SPOTLIGHT Scholarship Blog - upcoming themes, news and events

The news round has been updated by Jenny Chen,  Law & Politics, 6th semester

Events

Theme 1: Empowerment of the voiceless and vulnerable

News

  • Brazil’s Congress weakens environmental, Indigenous ministries Brazil’s conservative-majority Congress has voted to scale back the authority of two ministries dedicated to upholding Indigenous rights and protecting the environment, following opposition from the South American nation’s powerful agribusiness industry. The vote marks a setback for left-wing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who had promised to put Indigenous rights and the battle against climate change front and centre after years of neglect under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
  • Can satellite imagery fight illegal logging in Mexico? Between 2006 and 2012, researchers estimate that about 70 percent of Cheran’s forests were ravaged by organised criminals as locals staged protests to denounce police inaction. Today, the state of Michoacan is on the cusp of rolling out a new surveillance system designed to help combat this type of crime. But the threat of illegal logging still looms, and some are sceptical of how the new satellite system will work in practice.
  • ‘Like a war zone’: Congress hears of China’s abuses in Xinjiang ‘re-education camps’ Two women who say they experienced and eventually escaped Chinese “re-education” camps provided first-hand testimony to members of the US Congress, offering harrowing accounts of life in detention while urging Americans not to look away from what the US has declared a continuing genocide of Muslim ethnic minorities.
  • China flags Uighurs as ‘extremist’ for having Quran, report says Chinese authorities monitor the phones of ethnic minority Uighurs for the presence of 50,000 known multimedia files that are used to flag what Beijing views as extremism with possession of the Quran enough to trigger a police interrogation, according to a forensic investigation by Human Rights Watch (HRW). Beijing has denied committing human rights abuses in Xinjiang and defended its re-education centres as important tools “to combat violent extremism” and alleviate poverty.
  • Biden announces new environmental justice initiatives President Joe Biden announced new environmental justice actions, including an executive order that the White House says will make environmental justice a central mission of federal agencies. Biden’s new order directs agencies to work more closely with impacted communities and improve “gaps” in scientific data to try to better tackle the impacts of pollution on people’s health, a White House official said. The order comes a few years after Biden announced his signature “Justice40” initiative, vowing to direct 40% of federal climate and clean funding from new legislation to disadvantaged communities.
  • Commonwealth Secretary-General Visits Vanuatu Post-Cyclone Judy and Kevin to Discuss Climate Action and Climate Justice The Commonwealth Secretary-General, the Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, visited Vanuatu on April 29th and 30th to address climate justice and climate action issues for the Pacific. Her visit came at a critical time for Vanuatu, which is still recovering from the devastating impact of two Category 4 cyclones, Judy and Kevin, that hit the country in early March. The cyclones affected 80% of Vanuatu's population, causing widespread and substantial damage across the country. The visit highlighted the importance of global cooperation to address the pressing issue of climate change and to support vulnerable communities like those in Vanuatu.
  • Plurinationality and self-determination in Latin America: reimagining the nation, reinventing the State Indigenous peoples have historically been forced to accommodate, adapt and use transplanted legal and political institutions. However, through self-determination and multinational arrangements, they challenge the postcolonial power structures in the world.
  • Philippines: Officials ‘Red-Tagging’ Indigenous Leaders, Activists Philippine authorities are using “red-tagging” and other forms of threats and violence to intimidate Indigenous leaders and activists opposed to government-backed projects in the Philippines.
  • China responsible for ‘serious human rights violations’ in Xinjiang province: UN human rights report There have been several allegations of torture, ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, and sexual and gender-based violence against China. Such activities amount to serious human rights violations, however, China denies all allegations, arguing that they are created to promote the anti-China agenda in the Western world.
  • Manga artist documents Uyghur woman’s experiences in Xinjiang ‘re-education’ camp A famous writer and illustrator in Japan has produced a new manga booklet portraying the experiences of an ethnic Uzbek woman forced to teach Mandarin to mostly Uyghur detainees in 're-education' camps in northwest China's Xinjiang region.
  • Officials and volunteers struggle to respond to catastrophic flooding in Pakistan "I see hundreds and thousands of people, helpless people. I see a complete blackout in this area," he says, describing his view. "There is no electricity here, and there is no internet connectivity. People are trying to call for help. The water level has gone down a bit. But the problem is it has already submerged hundreds of villages in this area, and people are out of their homes."
  • EPA Proposes to Add Environmental Justice, Climate Change, and PFAS to National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives for FY 2024-2027 In January, “the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it is seeking public comment on its proposal to address environmental justice, [and] climate change” to protect vulnerable and overburdened communities.

