Some (mostly) human rights links [Note: Content Warning - reader discretion is advised!] and thoughts - Saturday 15th January, 2022

Some human rights (including significant, relevant links in other fields - such as geopolitics, democracy, or authoritarianism) links: 

• "humans alive today are witnessing the beginning of the first mass extinction in 65 million years. What does biodiversity loss mean for us and the environment?"; 
  
• thousands of Kazakhs have been arrested for protesting against fuel costs, where the Kazakh president has made inane comments about defeating "a coup" - with Russian troops . . . and the use of violent criminals, along the lines of what Assad did in Syria; 
• "legacy of the “Dark Side” - the costs [not only financial] of unlawful US detentions and interrogations post-9/11"; 
• a criticism of the USA's hypocrisy / double standards (my words) on international treaties; 
• "the 1^st February 2021 coup d’état has intensified deadly conflict and ended [Burma]’s decade-old peace process involving its many ethnic armed groups. The Tatmadaw now faces a mix of new and reinvigorated adversaries, some of whom have begun to unite behind a collective vision for a genuine federal state" - and recommendations on what should be done about that;
  
• ECOWAS has closed borders and imposed sanctions on Mali over the coup leaders' continuing delays of elections (and the USSRussia and CCP have stopped the UN's Security Council being decent enough to do the same);
  
• modern dictators in South and Central America are using hitler's abuse of democratic processes approach;
• the misuse of social media to stay in power by dictators - and their continuing use of purges; 
• as Biden is criticised for not doing enough to defend democracy (and concerns are pointed out about democracy / human rights in Brazil, Turkey, Belarus, and Cambodia), an opinion piece pointing out the losses of the extreme right, and calling for "consistent, genuine, and inspiring liberal democratic politics"; 
• "capitalism is compatible with democracy only if democracy is in the driver’s seat. But the absence of democracy doesn’t strengthen capitalism. It fuels despotism"; 
  
• a defence of boycotts as an essential part of democracy (I am disappointed the ALP was critical of the boycott being discussed);
  
• despite the slant of the words used in this article, it boils down to the neolibs actually protecting privacy - and the ALP's criticism of that is disappointing; 
• "“Biggest cyber breach in history” as techs scramble to be heard above Omicron din";
  
• German police have misused a COVID app - and Bulgaria's surveillance has breached European human rights convention; 
• "a deadly decision: The [US] Supreme Court [has struck] down OSHA's vaccine-or-testing mandate";
  
• tensions continue between the USA and Russia over Ukraine - with concerns on the risk of war, possibly with a "false flag" operation;
  
• "why reconciliation agreement between Germany and Namibia has hit the buffers"; 
• "a landmark trial to examine state-sponsored torture during the Syrian civil war" in a German court "has found a Syrian former army colonel guilty of crimes against humanity, handing him a life sentence";
  
• "UN calls for $5 billion in aid for Afghanistan to 'avert catastrophe' in 2022" - and there are other places in need as well, such as Tigray, where aid was suspended after Ethiopian air raids, South Sudan, a land of plenty facing famine because of war, and the ineptly run North Korea; 
• the staggering extent of the abuse of refugees in Libya; 
  
• violence in the Sahel may extend into West Africa;
  
• "vulnerable people in Australia are being considered “acceptable collateral losses” and has called upon the government “to recognise and remember that we’re human”"; 
• "following unanimous parliamentary approval in 2021, conversion "therapy" is now illegal in Canada"; 
•  more homophobia in sport has been called out; 
• "transgender people who start their hormones as teenagers have “far better” mental health than if they wait until adulthood, new research says";
  
• "minority and indigenous peoples’ rights defenders urge African states to address marginalisation grievances";
  
• a move from invisibility to visibility for one person with a disability; 
• "after stalling for almost a decade, Indonesia's House of Representatives is expected to debate a bill on sexual violence next Tuesday";
  
• "one of Egypt’s last independent human rights organisations has closed down . . . citing government persecution"; 
• an opinion that a culture of corruption is "engulfing" the national neolib government;
  
• many MPs have now completed their "respectful workplace" training - although I wonder if it will work with some of them (Recommendations 5 and 6 include "First Nations people, people from CALD backgrounds, people with disability, and LGBTIQ+ people"), and a notorious idiotic senator from Qld has demonstrated her need for such training by claiming she is too old to harass anyone;
• the loooooong history of conspiracy fantasies.