Africa

A year on from the first event in Ghana, organisers have signed an agreement to help find a host city for the next edition.

The Nigerian is heading to Turkish club Galatasaray on loan, but why was it so hard for the African Player of the Year to find a move after falling out with Napoli?

The Nigerian is heading to Turkish club Galatasaray on loan, but why was it so hard for the African Player of the Year to find a move after falling out with Napoli?

Mossoró prison, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, in Brazil, is one of the five maximum security prisons in that country. Credit: Mjsp

By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Sep 4 2024 (IPS)

Invoking the fight against terrorists and sending those who can be charged with this crime to new maximum security prisons are increasingly emerging in the toolbox of Latin American leaders who want to show an iron fist against criminals and opponents.

Renata Segura, head of the regional programme of the Brussels-based think-tank International Crisis Group, wrote on her X-media account that “the fascination of Latin American presidents with maximum security prisons is spreading like wildfire.”

This attraction is present among presidents of opposing political persuasions, although most of them are united by the neo-populism of their policies and actions.

Venezuela is the most recent case, where president Nicolás Maduro, whose re-election in the 28 July elections sparked an outbreak of street protests, ordered two prisons to be set up as maximum security jails to hold some 2,000 protesters arrested and accused of terrorism.“The fascination of Latin American presidents with maximum security prisons is spreading like wildfire”: Renata Segura.

Argentine president Javier Milei accused opponents who recently demonstrated against him in Buenos Aires of the same offence, while Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa ordered the construction of a maximum security prison and a prison ship for criminals accused of terrorism.

The top regional reference is president Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, who under a state of emergency that has lasted more than two years has detained 80,000 people, mostly accused of terrorism as members of large criminal gangs or maras.

The Bukele government built a mega-prison, the Terrorism Containment Center (Cecot), with capacity for 40,000 inmates who are subjected to trial and detention conditions that violate human rights, according to international humanitarian organisations that observe the process.

Segura told IPS from New York that “the recent announcements of the construction of maximum security prisons are most likely inspired by the measures taken by president Bukele, who has been quite successful in reducing insecurity.”

She acknowledged that the Salvadoran ruler “has high levels of popularity, despite massive human rights violations in that country.”

Indeed, “he ended up putting two percent of El Salvador’s adult population behind bars, mostly without due process, and with serious human rights violations,” said Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, president of the non-governmental Washington Office on Latin America (Wola).

Under this state of emergency, “at least 261 people have already been killed, and we must remember that every person in state custody is the responsibility of the state,” Sandoval told IPS from Washington.

Construction work is underway at the dilapidated Tocuyito prison in north-central Venezuela, which is being quickly converted into a high-security prison for hundreds of detainees in protests against the proclaimed re-election of president Nicolás Maduro. Credit: RrSs

New fad, old recipe

On 21 June, Noboa started building a maximum-security prison on a 16-hectare site in the province of Santa Elena, on the Pacific coast of Ecuador, a country of 18 million people with 36 prisons. It is expected to cost US$52 million and will hold up to 800 inmates.

“Today we are marking one of the most important milestones in our fight against terrorism and the mafias that have hijacked our country’s momentum for decades,” said the president, who will seek re-election next year.

In Venezuela, while hundreds of young protesters against Maduro’s proclamation as winner were imprisoned in late July, the president ordered two prisons in the centre of the country, Tocorón and Tocuyito, to be remodelled as “maximum security prisons” to hold the new captives.

Not to be outdone, Milei announced he will sell prisons on valuable land in urban centres in Argentina, and use the money to build maximum security prisons far from the cities. In June he sent his Security minister, Patricia Bullrich, to learn about the Salvadoran experience.

“This is the way. Tough on criminals,” the minister said after the visit.

Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa (in black) looks at a model of the new maximum security prison being built on his country’s Pacific coast. He presents it as part of the fight against criminal gangs he describes as terrorists. Credit: Presidencia de Ecuador

Maximum security prisons have always existed in the region, such as the Mexican Federal Rehabilitation Centre El Altiplano, in the central state of Mexico, where a group of former drug cartel leaders and serial killers are held.

Colombia has its most secure prisons in Combita (centre) and Valledupar (north), as well as maximum security wings in Bogota’s La Picota prison, where it has held guerrillas, convicted or accused terrorists, and drug cartel leaders for years.

