Monthly reviews

I didn’t quite have time and energy to add these in to last week’s political news post. It will be in next week’s, but I thought I’d also post it earlier: 

From the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance’s (International IDEA)  Global State of Democracy (GSOD)’s democracy tracker initiative: 

The “Global State of Democracy” report on the year 2023 (GSoD23) was published, and showed continued contraction/decline of democracy, with human rights organizations and electoral management bodies, as well as civil society networks, popular movements and investigative journalists being significant in countering that. Nine recommendations in three areas, and nineteen regionally focused recommendations, were made. 

Also published was the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index  2024  report (BTI24), which found “The quality of democracy in developing and transformation countries has been in steady decline over the past 20 years. The latest findings of the Transformation Index of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, now in its tenth edition, show that out of 137 countries surveyed, only 63 remain democracies, while a majority are classified as autocracies. However, there is reason for hope. The examples of the transformation countries Brazil and Poland, where voters have rebuffed authoritarian trends, show the potential for reversing democratic erosion.”   The report found that civil society matters - which I consider aligns with the GSoD23 findings.  

for the month of  February, 2024  (note that this is a few weeks behind current events owing to the time required to collect and analyse data):  

improvements have occurred (last month) in (for details follow each hyperlink):   Australia (industrial reforms),   Bosnia and Herzegovina (reforms to counter t________ and money laundering),   France (right to abortion in constitution),   Greece (equal marriage legalised),   India (Supreme Court strikes down controversial Electoral Bonds Scheme),   Italy (Supreme Court rules sending migrants back to Libya is illegal),   Japan (Japanese court approves first gender change without surgery),   Panama (former President Martinelli sentenced to 10 years for money laundering),   Switzerland (European court upholds complaint of racial profiling by the police);  

declines have occurred (last month) in (for details follow each hyperlink):  Albania (Parliament approves controversial deal to detain migrants for Italy),   Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan holds snap presidential election, Presidential election less contested than usual),   Chad (opposition politician killed by security forces),   Ethiopia (civilians reportedly murdered in Amhara; State of Emergency extended),   Hungary (child abuse pardoning decision triggers public outcry [and resignations]),   Italy (Senate approves controversial detention deal with Albania),   Jordan (increased crackdown on activists and protestors),   Latvia (Constitutional Court upholds language requirements for Russian citizens),   Madagascar (High Constitutional Court upholds new law mandating castration of rapists),   Malawi (opposition party supporters attacked at parade),   North Macedonia (Parliament passes amendments allowing state funded ads in private media),   Papua New Guinea (historic deadly violence in Enda Province),   Paraguay (opposition senator is expelled from Congress),   Russian Federation (Alexei Navalny dies unexpectedly in prison at 47, crackdown on LGBTQIA+ movement spreads to private citizens),   Senegal (controversy over election date, Constitutional Council rules it must go forward),   Singapore (Singapore enacts indefinite detention and expands police powers),   Ukraine (mass surveillance scandal hits Ukrainian media),   USA (Homeland Security Secretary is impeached),   Venezuela (UN Human Rights Office is expelled from Venezuela),   Zimbabwe (ruling party wins by-elections after opposition candidates were excluded),   Belarus (elections reach new low in Belarus);  

From ACLED’s dashboard: 

For the week   9^th - 15^th  March  (note that this is several weeks behind current events owing to the time required to collect and analyse data):  

Large decrease in violence (this does NOT mean no violence is happening, only that it has decreased):   Sudan,   Somalia,   Iraq,   Nigeria,   Yemen,   Ethiopia,   Colombia,   Pakistan,   DRC,   Burkina Faso,   Haiti,   Cameroon,   Kenya,   Niger,   Venezuela,   South Sudan,   Burundi,   Puerto Rico,   Trinidad and Tobago,   Mozambique,   Indonesia,   Madagascar,   Benin,  

Moderate increase in violence:  Brazil,  

Large increase in violence:   Russia,   Jamaica,   Honduras,   Bangladesh,   South Africa,  

From the Early (mass atrocity) Warning Project   map:

Currently experiencing mass killing:  Nigeria,   DRC,   Sudan,   Ethiopia,   Somalia,   Syria,   Pakistan,   India,  

Highest risk:   Guinea,   Mali,   Burkina Faso,   Niger,   Nigeria,   Chad,   Sudan,   Egypt,   Ethiopia,   Somalia,   Yemen,   Republic of Congo,   DRC,   Angola,   Uganda,   Tanzania,   Mozambique,   South Africa,   Syria,   Iran,   Afghanistan,   Pakistan,   India,   Nepal,   Bangladesh,   China,   Thailand,   Laos,   Indonesia,  

Consistently high risk:  Sudan,   Ethiopia,   India,  

Increasing Risk:  Burkina Faso,   Tajikistan,  

From the International Crisis Group’s monthly Crisis Watch: 

The ICG’s March-August 2024 edition of “On the Horizon” considers Cameroon, South Sudan, Venezuela, and Western Sahara worth examination. See   https://www.crisisgroup.org/horizon-march-august-2024  

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/