After the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, newly elected parliaments adopted legislation to dispose of the former communist elites. Through so-called “lustration” laws (“purification” in Latin) countries addressed the legacy of human rights abuses by identifying and, in some cases, sentencing those responsible for abuses under the prior regime. Lustration, however, was only one of the ways that secret police files could be used.
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“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” With this quote, article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, opened the first issue of A Chronicle of Current Events. The Chronicle was one of the longest-running samizdat publications in the Soviet Union.
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Young Georgians who organized protests over police anti-drug raids last weekend say they will be back on the streets of Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, on May 19 if their demands are not met, RFE/RL reported. Organizer Beka Tsikarishvili said the rallies would resume if the government fails to change its approach to anti-drug efforts, which critics call misguided and heavy-handed.
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Latvia’s recent amendment to its education law, which eliminates Russian language instruction, is part of a larger trend in post-Soviet states. As a result of the amendment, Latvia’s system of bi-lingual secondary education will end by 2021. The government introduced the reforms despite opposition from the Latvian Russian Union, members of the opposition Harmony party –which represents the country’s Russian-speaking minority– and proponents of bi-lingual education. Russians make up about half of the 641,000 inhabitants of Riga, Latvia’s capital.
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As the UN renews its mission in Western Sahara, Frank Elbers reports on the continued tension between local governments, natural resource companies and the Sahrawi people.
Full article in OpenCanada.
The UN Security Council has renewed the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which is responsible for peacekeeping in Western Sahara, but – in a surprise move – only for six months. The decision is an attempt to break the twenty-seven-year impasse around the disputed territory.
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