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             HRW Report: Past Years Most Tumultuous in a Generation

   by Isabela Cocoli

   Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that from Russia, to China, to Ethiopia,
   to Turkey, rights crackdowns took place in 2013 and 2014, making them
   the most tumultuous in a generation.

   No challenge in the past year has exploded more dramatically than the
   emergence of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, the right group says.

   Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday upon the release
   of [1]2015 World Report, the group's Executive Director, Kenneth Roth,
   said that authoritarian governments around the world are particularly
   feeling the pressure of civil societies empowered by social media.

   "What we have noticed over the last year in particular is that the
   autocrats of the world, the authoritarian governments are running
   scared in the face of civil society. This has become particularly acute
   now that the civil society has been empowered by social media,
   particularly by social media on mobile phone. Because what that means
   is that it is much easier for civic groups to mobilize large numbers of
   people on the street in order to protest governmental policy," Roth
   said.

   ''Clampdowns in Russia, China

   The report, which covers a period from late 2013 through November 2014,
   includes a review of human rights records in more than 90 countries,
   highlighting Russia and China for imposing clampdowns on civil society.

   Roth cited measures that make life harder for civil society groups in
   Russia that receive foreign funding. He also said that Chinese
   activists struggle to establish rights groups and risk imprisonment
   under broad uses of anti-terror laws. Some of it was the result of the
   proliferation of social media, he said.

   "This fear of civil society has become particularly acute in Russia, in
   China. Because both (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and (Chinese
   President) Xi Jinping have made an implicit pact with their people.
   They say we will give you increasing prosperity; you let us govern
   without any real accountability. And that deal has worked for leaders
   while the economy improved. But now that the economy is in trouble
   those leaders are terrified that their people will begin to protest,"
   Roth said.

   Rejecting any criticism of its human rights record, China has said that
   it is a country ruled by law and that it objects to external
   interference in its domestic affairs.

   Russian President Putin has said that he would not allow the West to
   use civil rights groups to foment unrest in Russia, suggesting that
   their activities are sometimes politically-motivated and designed to
   undermine the Russian political system.

   ''Migrant crisis, Syria conflict

   The report also criticizes Europe's effort to manage its migrant
   crisis, saying that it risks undermining the continent's core values.
   It says that the influx of refugees to Europe from Syria and elsewhere
   has coincided with the rise of populist political parties exploiting
   Islamophobia.

   Asked about Syrian peace talks, set for Friday in Geneva, Switzerland,
   Roth criticized the diplomatic process for not tackling atrocities on
   the ground.

   "In our view, (U.S.) Secretary (of State John) Kerry and his allies are
   going about the Geneva talks backwards. They seem to have the view that
   using Kerry's diplomatic prowess that he can simply knock heads in
   Geneva and arrive at some kind of accord for Syria without addressing
   the atrocities taking place on the ground, that they will end the war
   first and the atrocities will come later. That is, I say, is going
   backwards," he said.

   Roth said that one spillover from that diplomatic approach was that
   Europe was not focusing its attention on Turkey's military crackdown on
   militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which have waged an
   insurgency since 1984, and the prosecution of journalists, politicians
   and academics who have criticized and accused President Recep Tayyip
   Erdogan of increasingly authoritarian tendencies.

   Among others, the HRW World Report 2015, also details Boko Haram
   atrocities in Nigeria; Kenya's "abusive response" to al-Shabab, the
   Somali Islamist insurgent group that carried out the highest-profile
   attacks in Nairobi and nearby villages along Kenya's coast; and
   Mexico's "abuse-riddled" war on drugs.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/human-rights-watch-2015-report/316511
   3.html

References

   1. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/world_report_download/wr2015_web.pdf
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/human-rights-watch-2015-report/3165113.html