Look Who's Talking
Here's a gem of an article from The Independent which reports that various member countries of the United Nations have taken the opportunity to criticise the human rights record of Norway - while blatantly ignoring their own track records as totalitarian states.
Now I lived and worked in Norway for a while, albeit some years ago, but I would say it is generally speaking a very civilised place to call home - whereas I could never see myself or my family trying to settle down in somewhere like Russia or Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia criticises Norway over human rights record
Gulf state calls for all criticism of religion to be criminalised
FELICITY MORSE - The Independent
Saudi Arabia has criticised Norway's human rights record, accusing the country of failing to protect its Muslim citizens and not doing enough to counter criticism of the prophet Mohammed.
The gulf state called for all criticism of religion and of prophet Mohammed to be made illegal in Norway. It also expressed concern at “increasing cases of domestic violence, rape crimes and inequality in riches” and noted a continuation of hate crimes against Muslims in the country.
The Scandinavian nation came under scrutiny during the United Nations' Universal Periodic Review, in which 14 States are scheduled to have their human rights records examined.
Russia meanwhile called for Norway to clamp down on expressions of religious intolerance and and criticised the country’s child welfare system. They also recommended that Norway improve its correctional facilities for those applying for asylum status.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende was in Geneva to hear the concerns from 91 other countries. He told Norway's NTB newswire prior to the hearing: “It is a paradox that countries which do not support fundamental human rights have influence on the council, but that is the United Nations,” reported The Local.
Human Rights Watch last report noted that in 2012 Saudi Arabia "stepped up arrests and trials of peaceful dissidents, and responded with force to demonstrations by citizens."
It continued "Authorities continue to suppress or fail to protect the rights of 9 million Saudi women and girls and 9 million foreign workers. As in past years, thousands of people have received unfair trials or been subject to arbitrary detention. The year has seen trials against half-a-dozen human rights defenders and several others for their peaceful expression or assembly demanding political and human rights reforms."
Putin's Russia (19 July 2013)
Here's an excellent article from the BBC's web site which tells a sorry tale of what it's like to be a critic of President Vladimir Putin - in modern day Russia.
Political opponents and dissidents may no longer be sent of the salt mines in Siberia - yet a wide array of Russian citizens find themselves facing long jail sentences or worse - if they stand up to President Putin and what is widely regarded as a corrupt Russian state.
Just last week a man who has been dead for several years - Sergei Magnitsky - was convicted after a bizarre 'show trial' which would not have been out of place under one of the Imperial Russian Tsars.
Magnitsky (an accountant and auditor) blew the whistle on President Putin and his allies - alleging massive financial corruption at the heart of government - yet Magnitsky found himself arrested and was later found dead while in the custody of Russian prison authorities.
The latest target, Alexei Navalny, a well known blogger in Russia, planned to contest the forthcoming election to become Mayor of Moscow - and by a strange coincidence he finds himself banged up in jail for five years just as he becomes a significant threat to President Putin's continued rule.
The latest target, Alexei Navalny, a well known blogger in Russia, planned to contest the forthcoming election to become Mayor of Moscow - and by a strange coincidence he finds himself banged up in jail for five years just as he becomes a significant threat to President Putin's continued rule.
Alexei Navalny convicted: The fates of Putin's enemies
Russian opposition leader and blogger Alexei Navalny (C, front) and his wife Yulia (R, front)
Mr Navalny could now be barred from running in the Moscow mayoral election set for September. He also joins a growing list of opponents of President Vladimir Putin who have ended up on the wrong side of the law or in exile, or have met their deaths in suspicious circumstances.
Oligarchs
When Mr Putin first became president in 2000, he immediately set about curbing the power of the oligarchs - the group of billionaires who exerted huge influence over Russia's political system and media.
His first victim was media magnate, Vladimir Gusinsky, the owner of NTV, a station that at the time was highly critical of Moscow's war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya and was home to the satirical puppet show Kukly, which mercilessly mocked the new president.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky could face further charges
When Mr Gusinsky refused to allow the Kremlin to influence NTV's editorial policy he quickly found himself charged with fraud in June 2000, and fled the country shortly afterwards.