News

  • A law that cancels cancel culture? This country is considering it Over the past year, Singapore’s government has been “looking at ways to deal with cancel culture,” a spokesperson told CNN after conservative Christians expressed fears about being canceled for their views by vocal groups online following the recent decriminalization of homosexuality in the largely conservative city-state. However, Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch, said that it “sounds like yet another intimidation tactic by the government against those on the ground trying to raise their voices to demand accountability and change”.
  • Boston University president blasts 'abusive' students who tried to 'cancel' Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav at commencement Many BU graduates were disappointed in BU's choice for their commencement speaker, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, at the 2023 graduation. The president of Boston University, however, is sharply criticizing some graduating students and says he's apologized to Zaslav, who was met with boos and chants of "pay your writers!" at the May 21 ceremony.
  • Jameela Jamil Blasts Met Gala 2023 for 'Selective Cancel Culture' The Good Place actress, Jameela Jamil, took to her Instagram on May 2 to address the "selective cancel culture" within liberal politics that played a part in Monday night's annual fundraising gala. “Last night Hollywood and fashion said the quiet part out loud when a lot of famous feminists chose to celebrate at the highest level, a man who was so publicly cruel to women, to fat people, to immigrants and to sexual assault survivors,” the actress noted. “And all the women’s publications, and spectators online, chose to gleefully ignore it.”
  • Taika Waititi’s tweets about trans people have raised difficult questions about retroactive shaming “Problematic tweets, offensive interview clips, racist comedy sketches: these are the things that tend to “resurface” in the modern era.” The tweets shared by filmmaker and actor Taika Waititi in 2013, such as “No disrespect to men who want to be/dress as women. I should have just said their make-up looks manly.”, resurfaced last year. “But even if we all agree that his tweets are objectionable, is diving 10 years into the past for a quick “gotcha” really doing anyone any good?”
  • Singapore considering law to fight ‘cancel culture’ after gay sex decriminalised “Singapore might consider laws to deal with “cancel culture”, the law minister said, days after the city-state announced it will decriminalise gay sex, raising fears of “reverse discrimination” or being cancelled for expressing views on topics pertaining to LGBTQ.” The law minister expressed that “there is a line between expressing your view on religion and becoming homophobic or engaging in hate speech against LGBT groups.”
  • ‘Very, very scared’ author Anthony Horowitz is latest victim of cancel culture According to author Anthony Horowitz, children’s book publishers are frightened of cancel culture. He was ‘shocked’ when his publisher made him rewrite large parts his latest children’s book for fear of offending readers over ethnicity and gender, and expressed that cancel culture is limiting literary expression. “It’s not about cancellation, it’s not about anger, it is about the fear that all creative people must now feel if they're going to dare to write,” he said.