Brazil, with 8.5 million square kilometres and 205 million people, has five maximum security prisons, in four of its 26 states and in the Federal District. Two prisoners escaped from Mossoro prison in the northeast last February, its first jailbreak since 2006.

Tragically famous are the prisons of Lurigancho, in Lima, and El Fronton Island, in the Pacific off the capital, for the massacre of hundreds of prisoners belonging to leftist guerrilla group Shining Path, following a riot in June 1986, in the context of the anti-terrorist struggle in Peru.

Argentina’s Security Minister Patricia Bullrich visited the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, which she considers a model to follow. Credit: Presidencia de El Salvador

These maximum security prisons were shut down after the massacre, but Peru maintains the Challapalca prison, in a desolate spot in the south of the country at 4,600 metres above sea level, the highest in the world, where it holds dozens of prisoners considered highly dangerous.

Commenting on the case of El Salvador, Jiménez Sandoval observed, “does it have lower homicide levels? True. Do people feel safer? True.”

“It is also true that these punitive models based on mass arrests and human rights violations tend to have immediate effects, but it is very difficult in the medium and long term for them to continue to be useful”, she said.

“You can’t put everyone behind bars”, but also “because many of the factors that influence and cause the inclusion of young people in violence remain, such as poverty, exclusion, lack of educational and employment opportunities and life plans”, Jiménez said.

“We are not terrorists,” reads a sign held by a protester in Caracas against the proclaimed re-election of president Nicolás Maduro. Nearly 2,000 people have been arrested in the protests and the Attorney General’s Office has announced terrorism charges against hundreds of them. Credit: Provea

Cultivating fear

Now, the option of maximum security prisons goes beyond the fight against terrorism and reaches political activism, threatening opponents or demonstrators who could be accused of this crime, and also as a show of strength and determination to hold on to power.

“When rulers in countries that also face high rates of insecurity due to organised crime, gangs or other phenomena announce these measures, they are undoubtedly making gestures that indicate that they too are adopting a tough-on-crime strategy,” Segura said.

In Venezuela, “where repression of the opposition has grown after the elections, I think there is another goal: sending a message to those who are considering joining the protests that they will be arrested and imprisoned as if they were high risk criminals,” she added.

The Venezuelan government “is making a very intense effort to mainstream that anyone who protests or dissents from the officially announced election results is a terrorist,” lawyer Gonzalo Himiob, vice-president of Foro Penal, an organisation advocating human rights, and in particular of prisoners, for 15 years, told IPS.

“There is a deliberate trivialisation of terrorism by those in power, and a technical incorrectness, because arrested demonstrators do not fit the internationally accepted definitions of terrorist agents, links or acts,” Himiob said.

Many of those arrested were just bystanders not even demonstrating, and among the 1,500 arrested in the weeks following the 28 July election there are at least 114 teenagers, which delegitimises the terrorism charges, he adds.

There were “doubly serious events”, such as the announcement by the Prosecutor’s Office that those arrested would be categorised as terrorists, “a prefabricated catalogue that inverts the law, which states that first the facts are individualised and then the people, and not the other way around,” continued Himiob.

In short, “they are acting with what is known as criminal law of the enemy, using it not to do justice but to capitalise on power,” he said.

And, thus, to rule with the impulse of the springs of fear.

Measles vaccinations alone prevented 57 million deaths since the year 2000. But this success does not just depend on developing effective vaccines; they need to be accessible to everyone. Credit: Shutterstock.

By Daniela Ramirez Schrempp
Sep 4 2024 (IPS)

Measles infections are surging right now, with epidemiologists reporting that the number of large or disruptive outbreaks has tripled over the past three years. It is one of the most infectious diseases that we know. The virus spreads through respiratory droplets; when an infected person coughs or sneezes, it can linger in the air for up to two hours and infect 10 others who are not immune.

Most of the estimated 136,000 people who died from measles infections in 2022 were children under the age of five. Every single death is a tragedy, but it hurts even more when those deaths could have been prevented with a safe and effective vaccine.

As a pediatrician, I am proud to be involved with vaccines because of their public health impact. Vaccination has accounted for 40% of the observed decline in global infant mortality; it is one of the most remarkable achievements in modern medicine.

Globally, just under three-quarters of all children under the age of two received both doses of a measles vaccine when at least 95% is needed to prevent outbreaks. Even worse, an estimated 14.5 million children haven’t received any doses of any vaccines

Measles vaccinations alone prevented 57 million deaths since the year 2000. But this success does not just depend on developing effective vaccines; they need to be accessible to everyone.

