Democracy and Human Rights

Indian lawmakers approved a historic bill Tuesday that would set aside one-third of all legislative seats for women, a move aimed at overturning six decades of male-dominated decision-making in this country. The bill, which drew fierce opposition before its passage in the upper house of parliament, would guarantee seats for women in the national legislature and all state assemblies in the world's largest democracy, where women have been largely kept on the sidelines of the legislative process. The bill must be approved by the lower house of parliament. It is expected to pass, although analysts say opponents could use political maneuvers to delay the bill. "This is a momentous development in the long journey of empowering our women. Women are facing discrimination at home. There is domestic violence, unequal access to health and education. This has to end," India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said after legislators approved the bill. The new quotas, he said, will be "living proof that the heart of Indian democracy is sound and is in the right place." – Washington Post

A top editor of a weekly newspaper who recently called for the reform of China’s onerous household registration system, which restricts where people can live, has been forced out of his job in a fresh warning that journalists who boldly challenge government policy face retribution.  The dismissed journalist, Zhang Hong, had been deputy editor in chief of the Web site of the Economic Observer, which is based in Beijing. Two Chinese media sources reached by telephone said he was fired because of his efforts to unite a group of journalists to criticize the registration system, which ties Chinese to their parents’ hometown if they want government services.  Reached by telephone Tuesday night, Mr. Zhang would not comment on the details of his dismissal.  But in a letter leaked to selected Chinese and foreign journalists on Tuesday, Mr. Zhang wrote that after the editorial was published, “I was punished accordingly; other colleagues and media partners also felt repercussions.”  He also wrote in the letter that his editorial had been “the product of a few editors working behind closed doors, only the impact it stirred up went beyond our first expectation.” – New York Times

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he sent a letter to Myanmar's junta chief to voice concern about the credibility of this year's nationwide election, the country's first in 20 years. Ban said he wrote to Senior General Than Shwe 10 days ago "expressing my concern about this lack of progress" on democratic reforms and emphasizing the importance of ensuring that this year's vote is "most credible, inclusive and transparent."…Ban urged the junta to empty the country's jails of political dissidents so they can take part in a nationwide election planned for this year. "All the political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, (should be) released as soon as possible, so that all of them can participate," he told reporters in New York. "That will make the election an inclusive and credible one." The election, a date for which has yet to be revealed, has been widely derided as an attempt by the junta to make the country appear democratic, with the military pulling the strings behind a civilian-fronted government. - Reuters

Officials and human rights groups in Nigeria sharply increased the count of the dead after a weekend of vicious ethnic violence, saying Monday that as many as 500 people — many of them women and children — may have been killed near the city of Jos, long a center of tensions between Christians and Muslims.  The dead were Christians and members of an ethnic group that had been feuding with the Hausa-Fulani, Muslim herders whom witnesses and police officials identified as the attackers. Officials said the attack was in reprisal for violence in January, when dozens of Muslims were slaughtered in and around Jos, including more than 150 in one village.  Early Sunday, the attackers set upon the villagers with machetes, killing women and children in their homes and ensnaring the men who tried to flee in fishnets and animal traps, then massacring them, according to a Nigerian rights group whose investigators went to the area. Some homes were set on fire.  The latest attacks were “a sort of vengeance from the Hausa-Fulani,” said the Rev. Emmanuel Joel, of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Jos. After the January attacks, “the military watched over the city, and neglected the villages,” he said…The police said Monday that they had made 95 arrests, including a number of Hausa-Fulani. – New York Times