Perspectivas / Perspectives

• The ominous shadow that stretches in 2022 over Hong Kong – Russia – Myanmanr – Afghanistan - Belarus - Cuba - etc.

Hong Kong held its first election since sweeping reforms to the city’s electoral system. Asked to select from a reduced number of pre-vetted and "patriotic" candidates, only 30.2% of voters participated, with pro-Beijing and pro-establishment figures winning 89 of 90 seats. “The boycott from Hong Kong people shows there’s no mandate to this legislature,” declared exiled activist Nathan Law.

Russia liquidated Memorial, the country’s oldest human rights organization and a record keeper for crimes committed under Soviet rule. The decision from a Kremlin-controlled Supreme Court was unsurprising, and “confirms that the people who are sitting in the Kremlin today consider themselves to be the direct successors to Stalin,” according to prominent dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Myanmar saw a nationwide “silent strike” after the military junta massacred 11 villagers. Businesses shut between 10 am and 4 pm on the 10th of December to signal defiance and normally congested roads in the cities of Yangon and Mandalay were deserted. “Today’s silent strike shows how the Burmese people are against the terrorist military,” Ko Bo Kyi commented.

• New book, titled Collected Remarks by Xi Jinping on Respecting and Protecting Human Rights, includes 2014 speech to party leaders instructing them how to respond to criticism from Western countries.

 Beijing, Dec.18.– New book publication coincides with the latest clash on values between Beijing and the West with competing for virtual summits.

Chinese officials should “resolutely hit back” whenever confronted by the West on human rights, President Xi Jinping instructed China’s ruling elite in 2014, a new book has revealed.

United Nations, Dec.17.– Over a three-day period, prominent human rights defenders Trinh Ba Phoung, Nguyen Thi Tam, Do Nam Trung, and independent author Pham Doan Trang, were sentenced to up to a decade in jail, and five years on probation. 

Silence and intimidate

Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said OHCHR was “deeply troubled” by the harsh sentencing of the human rights and land rights defenders, who were charged under articles 88 and 117 of Viet Nam's Criminal Code.

La Habana, Dic. 10.– En carta remitida este 8 de diciembre a David Sassoli, presidente del Parlamento Europeo (PE), y a miembros del PE, Berta Soler, líder de las Damas de Blanco, y Guillermo Farinas, coordinador general del Foro Antitotalitario Unido (FANTU), ambos premio Sájarov 2005 y 2010), respectivamente, afirmaron que valorarían solicitar la retirada de la distición en caso de persistir el abandono de la sociedad civil por parte del Servicio de Acción Exterior Europeo (SEAE) mientras se cometen crímenes de lesa humanidad por parte del régimen cubano.

«Estos premios se otorgan (por parte del PE) a las personas y pueblos que luchan, desde las más paupérrimas condiciones, por lo más sagrado del hombre, los derechos humanos más fundamentales como la expresión, y en el caso de Cuba el derecho a no ser objeto permanente de crímenes de lesa humanidad.