Robert Sharp

Barrister

Tag: Human Rights (Page 22 of 41)

Free Belarus Now

29 March 2011 / / 0 Comments

Yesterday I went with PEN to support a demonstration for the people of Belarus, “Europe’s last dictatorship.” It was organised by Free Belarus Now, the Belarus Free Theatre and Index on Censorship. The Almeida Theatre were also in attendance.
As were, somewhat crucially, Jude Law and Kevin Spacey. Here are my photos of the event:

The demo began outside the offices of Grayling PR, who have set up an office in Minsk and promote morally compromised businesses in Belarus. Keenly aware of the PR damage such an association might cause, the CEO of Grayling posted a blog on the issue. Michael Murphy pointed out that companies he promotes in Belarus provide local jobs, and lauds the ‘economic opportunity’ that they provide. However, without free expression and democratic checks, this so-called ‘opportunity’ is meaningless, limited only to those who acquiesce to Alexander Lukashenko brutal methods of control. Murphy’s words are hollow, his reasoning unsound and amoral.
A salient fact from the blog sticks out:

There are no UN sanctions against Belarus

Well, quite. This is a huge political failure. Leaving Grayling’s offices behind, the demonstrators walked down Victoria Street to the Houses of Parliament, to lobby British MPs on this issue and demand a tougher stance against Lukashenko and his cronies. New and free elections are sorely needed, and the political prisoners – journalists, activists and presidential candidates – must be released.
Now watch this video of the demonstration, including a short and eloquent paean to freedom of expression from Mr Law:

On How We Go To War

20 March 2011 / / 4 Comments

Amid all the frantic late night comments about the UN resolution to finally act in Libya, this tweet from @techsoc stood out:

All intervention is risky & w/ great downsides. A non-intervention is also an intervention; letting Gaddafi kill using weapons we sold.

I think this an interesting companion thought to Sunder Katwala’s bolshy piece on the subject of whattaboutery (a topic Johann Hari previously dealt with in this hardy perennial). Sunder explains why it is worth intervening in Libya when we might not do so elsewhere. First, there has to be a clear and present humanitarian crisis (this is not present in most examples of despicable oppression, a small mercy). Second, intervention has to be possible and practical. This generally means the support and assistance of major regional players like the Arab League or African Union, who are notoriously lethargic. And third, the intervention requires a legitimacy, again related to what important external stakeholders think, but also what those inside the country ask for. These three checkboxes provide a case for what Sunder calls contextual universalism. It matters – at least to me – because it articulates why I had a gut feeling that the Iraq war was wrong, and the current intervention is right. This is despite the fact that the documented brutality of Saddam Hussein was ever bit as bad as that of Colonel Gaddafi.
The cautious approach is clearly a response to the bungling of Iraq. I watched some of the collegiate House of Commons debate on the issue yesterday, and most of the contributions, from Nicholas Soames to John McDonnell, were infused with the considerations that Sunder lays out. This approach to Foreign policy – the need for practicality and legitimacy, the need to be seen to be going to war for the right reasons – is obviously influenced by how unsuccessful the hawkish and shameless approach of Bush/Blair turned out to be. in 2006 I wrote in this space how protest actually serves to influence future policy more than current policy. I quoted Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads, who wrote:

… someone has to be called to account or the next batch of power-mad bastards – here or abroad – will think they can get away with exactly the same thing.

Well, Tony Blair was not forced kicking and screaming from office in the way Tim hoped. Nevertheless, the way the British and American Governments have acted during this current crisis is telling. It is clear that they have been profoundly affected by the uproar we caused last time. David Cameron is rightly being praised for his handling of the crisis, but his course of action was defined by the parameters set for him by recent history. And those parameters were set by us, the awkward squad of protesters and dissenting bloggers. For that, I think we can claim some credit.

Update

I did not see The Andrew Marr Show but @DrEvanHarris did:

Shami points out Blair Iraq effect coming home to roost. No public appetite for deploying ground troops even in humanitarian cause. #marr

Where is Ali Abdulemam?

