The Blog — Human Rights

Early this morning news broke that Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo had won the Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." Xiaobo was initially arrested in 1989 after staging a hunger strike at the Tiananmen Square protests and was most recently put in jail for circulating an internet petition, known as Charter 08, which calls for democratic political reform in China. Because Xiaobo has no access to a telephone in his prison cell, it is likely that he has not yet heard the news.

"What does it say about a country if its greatest writer and thinker is in prison?” asked Nick Kristof on Facebook when the news broke. Another question might be, how does the hoisting into the spotlight of one of China's most well-known (and most punished) dissidents bode for the nation's political reform movement? So far, it seems as if the event is causing the government to crack down further on freedom of speech. 

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In Egypt, the strategic use of social media platforms has brought new life to campaigns bringing attention to social and political issues. How are platforms like Facebook and blogs amplifying activists' voices and mobilizing Egyptians to the streets? We've put together an update on protest campaigns in the country.

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Iranian/Canadian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, imprisoned since 2008, has been sentenced to 19 1/2 years in prison. This is the harshest punishment that an Iranian blogger has ever received.

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Kareem Amer, an Egyptian blogger who was imprisoned on November 6, 2006, would have completed his 4 year prison term in November of this year. The Free Kareem campaign, which has been organizing rallies and letter campaigns for four years in an attempt to secure his release, have reasons to believe that Kareem may not be released on this date. They also fear that he might be tortured nearing the date of his release.

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In Belarus, the late 1990s and early 2000s were an era of disappearances. As President Alexander Lukashenka ruthlessly consolidated power, countless journalists, businessmen, politicians, and activists died under mysterious circumstances or simply vanished. The recent death of journalist and vocal critic of the Lukashenka government, Aleh Byabenin, has left money wondering if the government has returned to its old tactics.

Will activists secure a transparent, international investigation into Byabenin's death? Or, with an impending election, will the authorities make an extra effort to quash any protest around the incident?

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Bans on social media and texting, police intimidation, and curfews have become a normal way of life for Kashmiris speaking and acting out in protest of India’s hard-handed rule of the region. With more action by the Indian government to block tools for communication and to quash efforts by citizens to mobilize, how will Kashmiris move forward?

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At the beginning of this summer, a 28-year-old Egyptian was dragged out of an internet café and beaten to death. The young man, named Khaled Said, was apparently targeted because he intended to post a video that showed police officers dividing the spoils of a drug bust. 

Over the past couple of months Egyptians have reacted in a few different ways. They've held protests called "silent stands," which involve coming together in long chains to, well, stand silently, often while reading the Qur’an or Bible. These are an effort to get around the Emergency Law that bans assemblies of five people or more. They've participated in a Facebook group that's grown to nearly 300,000 members and launched a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #KhaledSaid.

We've put together a page dedicated to the events surrounding Said's death, the trial of the police offers involved, and police brutality in Egypt more generally. Check it out here. Don't forget to add links, thoughts, and information in the comments section—we will update it continually.

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Ushahidi (click here to find out what that is) has proven itself an effective platform for mapping events in crisis situations. But is it the right tool for mapping resources over an extended period of time?

Aashika Damodar, who was looking to track global resources for documenting and preventing trafficking: the movement of people against their will for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor, wanted to find out. 

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