News

  • Taiwan grants adoption rights for same-sex couples in massive win for equality In 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, and has now approved an amendment to an existing law after years of fierce campaigning by LGBTQ+ activists. The extension to the Same-Sex Marriage Act, approved on 16 May, allows same-sex couples to jointly adopt a child to whom neither of them are related, a right previously only open to heterosexual couples and single people, CNN reported.
  • Uganda’s President Signs Repressive Anti-LGBT Law Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has signed a bill, the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, criminalizing same-sex conduct, including potentially the death penalty for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality”, into law. It violates fundamental rights guaranteed under Uganda’s constitution and breaks commitments made by the government as a signatory to a number of international human rights agreements. The law discriminates against people with disabilities and criminalizes any “promotion of homosexuality”, including advocating for the rights of LGBT people.
  • European rights court rules against Ukraine in same-sex union case A same-sex couple who tried unsuccessfully to get married at seven different register offices in Ukraine suffered discrimination, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled. The verdict, in a case brought to the court by Andrii Maimulakhin and Andrii Markiv in 2014, adds to calls for increased protection for and recognition of LGBTQ rights in the country. The court ruled that Ukraine, a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, had violated articles on discrimination and the right to private and family life.
  • Birmingham LGBT centre attacked with homophobic abuse “Birmingham LGBT Centre has been attacked with homophobic abuse, the third time it has been subjected to criminal damage in recent years.” The director of Birmingham Pride expressed that “the latest attack on the LGBT centre was “neither shocking or surprising”. “That’s the point,” he said. “You think: OK, here we go again. What is going to be next?”
  • Ouster of Anti-LGBT Official in Japan Should Prompt Reform “Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week dismissed one of his aides for making disparaging remarks about same-sex relationships. The official, Masayoshi Arai, had said that he “doesn’t even want to look” at same-sex couples and would “not want to live next door” to them.” “But while it is true that the Japanese government does not have an explicitly anti-LGBT position, the federal government denies LGBT people equal protection of the law.”
  • Why the Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury's pro-LGBTQ+ comments ring hollow in South Sudan The leaders of the Catholic Church, the Church of England, and the Church of Scotland have caused controversy over differing messages around LGBTQ+ rights during their trip to South Sudan. The anti-homosexual law in South Sudan hasn’t been seen to be enforced since the last reported arrests in 2017, however, there are reports of discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ people. While Pope Francis expressed that the Catholic Church should work to eradicate anti-homosexual laws, homosexuality is still considered a sin. Also, the Church of England will likely only move to bless homosexual couples in non-Church marriages despite same-sex marriage being legal. Such inconsistencies lead to situations of great uncertainty for the LGBTQ+ community.

Theme 2: Globalisation and its consequences

News

  • How the politicization of COVID endangered our lives and democracy Olivia Troye, former homeland security, counterterrorism and coronavirus advisor for Vice President Mike Pence, talks about how the underselling of COVID-19’s danger in the United States and how that shaped Americans’ response to the pandemic: “There is anti-vax conspiracies that have sort of intertwined with this political divisiveness. And what I would say is the domestic radicalization of Americans, a lot of that is disinformation. A lot of that is the undermining of public institutions which really impacts our democracy.”
  • “Governing by Memes”: COVID-19, Conspiracy, and Digital Democracy in Taiwan Despite the intensified conflicts in our geopolitical, national, and interpersonal spheres due to COVID-19, social media uniquely elicits immediate emotions. Humorous memes, especially, render reparative potential through palpable affects. In Wen Liu’s chapter, “Beyond Critique and Conspiracy: COVID Memes as Reparative Practices in Digital Taiwan,” memes were effectively used in Taiwan to fend off the perils of misinformation in cyberspace.
  • Electoral reforms needed worldwide to protect elections from future emergencies, researchers urge The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and the Electoral Integrity Project (EIP) have published a new extensive volume learning the lessons of holding elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries were ‘caught short’ because their electoral procedures and constitutions did not enable them to respond to the situation. To be ready to respond better in the future, the book calls for 11 reforms, such as providing citizens with alternative voting arrangements for emergency situations.
  • COVID-19 Brief: Impact on Democracy Around the World “‘Coronavirus kills its first democracy,’ the Washington Post declared in March 2020, after the Hungarian parliament voted to give prime minister Viktor Orban the authority to rule by decree in the name of fighting COVID-19. Freedom House has reported that since the coronavirus outbreak began, democracy and human rights have worsened in 80 countries, with particularly sharp deterioration in struggling democracies and highly repressive states.”
  • Crisis and fragility of democracy in the world In a speech at International Association of Jesuit Universities in Boston, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that “During the COVID 19 pandemic, democratic practices adapted in innovative ways. Some countries managed to hold elections in exceedingly difficult conditions. In addition, social movements for tackling climate change and fighting racial inequalities grew globally. This shows people want their voices heard. These protests are an expression of human rights and democratic values, and as such they must be respected and facilitated by governments.”
  • How Will the Coronavirus Reshape Democracy and Governance Globally? Illiberal leaders are taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis to further weaken checks and balances and erode mechanisms of accountability, entrenching their positions of power, for instance in Hungary. Some authorities used the crisis to abridge citizens’ fundamental rights, for instance by controlling free expression and the media, under the guise of fighting “misinformation” about the virus, like in China. The crisis is also accelerating governments’ use of new surveillance technologies to track down citizens who may have been exposed to the virus, for example in Israel and South Korea. The varying success of different types of governments at managing the crisis may reshape the important global debate about the relative desirability of authoritarian and democratic governance.