Having grown up in Colombia, at a time and place where vaccines were not as prevalent or accessible, and having attended medical school there, I unfortunately saw children sick and dying from diseases that vaccines could prevent. I even had some of these diseases in childhood. And so, every time my kids get vaccinated, I celebrate (although they don’t).

Not all parents have this background though, and I understand how decisions that impact the health of your child can be intimidating without it.

My work in vaccine safety also provides an understanding of the research behind these shots. Every vaccine goes through rigorous testing in clinical trials, continuous monitoring for adverse effects, and adherence to strict regulatory standards. There is also strict safety surveillance and data monitoring conducted not only by drug developers but also by national health authorities in each country.

For vaccines, we closely monitor for safety and reactogenicity — the property of a vaccine to produce common, short-term side effects that are typically mild, self-limited, and usually indicate an immune response, such as pain at the injection site, fever, or fatigue.

We ask participants in clinical trials to report daily if they experienced any of these symptoms, how long they lasted, and how severe they were. This information helps inform future vaccine recipients about what they can expect. If the reactogenicity is too high and unacceptable, it may be a reason to discontinue the clinical trial and reassess what needs to be changed to continue the development of that vaccine.

In terms of safety, all adverse events that happen to any participant during a trial are carefully evaluated and analyzed to identify which of these events could be associated with the vaccine. We ask participants to report all signs and symptoms they may have experienced during the trial, whether they think they are related to the vaccine or not.

Usually, a trial includes participants who receive the actual vaccine and others who receive a placebo. That means that the study is “blinded” and neither the participants nor the trial staff and researchers know who is receiving the vaccine or the placebo until the data is evaluated. This helps us better determine if adverse events are related to the vaccine.

Globally, just under three-quarters of all children under the age of two received both doses of a measles vaccine when at least 95% is needed to prevent outbreaks. Even worse, an estimated 14.5 million children haven’t received any doses of any vaccines.

There are many unfortunate reasons why, including impoverished communities not having access to adequate healthcare and displaced populations driven from their homes. It isn’t only caused by people who are skeptical of the value of vaccines; however, these individuals had the choice to protect their children and their communities and they chose not to.

The stakes are clear, and it is not just about measles. Wild polio virus infections have decreased 99% since 1988, from 350,000 cases to 6 in 2021.

The disease still lingers though, as vaccination rates, at an average of 83%, are good but not great with too many geographic disparities for a disease that is exceptionally contagious and can cause irreversible paralysis.

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is another contagious infection with a significant mortality rate among infants, yet it is not being tracked as diligently. The last year WHO has complete data is 2018, when more than 151,000 infections were catalogued. In 2023 an estimated 84% of infants around the world received the recommended three doses of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) vaccine, but low-income countries trailed wealthier countries in immunizing their children.

If you take care of a child’s health and wellbeing, you’re taking care of the future of an entire community. And if that child is able to grow and learn without the threat of disease, the future of both the child and the community improves considerably. This is our goal.

Every parent’s decision to vaccinate their child plays a role, along with every program and initiative that makes the decision accessible and effective. Achieving herd immunity is paramount, where diseases cannot take hold in a community because most everyone has been immunized. Only high vaccination rates make this future possible.

 

Daniela Ramirez Schrempp, MD, is the Pharmacovigilance Medical Leader at the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute.

 

Daniel Mthimkhulu claimed to have engineering degrees - but had only finished high school.

Nigerian Mariam Eniola Bolaji is the first African to win a medal in badminton at the Paralympics.

Nigerian Mariam Eniola Bolaji is the first African to win a medal in badminton at the Paralympics.

Many people are left stranded as drivers queue for fuel and commuters wait at bus stations.

A Peruvian farming family shares a moment of leisure during their agricultural work. Credit: FAO

By Mario Lubetkin
Sep 4 2024 (IPS)

The latest publication of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 (SOFI) report launched last July in the framework of the G20 meeting in Rio de Janeiro provides a detailed overview of progress and setbacks in the fight against hunger.

At the global level, although we have made some progress, significant inequalities persist: while Africa remains the most affected region, Latin America shows positive signs of recovery, reflecting the impact of concerted efforts to improve food security.

