Bedoon Rights: An Online Reference on Statelessness in Kuwait

Bedoon Rights is a network founded by stateless Kuwaiti advocate Mona Kareem putting together contributions by a number of stateless volunteers mostly based in Kuwait. The network is the only online reference in English devoted for the case of statelessness in Kuwai. It provides relevant official documents translated, reports made by international organizations, daily reporting, videos, photos, and it offers help to journalists, correspondents, and bloggers interested in spotlighting the stateless struggle in Kuwait by offering information, on-ground guidance, and relevant interviews. There are at least 120,000 people bidun jinsiyya (without nationality) ...

Palestine Awareness Week at UCLA (Los Angeles, 27 February - 1 March, 2012)

On Monday 27 February through Thursday 1 March, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) will be hosting a series of activites as part of the 2012 UCLA Palestine Awareness Week. For full program details, see flier below.

Syria: Razan Ghazzawi Arrested...Again

Syrian security forces have arrested Syrian blogger and freedom of speech advocate Razan Ghazzawi on Thursday during a raid on the offices of the Syrian Center for Freedom of Expression in Damascus where the activist works. Ghazzawi was arrested along with thirteen of her colleagues, including the head of the center Mr. Mazen Darwish. This is the second time Razan Ghazzawi is arrested by the Syrian authorities. She was first detained in December 2011 at the Syrian-Jordanian border when she was about to attend a conference on freedom of expression online. Her arrest sparked an online outcry and an international campaign called for her immediate ...

From Greece: Declaration for the Defense of Society and Democracy

[The following statement was issued by a group of Greek academics regarding the ongoing crises in Greece.] Greek society is suffering both from the crisis and the responses to it, which have reached a dead-end. Major social and political institutions that were created with enormous struggles and sacrifices in post-War Greece—social security, the public health care system, public education, public transport, the natural and urban environment, the right to live a safe existence, and various elemental goods and services that underwrite the very existence of an already curtailed and devalued Greek state—are all being utterly dismantled so that Greek society is now ...

Symposium: Law, Human Rights, and Revolution: Transitions in the Wake of the Arab Spring (Los Angeles, 16-17 February)

Law, Human Rights, and Revolution: Transitions in the Wake of the Arab Spring University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), 16-17 February 2012 The Annual Symposium of the UCLA Law School Journal of International Law and Foriegn Affairs (JILFA) co-Organized with the G.E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies has support from the University of California Humanities Research Intiaitive and UCLA International Institute. It's agenda follows.   Thursday, February 16, 2012 Welcome: Susan Slyomovics | Professor of Anthropology and Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, UCLA 4:00pm–6:00 pm: Political Transition, Rule of Law, and Human Rights: What have ...

The Academic Boycott on Campus: Breaking New Ground, Gaining Momentum

[The following statement was issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) on 3 February 2012.]  In an open letter dated 21 October 2011, Palestinian students wrote to their counterparts across the world, “We hope you put Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) at the forefront of your campaigns and join together for Israeli Apartheid Week: the pinnacle of action across universities worldwide.” [1] The 8th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) constitutes a direct response to this call, at a crucial moment when youth are taking to the streets to combat dictatorships and an international economic crisis marked by ...

Video: Salma Said

Live Update from Bab Al-Amr

[The following is an update on the situation in Homs from Syrian activist Omar Shakir.] The humanitarian situation on the ground in Baba Amr until this moment is still a mix of rocket launchers, tanks. Mortar launchers hit the area from all sides. More than five hundred shells have come down on us since the morning, targetting homes, protest places, and mosques. Alanwar Mosque was shelled with more than ten shells, which led to the destruction of a large part of it; surrounding homes were also destroyed. The humanitarian condition is difficult at the moment. There is no bread, no medication, and no food supplies. And as we mentioned in our last report, a field hospital ...

Back to Tahrir

The Omani Spring: Towards the Break of a New Dawn?

[The following is the latest from the Arab Reform Initiative on Oman.] From February to mid-May 2011, an intense wave of protests swept the sultanate of Oman. As a result, the country has undergone changes on many levels: political, social, and economic. It is striking that in contrast to the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, these protests did not call for the fall of the regime but were restricted to demands for social justice, improved living standards, political and constitutional reforms to fight corruption, guaranteed public freedoms, and the division of powers. This paper examines the reasons behind these protests and ...