Reversing Autocrats’ Attacks on Rights: Daily Brief
HRW launches its 2019 World Report, with a positive message saying there are signs that autocratic rule is facing a powerful counterattack; uncertainty continues in Zimbabwe following violence which has left many people dead; the world's biggest jailer of journalists, Turkey, has just deported a foreign reporter; and what next for Kenya, as it takes stock following a shocking attack on a hotel?
There is a growing global trend to confront the abuses of headline-grabbing autocrats, Human Rights Watch said today in launching its World Report 2019. Executive Director Kenneth Roth says that the big news of the past year is not the continuation of authoritarian trends, but the growing opposition to them.
There is positive news from Ethiopia, which stood out in the region as an example of positive change, with Abiy Ahmed, appointed prime minister in April, carrying out many significant reforms.
But no let up in China, where President Xi Jinping has doubled down on repression.
Despite inadequate efforts to curb intolerance in Indonesia, the country has taken promising steps to end shackling of people with mental health conditions.
It's been more of the same in Russia, sadly, with the Russian government relentlessly reducing space for peaceful dissent, political opposition, and civic activism.
And in Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi armed groups fighting each other have turned the country's humanitarian crisis into a full-blown catastrophe.
But despite some grim news, there is growing evidence that autocratic rule is facing a powerful counterattack. This can be seen in efforts to resist attacks on democracy in Europe, prevent a bloodbath in Syria, bring to justice perpetrators of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, and demand a full investigation into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In other news around the world today, uncertainty continues in Zimbabwe following a three-day fuel price strike which turned violent. Doctors in the country say they have treated nearly 70 people for gunshot wounds, while state media says police have arrested 600 people. Security forces have been using excessive and lethal force, says HRW.
A freelance Dutch reporter has been deported from Turkey, accused of having links with a 'designated terrorist organization'. Turkey is currently the world's biggest jailer of journalists.
And as Kenya takes stock after an attack on a hotel in Nairobi left many people dead, it's worth nothing that Kenya’s efforts to tackle rising insecurity have been marred by serious human rights violations. These extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and torture by security forces.