Despite the region's progress, the Caribbean and Central American subregions continue to experience challenges related to increasing hunger. We cannot afford to go backward. It is essential that we deepen our analysis of the visions and strategies that have shown positive results to continue this path

The road has not been easy. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, our region was one of the most affected by hunger, reaching its highest point in 2021 at 6.9 percent of the population, while 40.6 percent faced moderate or severe food insecurity. For several years, e observed how progress made in the early 2000s rapidly receded.

However, the last two years have seen a decline in hunger levels, with a rate of 6.2% of the population, representing a decrease of 4.3 million people, mainly driven by South America.

Investments in social protection programs in several countries in the region have been instrumental in driving this recovery. Social systems have enabled quick response and more effective allocation of available financial resources to the most vulnerable populations.

Despite the region’s progress, the Caribbean and Central American subregions continue to experience challenges related to increasing hunger. We cannot afford to go backward. It is essential that we deepen our analysis of the visions and strategies that have shown positive results to continue this path.

Six months after the FAO Regional Conference in Georgetown, Guyana, we are committed to providing tangible responses to the priorities established for countries to transform agrifood systems and achieve Better Production, Better Nutrition, Better Environment, and Better Life.

At FAO, we have initiated a process of high-level reflection with governments to share experiences of public policies aimed at guaranteeing food and nutritional security.

Like the rest of the world, our region must be prepared to face growing risks such as climate change, conflicts, economic crises, and other challenges.

Latin America and the Caribbean has shown that, with the right policies, we can move forward and offer concrete and sustainable responses. Only with a firm commitment can we put an end to hunger and malnutrition, leaving no one behind.

Excerpt:

Mario Lubetkin is FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean 

The Security Council meets at the United Nations Headquarters to discuss the escalating hostilities in Libya and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya. Credits: UN Photo/Manuel Elías

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 4 2024 (IPS)

The situation in Libya continues to grow more dire every year since the emergence of the al-Kaniyat militant group. From 2013 to 2022, al-Kaniyat had been responsible for a multitude of human rights violations, including mass killings, kidnappings, forced displacements, torture, and sexual violence. The lack of accountability for these injustices has spurred renewed conflict, which threatens to destabilize Libya years later.

In 2011, al-Kaniyat seized control of Tarhuna, a Libyan village that fosters approximately 150,000 people. Originally, al-Kaniyat had served as a local organized militia that sided with the Government of National Accord (GNA), an interim government that oversaw Libyan affairs after 2015. However, al-Kaniyat would eventually side with the Libyan National Army (LNA).

A report by the Libyan American Alliance (LAA) details the transgressions committed by the al-Kaniyat militia during the 2019-2020 Tripoli conflict.

“By October (of 2020), more than 20 mass graves had been exhumed in Tarhuna, accounting for over 200 bodies. Many disappearances and executions were not well-recorded by relatives of the victims though, due to the fear ingrained in the Tarhuna population by the militias, therefore, it is impossible to know the true quantity of victims”, stated Kamal Abubaker, Head of Libya’s General Authority for Searching and Identifying Missing Persons (GASIMP).

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimates that at least 338 people were abducted or reported missing during the militia’s five year siege. Additionally, LAA states that there is evidence of civilians being buried alive, electrocuted, and subjected to intense beatings.

Years later, GASIMP continued to find the remains of hundreds of victims, disposed of in mass graves. Numerous bombs and landmines were also recorded in the Tarhuna-Tripoli region.

Abubaker stated that there were at least 17 other mass graves in the area, containing women and children as well. It is estimated that there could be over 100 more that have yet to be discovered. In addition, over 350 families have reported missing relatives.

Civilians that defied al-Kaniyat authorities were imprisoned in one of four detention camps. Living conditions in these facilities were dire and prisoners were routinely subjected to physical and psychological torture.

The HRW detailed these conditions in a 2022 report. Detainees were contained in small, box-like cells that were approximately 1.2 meters high and 1.2 meters wide. Detainees were often suspended and whipped with plastic hoses on the soles of their feet, a practice known as falaka.

The perpetrators of these cases are still in the lengthy process of being identified and held accountable. This is primarily due to Libya’s compromised criminal justice system.

“Libya’s criminal justice system remained weak with serious due process concerns. Judges, prosecutors, and lawyers remained at risk of harassment and attack by armed groups. Military courts continued to try civilians”, states the HRW.

