was in Iran in 1979, never to be regained. Tunisia promulgated one of the most-enlightened personal-status codes for women in the Arab world in 1956, under Habib Bourguiba. Polygyny, the taking of multiple wives, was outlawed; men could no […]

It’s time to think the unthinkable: Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf states may be next in line to confront widespread popular discontent. As a wave of mass protests sweeps the Arab world, shaking the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to the core, rumblings of popular restlessness are bubbling to the surface in the Gulf. Shiite opposition groups in Bahrain, a strategic island kingdom that hosts the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, have called for protests on Feb. 14 to demand greater political freedom, an end to human rights abuses, improved economic opportunities. To quell rising anger, Arab leaders […]

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