The leadership of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard has publicly affirmed its new ascendancy in the ruling elite, threatening reformist factions that there is no middle ground in disputing the regime’s legitimacy.
The guard’s role in recent events amounted to …
At least 140 people have been killed and hundreds more arrested following clashes in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, home to the country’s Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic group.
The World Uyghur Congress, a grantee of the National Endowment …
A loosening of Russia’s restrictive NGO law ahead of a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama is being applauded by civil society groups and human rights activists, who nevertheless stress that the changes cover only a third of NGOs and …
While many observers have lauded the U.S. administration’s cautious approach to the unrest in Iran, other voices have lamented what they see as a failure to support Iran’s democrats and civil society activists.
The New Republic’s Leon Wieseltier …
The Guardian Council’s confirmation of the disputed June 12 election results has limited the options of reformists who have tried to work within the constraints of the Islamic Republic, says former student leader Ali Afshari. “They have closed any …
Azerbaijan’s civil society has won at least a temporary victory in blocking proposed amendments to the NGO and media laws that many feared would close political space and harden the Caspian state’s purportedly soft authoritarianism.
The final draft dropped …
The World Movement for Democracy has issued the following Democracy Alert appealing for action in support of detained Burmese democracy activists:
On July 2, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) issued an Urgent Appeal in support of close to …
President Barack Obama should challenge the Kremlin on its democratic backsliding at this week’s U.S.-Russian summit in Moscow, says a group of foreign policy specialists and democracy advocates.
The open letter, an initiative of the Foreign Policy Initiative, …
Amid signs of growing police brutality and arbitrary violence, the Iranian authorities are stepping up their repression of dissenters now that the Guardian Council has validated the June 12 election presidential results.
The government closed the reformist newspaper Etemad …
As the coup in Honduras continues to attract condemnation from governments and civil society groups, the Organization of American States today gave Honduras 72 hours to reinstate deposed President Manuel Zelaya or face suspension.
It announced that OAS Secretary …