Additionally, during al-Kaniyat’s occupancy in Tarhuna, they controlled the local police and militia, causing significant obstructions of justice. Furthermore, the Kaniyat militia controlled key passages to Tripoli, effectively isolating Tarhuna from accessing crucial resources and aid personnel.

Mohamed Al-Kosher, the mayor of Tarhuna, stated, “Unfortunately, successive governments in Libya did not interfere in the crimes of this militia. If they wanted to, they could have taken out the Kaniyat. But every government turned a blind eye toward the crimes, and in return, the Kaniyat did what the government asked it to do”.

As a result, future perpetrators of human rights violations believe they are afforded impunity and the cycle continues.The lack of due process for the perpetrators of these violations has led to the emergence of an increasingly unstable social climate in Tarhuna.

An August 2024 report by The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) states, “The lack of truth and justice, including accountability for the countless crimes committed, has in some instances led to renewed violence and repeated violations fomenting further grievances in Tarhuna and surrounding area”.

Stephanie Koury, the acting Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, adds that “leaving the root causes and drivers of conflict unaddressed will only serve to keep fueling toxic cycles of violence and revenge between communities”. Therefore, it is crucial to expedite punitive processes for al-Kaniyat perpetrators to ensure the stability of Libya.

Currently, there are judicial processes in progress to identify and prosecute those involved in human rights violations in Tarhuna. According to OHCHR, in November 2022, numerous applications for arrest warrants were submitted.

Libyan Attorney-General, al-Siddiq al-Sur stated that judicial investigators had opened 280 criminal cases against al-Kaniyat members. However, only 10 of these cases had been referred to court, with no date given as to when these trials will take place.

OHCHR adds that the United Nations (UN) has urged Libyan authorities to allow for “effective reparations” for victims, including “legal aid and mental health support and guarantees of non-repetition, designed in consultation with those directly affected”.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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People in Gaza are living in increasingly unsanitary conditions, amid the looming threat of deadly diseases. Credit: UNRWA
 
"Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, as part of an overall process of elimination, replacement, and territorial expansion," said United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

By Jake Johnson
NEW YORK, Sep 4 2024 (IPS)

An independent United Nations expert has warned that “Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole” as Western governments, corporations, and other institutions keep up their support for the Israeli military, which stands accused of grave war crimes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement September 2 that “there is mounting evidence that no Palestinian is safe under Israel’s unfettered control.”

“The writing is on the wall, and we cannot continue to ignore it,” said Albanese, who released a detailed report in May concluding that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza.

Albanese’s new statement came as the Israeli military’s largest assault on the West Bank in decades continued into its second week. At least 29 Palestinians have been killed during the series of military raids, according to Al Jazeera, including at least five children.

“Apartheid Israel is targeting Gaza and the West Bank simultaneously, as part of an overall process of elimination, replacement, and territorial expansion,” Albanese said.

“The longstanding impunity granted to Israel is enabling the de-Palestinization of the occupied territory, leaving Palestinians at the mercy of the forces pursuing their elimination as a national group.”

“The international community, made of both states and non-state actors, including companies and financial institutions, must do everything it can to immediately end the risk of genocide against the Palestinian people under Israel’s occupation, ensure accountability, and ultimately end Israel’s colonization of Palestinian territory,” Albanese added.

Defense for Children International–Palestine noted that “dozens of Israeli military vehicles” have “stormed” the West Bank city of Jenin over the past week as “Israeli forces deployed across the targeted refugee camps, seizing Palestinian homes to use as military bases and stationing snipers on the roofs of buildings, subjecting their residents to field investigations.”

“The military bulldozers began destroying the civil infrastructure in Jenin city and camp, which led to the destruction of the main water networks and power outage in several neighborhoods in Jenin and surrounding villages,” the group said. “Israeli forces besieged several hospitals in Jenin and impeded the movement of ambulances and paramedics.”

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 620 people in the occupied West Bank since October 7, on top of the roughly 40,800 killed by the Israeli military in Gaza.

Unlawful Israeli land seizures have also surged in the West Bank as settlers and soldiers wipe out entire Palestinian communities. The BBC reported that, according to its own analysis, there are “currently at least 196 across the West Bank, and 29 were set up last year—more than in any previous year.”

Israel’s multi-day attack on the West Bank that began last week has intensified fears that unless there’s a permanent cease-fire, the assault on Gaza could expand to the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories and throughout the Middle East.

David Hearst, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye, wrote that “even with the obvious reluctance of Hezbollah and Iran to get involved, all the ingredients are there for. a much larger conflagration.”

