Related Research Articles
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, also called Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia. It is the largest country in Mainland Southeast Asia, and has a population of about 54 million as of 2017. Myanmar is bordered by Bangladesh and India to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city is Yangon (Rangoon).
The Organization of American States is an international organization that was founded on 30 April 1948 for the purposes of solidarity and co-operation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in the US capital, Washington, D.C., the OAS has 34 members, which are independent states in the Americas. Since the 1990s, the organization has focused on election monitoring. The head of the OAS is the Secretary General; the incumbent is Uruguayan Luis Almagro.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, promotion of human rights, freedom of the press, and fair elections. It employs around 3,460 people, mostly in its field operations but also in its secretariat in Vienna, Austria, and its institutions. It has its origins in the mid 1975 Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland. The OSCE is concerned with early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management, and post-conflict rehabilitation. Most of its 57 participating countries are in Europe, but there are a few members present in Asia and North America. The participating states cover much of the land area of the Northern Hemisphere. It was created during the Cold War era as an East–West forum.
Albania is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, where the President of Albania is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Albania the head of government in a multi-party system. The executive power is exercised by the Government and the Prime Minister with its Cabinet. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament of Albania. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The political system of Albania is laid out in the 1998 constitution. The Parliament adopted the current constitution on 28 November 1998. Due to political instability, the country has had many constitutions during its history. Albania was initially constituted as a monarchy in 1913, briefly a republic in 1925, then it returned to a democratic monarchy in 1928. It later became a socialist republic until the restoration of capitalism and democracy in 1992.
ASEAN, officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration between its members and other countries in Asia. ASEAN's primary objective was to accelerate economic growth and through that social progress and cultural development. A secondary objective was to promote regional peace and stability based on the rule of law and the principle of United Nations charter. With some of the fastest growing economies in the world, ASEAN has broadened its objective beyond the economic and social spheres. In 2003, ASEAN moved along the path of the European Union by agreeing to establish an ASEAN community comprising three pillars: the ASEAN security community, the ASEAN economic community, and the ASEAN socio-cultural community. The ten stalks of rice in the ASEAN flag and insignia represent the ten southeast Asian countries bound together in solidarity.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a United States government-funded private non-profit news service that broadcasts radio programs and publishes online news, information, and commentary for its audiences in Asia. The service, which provides editorially independent reporting, has the mission of providing accurate and uncensored reporting to countries in Asia that have poor media environments and limited protections for press freedom and freedom of speech.
The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) is an international, non-profit organization founded in 1987. Based in Arlington, VA - this organization helps develop and provides assistance and support for elections in new and emerging democracies. Since 1987, IFES has provided assistance in 145 countries and currently has programs in more than 20 countries throughout Asia-Pacific, Africa, Eurasia, Middle East and North Africa, and Americas.
Human rights in Myanmar under its military regime have long been regarded as among the worst in the world. International human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have repeatedly documented and condemned widespread human rights violations in Myanmar. The Freedom in the World 2011 report by Freedom House notes that "The military junta has... suppressed nearly all basic rights; and committed human rights abuses with impunity." In 2011 the "country's more than 2,100 political prisoners included about 429 members of the NLD, the victors in the 1990 elections." As of July 2013, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, there were about 100 political prisoners in Burmese prisons.
Thailand was among the first nations to sign the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and seemed committed to safeguarding Human Rights, in practice, the reality has been that the powerful can abuse the human rights of their subjects with impunity. From 1977 to 1988, Amnesty International (AI) reported that there were whitewashed cases of more than thousand alleged cases of arbitrary detention, fifty forced disappearances, hundred tortures and extrajudicial killings, until 2017, AI demonstrated that not much has changed in the interim. A 2019 HRW report expanded on AI's overview as it focuses specifically on the case of Thailand, as the newly government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha assumes power in mid-2019, Thailand's human rights record shows no signs of change.
International organizations have frequently alleged that Azerbaijan has violated human rights standards established in international law. Human Rights Watch issued a 2013 report accusing Azerbaijan of imprisoning and harassing political activists and human rights defenders. In 2019, Human Rights Watch called the situation of human rights in Azerbaijan "appalling", citing "rigid control" by the government, "severely curtailing freedoms of association, expression, and assembly", as well as "torture and ill-treatment" of journalists, lawyers, and opposition activists. According to Reporters without Borders, Azerbaijan ranks 168 of 180 countries on the Press Freedom Index. A 2020 report by the U.S. State Department accused Azerbaijan of a wide variety of human rights abuses, including "unlawful or arbitrary killing", "heavy restrictions on free expression, the press, and the internet", and "the worst forms of child labor".
