#freesanaa

[monasosh]

#FreeSanaa

[unscenesquared]

[africanfeministsrock-blog]

The Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Africa, Ms Reine Alapini-Gansou, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa, Ms Faith Pansy Tlakula, of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mr. Michel Forst express their deep concern following the harsh sentences handed down against human rights defenders Sanaa Seif, Yara Sallam and 21 co-accused on Sunday, 26 October 2014 by the Heliopolis Misdemeanor Court in the Arab Republic of Egypt. They are reportedly appealing the ruling.

Joint Press Release on the Verdict against Sanaa Seif, Yara Sallam and 21 Other Co-accused in Egypt, African Commission on Human and People's Rights, 4 November 2014

[mamjahid]

In the Middle East, and elsewhere the State is not part of the solution, it is in fact the core of the problem.

A court in Egypt sentenced today 23 democracy activists to three years in prison because they demonstrated against a new protest law that forbids protests.

In the Middle East, and elsewhere the State is not part of the solution, it is in fact the core of the problem.

Please let me introduce you quickly the concept of the State: It's usually a gang of older men who want to control everything by violence.

In some parts of the world it happened by coincidence, divine will or bloody wars that the state has to deal with a serious number of check and balances (active civil society, independent media, social justice, laicism, a fair and transparent electoral system, a military that is separated from the government, a functioning economy...). We don't have that yet in most of the MENA-countries. It's developing but still too weak to push the state-terror and injustice where it belongs: into history books. 

Now I know that most of our white governments fear the accusation of orientalism, post-colonialism and othering if they start to treat Middle Eastern governments in a more critical way. Please, don't worry. As soon as you begin to respect the freedom and the rights of the people, you do have my full support in real conditionality towards Mister Sisi, the Kings at the Peninsula and other autocrats in and outside the region.