Olympic-sized Complicity: Daily Brief

Global outrage continues around the disappearance of three-time Olympian Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, and a new video call with the president of the International Olympic Committee has convinced no one that she is free, safe and able to pursue her allegations against a Chinese former senior official. The Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) in particular is unconvinced, as are we. On November 2, Peng said on social media that she had been sexually assaulted, forced into a sexual relationship with Zhang Gaoli, 75, who was China’s vice premier from 2013 to 2018. Peng has not been seen in public since, and her social media posts were deleted. So, along with the rest of the world, we’ll keep asking: #WhereIsPengShuai?

A number of governments around the world have taken the word “terrorism” and tagged their critics with it, as well as those they deem their enemies, including human rights defenders doing little more than highlighting government abuses. Recently, for example, Israel drew widespread criticism for applying the abusive designation to six Palestinian NGOs. The UAE authorities are also playing a similar game, if with fewer global headlines, designating four prominent exiled Emirati dissidents as “terrorism” supporters. The move is "part of a continuing attempt to outlaw activism and free expression" under the guise of counterterrorism.

And when it comes to harassment and persecution of human rights defenders, let’s not forget the Egyptian authorities. Case in point: the prominent human rights defender and journalist, Hossam Bahgat, who is facing abusive charges intended to punish him solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression and his human rights activism. “These endless legal proceedings look like a clear reprisal against Bahgat’s storied legacy of defending human rights.”

There’s big news in Sudan... or maybe not? An agreement with the military that sees Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok back in power may seem like a positive development on the face of it, particularly following the violent crackdown by the military after they detained him four weeks ago. However, many protesters who have been fighting for democracy – or, at the very least, for getting the abusive military out of politics – for months if not years are still deeply concerned that a deal with the military is the last thing Sudan needs. They’ve called it a “betrayal”. Was it a deal with the devil? Or is the devil in the detail of the deal?

When the pandemic hit, money started rolling into Cameroon, including from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support the country’s Covid response. But Human Rights Watch spoke with medical staff across Cameroon who said they were getting little or nothing. Now, the details of what’s happened are becoming clearer and clearer: it’s a “textbook case of Covid corruption”.