18 March 2011 / / 1 Comment

Ali Abdulemam

Ali Abdulemam


How many ways can the world’s news media face? There is an environmental and human catastrophe brewing in Japan, and Libya seems to be temporarily cowed by the recent UN resolution. That shunts Bahraini protests into the third spot – at best – on any news bulletin.
Today English PEN received a few disturbing reports from that country that deserve a little more air. First, we’ve received reports that Ali Abdulemam, a prominent activist and ‘blog-father’ of Bahrain (so called because he set up the first free uncensored forum there) has gone missing:

His uncle described the scene last night when 50 heavily armed policemen came to arrest him, just a few weeks after he was released as a part of concessions to placate Bahraini protesters. … At around 1.15am on 18 March the housing complex in Aali where Ali rented a flat from one of his cousins awoke to hear the metal gate outside being riddled with bullets.

Ali’s twitter feed is rather chilling. It is full of chatter up until yesterday, and then there is a single curt and entirely uncharacteristic message:

I get tired from my phone so I switched it of no need for rumors plz

I note that it is the only message in the stream to have been posted from an Android phone, which is odd. Moreover, his twitter page gives the location for that tweet as 26.267457, 50.618742 which is no-where near his home in Aali… but is near the airport, Ministry of Transport and police training centre.

Radio Litopia: A Town Named Sue

14 March 2011 / / 0 Comments

The Litopia online writers colony broadcasts several weekly podcasts on various aspects of writing and literature.  I was invited onto the Debriefer show, presented by Donna Ballman, to discuss the pressing issue of libel reform.
You can listen to my dulcit tones right here.  If it leaves you inspired, you can always head over to www.libelreform.org to find out how you can help the campaign.

Royal Courts of Justice. Photo by Yrstrly off of Flicker.

Royal Courts of Justice. Photo by Yrstrly off of Flicker.


 

By Spreading Out We're Harder To Stop

21 February 2011 / / 3 Comments

I am sure readers will be aware of the long-running global discussion about the role social media can play in revolutions.  Clearly, Facebook and Twitter can catalyse opposition to authoritarian regimes, and spread news of protests and government oppression between citizens, and to the world at large.
In Egypt, Hosni Mubarak’s heavy handed response to online opposition may actually have quickened his fall.  He and his cronies felt they had no option but to ‘switch off’ the Internet, depriving the entire country of proper connectivity.  This was an obvious ploy which only signalled the regime’s desperation.  The protesters in Tahrir Square were emboldened.
In the future, however, oppressive governments may become more subtle and savvy in their approach to censorship.  In Episodes #81 and #82 of the Rebooting the News podcast, Dave Winer and Jay Rosen discuss this problem at length.   Winer explained out that Twitter and Facebook could be nixed by regimes.  An Internet ‘kill switch’ is bad for governments, because it signals to the people that the protests are working.  Instead, oppressive governments will try to develop tools which simply filter out content which undermines their agenda, yet maintains the appearance of normalcy.  The Chinese regime does this very well, and managed to selectively filter out references to Egypt for Internet users inside China.  Having witnessed the sobering examples of Mubarak and Ben Ali, other dictators will begin to commission tools to achieve this. Corporations (which, we must remind ourselves, include Twitter and Facebook) will be happy to do this, in exchange for access to the emerging markets these countries represent.
Winer expands on this idea on his blog, Scripting.com:

They can do the same with Facebook that they do with Assange. There’s all kinds of crazy stuff you can do at a firewall to make one site appear to be having technical problems. Real technical problems (but fake ones nonetheless). There are consultants calling on generals all over the world, right now, selling them wonderful Internet dashboards that selectively and randomly make sites appear to have problems of their own, not caused by the government. Permanent link to this item in the archive.
Anticipating this, we have to create communication networks on the Internet that require that the whole Internet be cut off in order for them to be cut off. The reason is simple. The people who are being manipulated will know they’re being manipulated. In a centralized social space, there could easily be doubt. I know this is a complicated idea, but the intellects are at work, I promise you. They are smart, we have to be smart too. Permanent link to this item in the archive.
It’s important that people learn to manage their own infrastructure. It’s going to happen, we can do it. We can make servers much easier to set up and maintain, and do more stuff that’s meaningful to people like the people in Egypt fighting for freedom. By spreading out we’re harder to stop. Permanent link to this item in the archive.

This strikes me as being one of the most important ideas for freedom of expression right now, and a crucial lesson from the Egyptian uprising.

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