Within months, he was joined by his fellow media magnate and political fixer Boris Berezovsky.
Mr Berezovsky is believed to have played a key role in helping Mr Putin into power in 2000. But he quickly fell out of favour with the new regime and sought refuge in the UK.
Mr Berezovsky continued to plot against Mr Putin and to be held up as a bogeyman by the Russian media until he was found dead in the bathroom of his Berkshire home in March this year. Police have said that there is no evidence of anybody else being involved in his death.
Perhaps most famously Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the now defunct oil company, Yukos, was targeted when (like Mr Navalny) he accused Mr Putin and his associates of conniving in massive corruption.
He has subsequently been convicted in two trials of tax evasion and fraud. Following his second trial in 2010, Amnesty International recognised Mr Khodorkovsky and his co-defendant, Platon Lebedev, as "prisoners of conscience".
Mr Khodorkovsky is due for release in 2014, but there are signs that he could face further charges.
Politicians and protesters
Pussy Riot protested against President Putin's running of Russia's oil industry
Political opposition to Mr Putin is becoming an increasingly risky business, with numerous activists facing charges or in jail.
Two members of feminist band Pussy Riot are serving two-year prison sentences for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after performing an "anti-Putin punk prayer" in Moscow's main Orthodox cathedral in February 2012. A third member of the band had her sentence suspended on appeal.
Meanwhile, criminal charges of affray, incitement to violence and assaulting police officers are pending against more than 20 activists involved in disturbances at a demonstration in Moscow on the eve of Mr Putin's inauguration as president for a third term in May 2012.
Sergei Udaltsov, a left-wing leader of the protest movement, is under house arrest after being charged with incitement to mass disorder on the basis of video evidence shown on Russian TV. If found guilty, Mr Udaltsov (like Mr Navalny) could face a substantial prison sentence.
Some members of the Russian opposition, such as former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, continue to defy Mr Putin despite regular harassment and detention for public order offences.
Sergei Udaltsov appeared in court in May 2013
Like Mr Navalny, Mr Nemtsov is a member of the opposition's alternative parliament, the Coordination Council. He is also co-author of a report accusing Mr Putin of leading Russia to ruin.
Another member of the Coordination Council, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, has joined the growing list of Russia's political emigres.
But, as the fate of former FSB (Federal Security Service) officer Alexander Litvinenko showed, even exile carries risks for Mr Putin's opponents.
Mr Litvinenko died in London in 2006 after being poisoned by radioactive polonium.
Media.
It is not just oligarchs and politicians who have to fear Putin's disfavour. Journalists and TV presenters, too, have to be wary of offending the Kremlin.
Ksenia Sobchak, whose father Anatoly was Mr Putin's political mentor, was a familiar face on light entertainment shows on Russia TV until she joined the protest movement following the disputed parliamentary election in 2011.
Ksenia SobchakSince then, her lucrative contracts on mainstream TV have dried up and her appearances have been confined to the niche liberal channel Dozhd - a refuge for several dissident journalists.
Mr Putin makes little secret of his hostility to journalists who challenge his authority.
Shortly after the murder in 2006 of Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter with opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta and fierce critic of the Kremlin's policies in Chechnya, Mr Putin dismissed her political influence as "negligible".
Ms Politkovskaya is one of five Novaya Gazeta journalists who have been murdered or died in suspicious circumstances since 2000.
'Justice' - Saudi Style (13 October 2013)
More dispiriting news out of Saudi Arabia - the price of a young life (a girl's life) is only 8 years in prison and 600 lashes which sounds painful, but is as nothing compared to what this maniacal bully did to little 5-year-old Lama al-Ghandi.
I suppose it's much better than walking away Scot-free which is what was originally going to happen to Fayhan al-Ghamdi - until a Saudi Twitter campaign intervened to demand proper sanctions for violent crimes against women and children.
What kind of paranoid religious view suspects a a 5-year-old child of losing her virginity - and then punishes that child by literally beating her to death?
