ARTICLE 19

Vietnamese authorities are using so-called “opinion shapers” to send an onslaught of abuse reports to Facebook, which has then led to the taking down of Facebook pages of well-known Vietnamese activists and human rights organizations.

ARTICLE 19 calls on the office of the Zacatecas Attorney General to investigate the murder of journalist Nolberto Herrera Rodríguez, looking into all possible motives, especially those that would connect the murder with Herrera’s work as a journalist.

In a decision dated 19 July, the government ordered the immediate closure of unauthorized radio and television stations, mosques and social media pages, as well as the suspension of all activities by organizations deemed to have links with terrorism.

The Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association has asked civil society to respond to a consultation on how engagement with multi-lateral institutions can be strengthened. ARTICLE 19’s response highlights the challenges many organisations and individuals face when trying to participate in international and multi-lateral mechanisms for the promotion of human rights.

It’s been 20 years since Lieutenant Yahya Jammeh overthrew the Gambian government and proclaimed himself President of the Republic. Some of the human rights violations recorded over the last 20 years include the killing of 14 protesters in April 2000 and the killing of journalist Deyda Hydara in 2004.

The impunity with which Natalia’s murder was carried out, the lack of political will to find the real perpetrators and bring them to justice in the five years since, is not only a personal tragedy but a worrying sign for the safety of journalists in Russia today.

The Moroccan rapper Mouad Belghaoute – also known as El Haqed, ‘the enraged one’ – was sentenced on 1 July 2014 to four months in prison amid concerns that the trial was unfair.

Without information and discussion, society is generally unable to achieve its right to a healthy environment: people remain unaware of the environmental threats that face them and are disempowered by not being equipped to participate fully in the development of policies.