President Putin’s amnesty which has seen Pussy Riot’s Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova released, as well, perhaps, as the Greenpeace 30, is by no means extended to everyone. Young activist Taisiya Osipova also has a young child, but she remains locked up with no apparent chance of release, says Marc Be
Many young Russians brought up in institutional care have ended up homeless because regional authorities are ignoring their responsibility to house them. Georgy Borodyansky reports from Omsk.
Pyotr Pavlensky is the performance artist who nailed his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square. Pained, the government reaction was to institute criminal proceedings against him. Yelena Kostyleva talked to Pavlensky the night before his first interrogation.
Turkish police killing two Kurdish industrial workers has led to mass demonstrations, widespread violence and the abduction of soldiers, raising serious doubts about the ongoing Turkey-Kurdish peace process.
What does a multinational company do when a country where it operates has laws that run counter to international human rights norms? Kathryn Dovey suggests how IKEA could honour its rights commitments while protecting its Russian profits.
Nine ordinary Ukrainians – ‘The Nine’– are currently sitting in jail in Kyiv. They were part of a peaceful protest near the Presidential Administration building; they paid for this with their health and their freedom.
In the West we talk metaphorically about ‘losing our heads;’ in Ukraine, it has been a state-ordained punishment. How have Ukrainians been denied the free journalism that the end of Soviet imperialism was meant to bring about?
Part of the blessing of Mandela’s longevity is that he modeled reflexive behaviour which changed over time. To realise his vision of a non-sexist South Africa, we might re-evaluate the patriarchal values which pervade our own lives, recognising our own ability to change.
There have been laws about slavery since the birth of our legal system. Whilst they might need to be tidied up, the government shouldn't feel that headlines about them being broken in London require a legislative approach, argues Geoffrey Bindman.
As the standoff between the government and the protesters continues in Kyiv, Sergii Leshchenko suggests what might be done to break the impasse.
The intensity of the public protest rallies in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities has peaked. Will the opposition be able to withstand the government, which has regrouped and is maintaining a ‘business as usual’ stance? Valery Kalnysh wonders.
The Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Colombo was the occasion for renewed demands that the state account for the brutal ending of its war with the Tamil Tigers in 2009. But Sri Lanka's appalling human-rights record does not only apply to its violent past: today too civil-society organis