“An Israel in the grip of an ultra-nationalist, religious, settler insurgency; a U.S. president who allows his signature policy to be flouted by his chief ally, even at the risk of losing a crucial election; resistance that will not surrender; Palestinians in Gaza who will not flee; Palestinians in the West Bank who are now stepping up to the front line; Jordan, the second country to recognize Israel, feeling under existential threat,” Hearst wrote on September 2

For U.S. President Joe Biden or Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, he added, “the message is so clear, it is flashing in neon lights: The regional costs of not standing up to Netanyahu could rapidly outweigh the domestic benefits of being dragged along by him.”

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, similarly argued that “the U.S. must reverse course—and do so dramatically.”

“A long-overdue cut-off of U.S. arms to Israel and recognition of the Palestinian right to self-determination would provide exactly the shock to the system that is needed,” Zogby wrote. “It would force an internal debate in Israel, empowering those who want peace. It might also serve to send a message to the Palestinian people that their plight and rights are understood.”

These actions, especially if followed up with determination and concrete steps, won’t end the conflict tomorrow,” Zogby continued, “but they would surely put the region on a more productive path towards peace than the one it is on now.”

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

Source: Common Dreams

IPS UN Bureau

 

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An amendment to Bulgaria’s education law, passed last month, bans the "propaganda, promotion, or incitement in any way, directly or indirectly, in the education system of ideas and views related to non-traditional sexual orientation and/or gender identity other than the biological one."

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Sep 4 2024 (IPS)

A law banning the portrayal of LGBT+ identities in Bulgarian educational institutions is just the latest piece of repressive legislation in a wider assault on minorities and marginalized communities across parts of Europe and Central Asia, rights groups have warned.

The law, passed in a fast-track procedure last month, is similar to legislation passed or proposed in many countries across the region in recent years that restricts LGBT+ rights. 

And while the Bulgarian law is expected to have a harmful impact on children and adolescents in the country, it is also likely to be followed by legislation aimed at repressing other groups in society, following a pattern implemented by autocratic rulers across the region, activists say.

“Often anti-LGBT laws go hand in hand with other [repressive] legislation. One will come soon after the other. What this is all about is for certain political parties to concentrate and gain ultimate power for themselves. LGBT+ people and other marginalized groups are just scapegoats,” Belinda Dear, Senior Advocacy Officer at LGBT+ organisation ILGA Europe, told IPS.

An amendment to Bulgaria’s education law, passed on August 7, 2024 with a huge majority in parliament, bans the “propaganda, promotion, or incitement in any way, directly or indirectly, in the education system of ideas and views related to non-traditional sexual orientation and/or gender identity other than the biological one”.

Kostadin Kostadinov, chairman of the far-right Vazrazhdane (Revival) party that introduced the legislation, said that “LGBT propaganda is anti-human and won’t be accepted in Bulgaria.”

Critics say the law will have a terrible impact on LGBT+ children in a country where LGBT+ people already face struggles for their rights. In its most recent Rainbow Map, which analyses the state of LGBTQ+ rights and freedoms across the continent, ILGA Europe ranked Bulgaria 38 out of 48 countries.

“The teachers we have spoken to are really afraid of what is going to happen now. We are expecting to see a sharp increase in attacks and abuse of schoolchildren over gender and sexual orientation,” Denitsa Lyubenova, Legal Program & Projects Director at Deystvie, one of Bulgaria’s largest LGBT+ organizations, told IPS.

“The law has just been passed so we cannot be sure of its specific impacts just yet, but what we know from elsewhere is that laws like this in schools will impact children and adolescents, it will increase bullying and legitimize discrimination by other students, and even teachers,” added Dear.

Like other rights campaigners, Lyubenova pointed out the similarities between the Bulgarian law and similar legislation passed in other countries in Europe and Central Asia in recent years.

So-called ‘anti-LGBT+ propaganda’ laws were passed in Hungary in 2021 and Kyrgyzstan last year. These were in turn inspired by Russian legislation passed almost a decade earlier, which has since been expanded to the entire LGBT+ community and followed by laws essentially banning any positive expression of LGBT+ people.

Reports from rights groups have shown the harmful consequences of such legislation.

But while these laws have been roundly condemned by local and international rights bodies, political parties in some countries continue to attempt to push them through.

