At least 15 people were killed today as tens of thousands of Syrians joined pro-democracy protests in several cities, defying a heavy deployment of security forces.
The scale of the protests suggest that the government’s repressive response has failed …
Egypt’s civil society overcame the Mubarak regime’s stifling restrictions to play a critical role in mobilizing the forces behind the Jasmine revolution. Pro-democracy NGOs are well-poised to take advantage of new political space and opportunities, writes Amira Maaty, but …
Ugandan civil society groups have condemned the government’s excessive use of force in response to protests against soaring food and fuel prices.
Peaceful “walk to work” demonstrations have taken place every Monday and Thursday since the Activists for Change …
The administration believes the protesters have yet to form a “coalesced movement” strong enough to force the Ba’athists out, but an opposition appeal to the army to lead an Egypt-style transition could help “create a fracture” within the regime, analysts …
What explains China’s differing approach to protests by workers and dissidents? Why did the Communist authorities capitulate so readily to striking workers while rights activists are subjected to “the harshest clampdown since the crushing of the Tiananmen democracy movement …
China has released a prominent democracy advocate just 24 hours after a senior U.S. official criticized his imprisonment during a human rights dialog with Beijing.
Teng Biao (left), a Beijing university lecturer and lawyer, is a prominent rights activist and …
Sudan’s President Umar al-Bashir is threatening to withhold recognition of Southern Sudan’s independence if claims the contested region of Abyei. The south’s draft constitution may also prove unacceptable to key political actors because a draft version gives President Salva Kiir …
For much of modern history, most of the world has aspired to some variant of modernism – the Western model of a free society based on secular democracy, pluralism, rule of law, free enterprise and individual sovereignty.
Not any more, …
Put away the metaphors. Forget the Arab Spring, the wave of protests, the snowballing of dissent.
Dictators watch Al Jazeera too and they have drawn the necessary lessons from recent events, a Washington meeting heard today. Ruling elites are recalculating …
Is a bastion of Central Asian authoritarianism really a beacon of democracy in disguise? Or is Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s president since it gained independence in 1991, a familiar case of homo Sovieticus?
Thomas O. Melia, the U.S. deputy …