I take my hat off to the Saudi women who campaigned for a life sentence for this thug, but I was struck by the notion of Fayhan al-Ghamdi receiving a lighter sentence because he paid 'blood money' to Lama's mother - which just goes to show that men in fundamentalist Islamic countries not only control all the financial assets in a relationship - they also make up and interpret all the laws.
Saudi preacher jailed over daughter's death
By Sebastian Usher
BBC News
Fayhan al-Ghamdi appeared on religious satellite TV channels as a preacher
A Saudi preacher accused of torturing his five-year-old daughter and beating her to death has been sentenced to eight years in prison and 600 lashes.
The case of Fayhan al-Ghamdi made headlines around the world earlier this year when it was suggested that a Saudi court might let him walk free.
Activists began a campaign named after his daughter, "I am Lama", to press the authorities to prevent that happening.
Al-Ghamdi is not recognised as a cleric by the Saudi religious establishment.
The horrific details of the abuse that Lama al-Ghamdi suffered were revealed in medical records from the hospital where she was treated for 10 months before she died.
Her ribs were broken, a fingernail was torn off and her skull crushed. She had been beaten with a cane and electric cables. She had also suffered burns.
The abuse had happened while she was with her father, who was separated from her mother.
Lama's death triggered a Saudi Twitter campaign to criminalise violence against women and children
It was reported that al-Ghamdi had suspected his daughter of losing her virginity and had beaten her and molested her in response.
It was even suggested that he had raped her himself, although this was denied by Lama's mother.
The outrage over the case intensified earlier this year when activists suggested that he might walk free, despite having confessed to having beaten Lama.
The judge in the case suggested that one reading of Islamic law meant a father could not be held fully accountable for the death of his children.
Activists warned that it looked like he might be released if the mother accepted blood money.
The story grabbed headlines across the world.
It shone a light on child abuse in Saudi Arabia where rights activists say strict codes of family privacy and a patriarchal tradition make it a serious problem.
The Saudi authorities set up a child abuse helpline in response.
Now, a verdict has been reached in the same court and with the same judge.
One of the activists involved in the campaign, Aziz al-Yousef, told the BBC that she was disappointed that Fayhan al-Ghamdi did not receive a life sentence.
But Lama's mother had in the end accepted the offer of blood money, despite having once said she would never take it.
She said she needed it to help support her surviving children. That ruled out a life sentence.
Another campaigner who fought for a longer sentence, Manal al-Sharif, told the BBC that she did not believe the penalty was enough.
But she does feel that the I am Lama campaign - with the international pressure it brought to bear on the authorities - was instrumental in leading to the recent introduction of an unprecedented new Saudi law against domestic violence.
However, she added that she still has deep reservations over how effectively this will be enforced in practice.
It was reported that al-Ghamdi had suspected his daughter of losing her virginity and had beaten her and molested her in response.
It was even suggested that he had raped her himself, although this was denied by Lama's mother.
The outrage over the case intensified earlier this year when activists suggested that he might walk free, despite having confessed to having beaten Lama.
The judge in the case suggested that one reading of Islamic law meant a father could not be held fully accountable for the death of his children.
Activists warned that it looked like he might be released if the mother accepted blood money.
The story grabbed headlines across the world.
It shone a light on child abuse in Saudi Arabia where rights activists say strict codes of family privacy and a patriarchal tradition make it a serious problem.
The Saudi authorities set up a child abuse helpline in response.
Now, a verdict has been reached in the same court and with the same judge.
One of the activists involved in the campaign, Aziz al-Yousef, told the BBC that she was disappointed that Fayhan al-Ghamdi did not receive a life sentence.
But Lama's mother had in the end accepted the offer of blood money, despite having once said she would never take it.
She said she needed it to help support her surviving children. That ruled out a life sentence.
Another campaigner who fought for a longer sentence, Manal al-Sharif, told the BBC that she did not believe the penalty was enough.
But she does feel that the I am Lama campaign - with the international pressure it brought to bear on the authorities - was instrumental in leading to the recent introduction of an unprecedented new Saudi law against domestic violence.
However, she added that she still has deep reservations over how effectively this will be enforced in practice.
