The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) expresses its solidarity with citizen Demiana Abdelnour, who was accused of defamation of religion and whose imprisonment was extended to a further 15 days pending investigation in case no. 810/2013 Luxor/administrative. The association calls upon the prosecution to release her and discard the complaint filed against her in that regard as well as ...

We sit and we watch. We praise any small movement by the women’s rights community in Saudi Arabia as if it is the beginning of a monumental change that will dramatically shake-up the future of the ultra-conservative Gulf country. The reality, despite the obvious optimism in recent years, is that women in Saudi Arabia are facing the worst political and social future of arguably any country in the world. Cert ...

Statement delivered at the 53rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights in Banjul, Gambia Madame chair, ladies and gentlemen Today, Ethiopia lives through the sword of the Damocles drawn against it. The scourge of the old days of the Red Terror grips the population. 90 million Ethiopians, a total population of a few countries in Africa put together, live in absolute fear. A si ...

Egyptian activist Nada Zaiytona had little idea when she walked into Seif Pharmacy in Cairo that she would come toe to toe with the ugly and omnipresent face of racism in Egypt. The activist strolled into the pharmacy last month intending to buy a product and was turned away by an employee who told her bluntly "we don't sell to blacks." Yes, in an African country, Seif Pharmacy, an African enterprise, discr ...

Jordanian criminal justice authorities should immediately drop their three-year prosecution of two intellectuals and withdraw all charges against them. The charges, which include “disturbing relations with a foreign state” and “inciting racist strife,” relate solely to the two men’s peaceful exercise of their right to free speech. Prosecutors filed charges against Mwafaq Mahadin, 59, and Sufyan al-Tell, 74, ...

Holocaust Remembrance Day in Lithuania, a day not long ago ostensibly of commemoration and atonement in the country where the highest rate of extermination was achieved in the whole of Nazi occupied Europe and yet not one word of remembrance or apology. Unsurprising perhaps in a country that has worked so hard to rehabilitate its wartime Quisling leader’s memory and likely the only country in the European U ...

Today, Freedom Now, Amnesty International, CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, the Committee to Free Eskinder Nega, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, English PEN, the International Press Institute, the International Women’s Media Foundation, Media Legal Defence Initiative, the National Press Club, PEN American Center, PEN Canada, a ...

ADDIS ABABA: United for life Ethiopia is a western Christian fundamentalists/ Evangelicals affiliated religious non-governmental local organization engaged in both “healing services through counselling and prayers and coordinating with the religious forums in Ethiopia for a constitutional ban of homosexuality in the country (homosexuality is criminalized in the penal code of Ethiopia but not banned in the c ...

ADDIS ABABA: The fear of gay people in East Africa is at an all-time high, with over 90 percent of Ethiopians and East Africans scared of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT). The question, as reports of the introduction of the death penalty for gay people begins to mount, is why this is the case. Bikyanews.com reported over the past year a great deal on the battle for gay rights in Ethiopia an ...

Last year this month, I wrote a piece related to the racism inherent in Israel. At the time, I was freelancing with The Media Line (TNL), a news website that promoted itself as a beacon of free speech in the Middle East. However, after I published an article titled "Get over it, Israel is racist" I was immediately told to stop writing anything as they "dealt" with the issue at hand. Unfortunately they never ...