Perspectivas / Perspectives

Not only because it would expose their false narrative that everything is fine in Tibet, a region they’ve occupied for decades—but also because it would draw attention to their abuse and torture of peaceful protestors held in China’s notorious political prison system. Some of whom are still missing.

Even knowing the consequences, when Tibetan farmers discovered active gold-mining operations on their traditional grazing land in the Serkhok Valley, they had no choice but to speak out. The people of Kashi didn’t stay silent. And neither can we.

The land that’s being mined for gold is precious to these Tibetan nomadic farmers. It sustains their cattle, their livelihoods, and their way of life. They first tried to confront the miners and appeal to local officials to stop the mining. But they were ignored.

Five Central Asian nations —Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan— restrict what people can teach children.  

    Uzbekistan
    Population: 37 million, 2% Christian
    Kazakhstan
    Population: 20.7 million, 15% Christian
    Tajikistan
    Population: 10.7 million, ˂1% Christian
    Turkmenistan
    Population: 7.5 million, 4% Christian
    Kyrgyzstan
    Population: 7.2 million, 4% Christian

Towering mountain ranges such as the Pamir, Hindu Kush and Tian Shan declare God’s glory across Central Asia. But today, governments throughout the region use restrictive religion laws in an attempt to prevent pastors, teachers and even Christian parents from teaching children about Christ.

Pastor Parviz knew the risk he was taking as he packed the Christian children’s books into his suitcase and prepared to return home to Tajikistan. But as a pastor and a parent, he also knew that no investment or sacrifice was too great to provide discipleship materials for the children in his small fellowship.

The laws of Tajikistan and other nations in the region restrict and even forbid teaching religious beliefs and practices to children. If the Christian children’s books buried in Parviz’s suitcase were discovered, he could be fined, arrested or even imprisoned. Still, he believed the risk was well worth the gain of discipling children in the Lord.

Cuban Human Rights Observatory report on "The state of Social Rights in Cuba"

89% of Cuban families suffer from extreme poverty, and 78% want to leave or know someone who wants to leave the country.

Millions of Cubans live their lives between denial of the issues, persistent calls for resistance, and the authorities’ never-ending blaming of others due to the food crisis, the cost of living, poor wages, ineffective public health care, and constant blackouts.

There are still those who believe that Cuba is a paradise of social rights. The findings we provided in these reports since 2019 reveal a reality that is completely at contradiction with government propaganda regarding the status of social rights and disprove a political argument that justified restricting the exercise of civil rights and liberties in exchange for “social achievements” that are not visible in any neighborhood or street on the island.

The Joint Statement was signed by Alianza de Organizaciones por los Derechos Humanos del Ecuador, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) (Regional), Amnistía Internacional (Global), Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan (México), Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) (Argentina), Centro de investigación de mujeres juristas por los derechos humanos (CEMUDEJU) (República Dominicana), Contracorriente Honduras, Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (Perú), Defending Rights & Dissent (Estados Unidos de América), Foro del Agua (El Salvador), and many others.

Defending Rights & Dissent joined representatives of civil society organizations from 21 North, South, and Central American countries in Bogota, Colombia, in November at the Intercontinental Summit on the Closing of Civic Space in the Americas, sponsored by Amnesty International. Defending Rights & Dissent Executive Director Sue Udry was one of three U.S. delegates invited to attend.

The summit brought together human rights defenders from across the Americas to discuss strategies, learnings, and good practices in this work and explore ways we can collaborate to fight back against the growing authoritarianism across the region.