On the same day the Bulgarian law was passed, the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS) said it was planning to put forward a bill restricting discussion and teaching of LGBT+ themes in schools at the next parliamentary session in September.

Meanwhile, in June, the ruling Georgian Dream party in Georgia proposed legislation which would, among others, outlaw any LGBT+ gatherings, ban same-sex marriages, gender transition and the adoption of children by same-sex couples.

It will also prohibit LGBT+ ‘propaganda’ in schools and broadcasters and advertisers will have to remove any content featuring same-sex relationships before broadcast, regardless of the age of the intended audience.

In both countries, the proposed legislation comes soon after the implementation of so-called ‘foreign agent laws’ which put restrictions and onerous obligations on certain NGOs which receive foreign funding. Critics say such laws can have a devastating effect on civil society, pointing to a similar law introduced in Russia in 2012 as part of a Kremlin crackdown on civil society. The legislation, which led to affected NGOs being forced to declare themselves as ‘foreign agents’ has resulted in many civil society organisations in fields from human rights to healthcare being effectively shuttered.

Campaigners say it is no coincidence that anti-LGBT+ legislation and ‘foreign agent’ laws are being introduced closely together.

“[The anti-LGBT+ legislation] is likely to be the first in a series of laws that will discriminate against not just LGBT+ people, but other marginalized groups, which are seen as a ‘problem’ by far right organizations in Bulgaria,” said Lyubenova.

“This anti-LGBT+ law came from the Revival party, which has previously put forward bills for a ‘foreign agent law’ in Bulgaria. We are expecting a bill for foreign agent legislation to be introduced to Bulgaria’s parliament soon,” she added.

In Georgia, where legislation restricting LGBT+ rights will be debated in a final reading this month in parliament, civil society activists say the government is using one law to fuel support for the other.

“Both laws are part of the same, great evil [the government is pushing],” Paata Sabelashvili, a board member with the Equality Movement NGO in Georgia, told IPS.

Dear said the passing of ‘foreign agent’ laws was part of a template used by autocratic regimes to hold onto power “by dismantling civil society, which keeps a watch on politicians”.

The other parts of the template, she said, were to also “dismantle the independence of the judiciary, and the media”. Russia, Hungary, Georgia and Slovakia regularly score poorly in international press freedom indexes, and concerns have been raised about threats to media independence in Kyrgyzstan. Meanwhile, Russia is widely seen as no longer having an independent judiciary and concerns have been raised about government influence in the judicial systems in Slovakia, Georgia and Hungary.

Governments that have introduced these laws have said they are essential to preserve their countries’ traditional values and to limit foreign regimes—usually specifically western—influencing internal politics and destabilizing the country. These claims have been repeatedly rejected by the civil society and minority groups the laws are aimed at.

Some rights campaigners see the introduction of these laws as part of a coordinated international effort to not just spread specific ideologies but also entrench autocratic regimes.

While ostensibly the introduction of such legislation are the acts of independent sovereign regimes, campaigners say the politicians behind these laws are not necessarily acting entirely on their own initiative.

Activists in Slovakia and Georgia who have spoken to IPS highlight the strongly pro-Russian sentiments expressed by governing parties in their countries, while Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has been heavily criticized even among European Union officials for his closeness to the Kremlin and criticism of help for Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour. Meanwhile, Russia—as it does with many other central Asian countries—and Kyrgyzstan have historic ties dating back to the Soviet Union.

“These parties [behind these laws] have links to Russia. [Pushing through this kind of legislation] is strategically coordinated; it’s very well-planned,” said Dear.

“I believe this is all part of a wider trend linked to far right governments and/or parties,” Tamar Jakeli, LGBT+ activist and Director of Tbilisi Pride in Tbilisi, Georgia, told IPS.

Forbidden Colours, a Brussels-based LGBT+ advocacy group, linked the Bulgarian law directly to the Kremlin’s repression of rights in Russia.

“It is deeply troubling to see Bulgaria adopting tactics from Russia’s anti-human rights playbook,” the group said in a statement.

Meanwhile, international and Bulgarian rights groups have called on the EU to act to force the Bulgarian government to repeal the anti-LGBT+ law, while Bulgarian civil society organisations are getting ready to fight its implementation. There have been street protests against it in the capital, Sofia, and Lyubenova said her organisation was also preparing legal challenges to the law.

“What these far-right groups are doing with this law is they are testing our ability to stand up to hateful actions. We have to challenge it,” said Lyubenova.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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