Listen to the companion podcast here Female political activism is on the rise in authoritarian Myanmar, despite the extreme adversity of the repressive military regime. Women from diverse backgrounds in Myanmar are fighting for change with unwavering courage despite the risk of being prosecuted by the military junta. To uncover the source of determination behind their remarkable efforts, I had the privilege of speaking with four female activists from Myanmar: Evelyn (a pseudonym), a student activist for democracy who participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Karima Jaffer, a mix ..read more

While the children of military leaders are studying in foreign countries, soldiers are dying tragically, former child soldier Ko Aung Ko Htwe told local media when he was released from prison in 2019. Abducted at a railway station, he was forcibly recruited into the Tatmadaw, the Burmese National Army, when he was fifteen years old. After he escaped the military two years later, he was charged with the murder of a motorbike owner and served ten years in prison. Even though Ko Aung Ko Htwe was lucky enough to escape the fate of serving in the military, he faced constant threats and human right ..read more

Check out the new podcasts on our Human Rights Magazine channel! They are companions to the recent articles we published on the repressive politics of Uganda and the abuse of Fulani people in Ghana – not identical, and just as interesting! The post New podcasts first appeared on The Upstream Journal ..read more

The 2021 Ugandan presidential election was a fierce competition between Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, and a popular musician turned political figure, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, known by his stage name Bobi Wine. The election was characterized by an unprecedented amount of political violence, including riots, arrests, and media suppression. Uganda has long struggled with its pursuit of democracy since it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962, plagued with corruption and abuse of power. Widespread violence and civil unrest have long been common around ..read more

If a crime is committed in the northern region of Ghana, most local people will assume that it was committed by a Fulani person. Ahmed Barry, an advocate for Fulani rights, told me that ninety percent of Ghanaians don’t see Fulanis as good people. He said that they face harmful stereotyping, and often labelled as thieves, robbers and rapists. This results in a strong marginalization of their community in Ghanaian society, where they are discriminated against not only socially but also physically. The consequences of this discrimination are deadly. Fulani villages are destroyed, houses burnt ..read more

Évolution de l’émancipation des femmes marocaines a l’ombre de la Moudawana Ce podcast cherche à capturer la complexité du combat féministe au Maroc dans une ère de réforme politique et juridique. Cliquez ici pour l’écouter The post La Révolution silencieuse – le podcast first appeared on The Upstream Journal ..read more

Évolution de l’émancipation des femmes marocaines a l’ombre de la Moudawana Cet article cherche à capturer la complexité du combat féministe au Maroc dans une ère de réforme politique et juridique. Il met d’abord en évidence dans son introduction les défis auxquels les femmes étaient confrontées dans divers domaines de leur vie quotidienne. S’ensuit l’examen du système juridique jetant la lumière sur les lacunes et inégalités persistantes a posteriori des réformes de la Moudawana, un remaniement audacieux de la législation en 2004 pour élever la condition féminine établies en 2011. L’arti ..read more

Editor’s note: In September 2023 Queensland suspending its Human Rights Act, not for the first time, to allow locking up more children. The government now allows under-18s – including children as young as 10 – to be detained indefinitely in police “watch houses” – local jails – while awaiting process. This can take weeks. Queensland had the highest number of children in detention of any Australian state, almost 300 minors in detention. 63 percent of them are Indigenous, despite Indigenous people make up only 4.6 percent of Queensland’s population. Source: Al Jazeera On a clammy morning two ye ..read more

CHOM5KY vs CHOMSKY: A playful conversation on AI is a VR experience that allows people to converse with an AI model, Chom5ky, based on digital traces of the leading contemporary philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky. I believe Chomsky is an inspiring scholar to build an AI with due to his pessimistic and skeptical stance on artificial intelligence. He recently stated in an interview that AI contains “plagiarism, apathy and obviation,” and the machine learning system will always be superficial and dubious. Thus, Chom5ky’s existence would provoke reflections on the competence of human minds and ..read more

Speaking to me on his mobile phone via Zoom, Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU) recalled his experience during the countrywide 2013-14 protests. Despite cutting out every so often, his voice was passionate as he told me, “Because more people joined, the government became scared and led a very strong crackdown on workers. More than twenty-eight people were in jail – including me – and five people were killed and many left missing.” Thorn, along with five other union leaders, was given a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence and ordered ..read more