Human rights in Bangladesh are enshrined as fundamental rights in Part III of the Constitution of Bangladesh. However, constitutional and legal experts believe many of the country's laws require reform to enforce fundamental rights and reflect democratic values of the 21st century. Proposed reforms include strengthening parliamentary supremacy, judicial independence, the separation of powers, repealing laws which restrain freedom of the press and disbanding security agencies which violate civil liberties.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Asia are limited in comparison to many other areas of the world. Same-sex sexual activity is outlawed in at least twenty Asian countries. While at least eight countries have enacted protections for LGBT people, only Israel, Cyprus and Taiwan provide a wider range of LGBT rights – including same-sex relationship recognition. In Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Chechnya homosexual activity is punished with the death penalty. In addition, LGBT people also face extrajudicial executions from non-state actors such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Egalitarian relationships modeled on the Western pattern have become more frequent, though they remain rare. As of 2021, only Taiwan, the British Overseas Territories of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and the British Indian Ocean Territory have legalized same-sex marriage.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialised agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences, and culture. It has 193 member states and 11 associate members, as well as partners in the non-governmental, intergovernmental, and private sector. Headquartered at the World Heritage Centre in Paris, France, UNESCO has 53 regional field offices and 199 national commissions that facilitate its global mandate.
Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev is the fourth president of Azerbaijan, serving in the post since 31 October 2003.
The Iran Electoral Archive is an online comprehensive source of information about Iranian Elections, comprising laws, official documents, academic articles and commentaries, both in English and in Persian. The key objective of the IEAr project is to provide a large variety of stakeholders with a broad and impartial look at the Iranian elections legal framework, history and current developments. The archive constitutes a unique and concrete answer to the scarcity of available information in this domain, addressing in a systematic and academic manner the controversial debate revolving around the Iranian electoral process.
The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) is an international human rights organization which focuses on the issue of forced disappearance in Asia. AFAD was founded on 4 June 1998 in Manila, Philippines. The federation was awarded the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award in 2016.
Anita M. Vandenbeld is a Canadian politician, who was elected to represent the riding of Ottawa West—Nepean for the Liberal Party of Canada in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2015 Canadian federal election. She was re-elected in the same riding in 2019, and re-elected in 2021.
The Special Branch Bureau or SBB is a Law enforcement agency under the Royal Thai Police Headquarters. Special Branch Bureau has major security functions to the king, queen and all the royal family along with the action on the intelligence of the person or group that acts as a threat to national security. The agency was established on 17 November 2475 by Royal Decree of His Majesty King Prajadhipok's by the advise of The House of Representatives. As a result, the department is divided into four disivsion. Sometimes referred to by critics as the "political police", it is responsible for controlling subversive activities and serves as the Thai Police's major intelligence organization, as well as the unit responsible for VIP protection.
General elections were held in Myanmar on 8 November 2020. Voting occurred in all constituencies, excluding seats appointed by or reserved for the military, to elect members to both the upper house- Amyotha Hluttaw and the lower house- Pyithu Hluttaw of the Assembly of the Union, as well as State and Regional Hluttaws (legislatures). Ethnic Affairs Ministers were also elected by their designated electorates on the same day, although only select ethnic minorities in particular states and regions were entitled to vote for them. A total of 1,171 national, state, and regional seats were contested in the election, with polling having taken place in all townships, including areas considered conflict zones and self-administered regions.
Ahmed Kabir Kishore is a Bangladeshi cartoonist. He was accused of drawing cartoons and held in pre-trial detention in Bangladesh under the country's infamous Digital Security Act for 10 months since May 2, 2020. Cartoonists Rights Network International, Cartooning for Peace, various international organizations and common people of Bangladesh raised concerns over the detention and custodial torture on Kishore.
References
- 1 2 "International Community: Stand against Authoritarian Rule in Bangladesh". Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. Archived from the original on 2020-12-10. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
- 1 2 "2010: A Year of Challenges for an Exiled Media Newsroom". The Irrawaddy. Archived from the original on 2021-03-19. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
- ↑ "Our Members". Asian Network for Free Elections. 2012-01-24. Archived from the original on 2020-08-04. Retrieved 2021-02-06.
- ↑ Johanson Alpern, Vanessa (2012). "Promoting Electoral Integrity in Southeast Asia: ANFREL and ASEAN" (PDF). International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-02-13.