News

  • Microsoft Braces for $425 Million Fine over LinkedIn GDPR Privacy Violations Microsoft is preparing to pay a substantial fine of $425 million in relation to alleged privacy violations by its subsidiary LinkedIn, according to Reuters. The tech giant announced this week that it expects the fine to be levied in the second quarter of 2023. The Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) initiated an investigation into LinkedIn's targeted advertising practices back in 2018, suspecting a violation of Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • Meta facing third fine of 2023 for mishandling EU user data under GDPR Meta is set to face what may be a record fine for failure to comply with the GDPR by shipping user data belonging to EU residents to the US without proper guarantees it would remain safe from inspection by authorities. The fine, which is to be levied by Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) against Zuckercorp, remains unknown as the DPC has yet to publish its decision in the case. It is expected to eclipse the €746 million ($805 million) fine data protection officials from Luxembourg charged to Amazon in 2021 for similar violations of the GDPR.
  • New Decree on Protection of Personal Data in Vietnam and Comparison with GDPR On 17 April 2023, the Vietnamese Government issued Decree 13 on personal data protection. It marks a significant milestone as the first comprehensive legal document that governs the protection of personal data in Vietnam. As compared to the draft decree on personal data protection (Draft Decree), Decree 13/2023 has been significantly improved to incorporate key aspects necessary to protect personal data to align with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
  • Amazon's Massive GDPR Fine Shows the Law's Power—and Limits Officials in Luxembourg fined Amazon €746 million for breaching the GDPR, which is the biggest GDPR fine issued to date. While this shows the power of the GDPR, it also exposes how inconsistently the regulation is applied across the EU.
  • Europe's Big Tech Law Is Approved. Now Comes the Hard Part After the landmark regulation of the Digital Services Act, which governs online content and offer protections, became reality, the question of whether there is even institutional capacity to enact this legislation effectively arises.
  • GDPR cross-border enforcement cooperation process to be streamlined The European Commission plans to ‘streamline’ the way data protection authorities (DPAs) across the EU cooperate with one another when enforcing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in cross-border cases. A proposed regulation is scheduled to be published sometime between the start of April and end of June 2023. Earlier this year, the Data Protection Commission in Ireland threatened legal action against the EDPB after it accused the body of going beyond its powers to affect an investigation into social media network provider Meta. A case has now been filed by the DPC against the EDPB before the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), though none of the documents pertaining to the case are publicly available yet.

News

News

  • Global: States agree landmark treaty to help deliver justice to victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes Reacting to the agreement on a treaty on international legal cooperation in cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes following negotiations between states in Slovenia, Law and Policy Advisor at Amnesty International Fisseha Tekle, said: “The adoption of this new convention on international cooperation is a historic step towards delivering justice to victims of crimes under international law.” The new convention includes, among others, the expansion of rules on the recognition, role and rights of victims.
  • Joint Statement on the Implementation of the Yazidi Survivors Law Experts and non-governmental organizations welcomed the adoption by Iraq of the Yazidi Survivors Law on March 1, 2021, establishing an administrative reparation program aimed at giving effect to survivors’ right to reparation. While the law is ground-breaking in many respects, there are serious concerns regarding the recent imposition of an additional requirement for survivors to file a criminal complaint to be eligible for reparation.
  • Nepal: Transitional Justice Bill Needs to Protect Victims, not Abusers A bill to amend Nepal’s transitional justice legislation does not fully meet the country’s domestic law or international legal obligations and will not provide justice for victims if adopted in its current form, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists said today. Moreover, the government has failed to adequately consult conflict victims about the content of the draft legislation, seriously undermining the credibility of its current approach. The bill should be revised to comply with Nepal’s Supreme Court rulings and international human rights law and standards.
  • Terrorism intensifying across Africa, exploiting instability and conflict “In today’s hyper-connected world, Ms. Mohammed remined that the spread of terrorism in Africa is “not a concern for African Member States alone”. “The challenge belongs to us all. Countering international terrorism requires effective multilateral responses”.
  • UN expert affirms the rights of child victims of terrorism, urges human rights-based approach In 2022, “the UN Special Rapporteur on the protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, urged Governments to adopt a human rights-based approach to victims of terrorism by positively and consistently affirming the human rights of all victims.”
  • Spain will promote measures in the European Union to improve care for foreign victims of terrorism The Minister for Home Affairs, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has announced in Brussels that, during its rotating presidency of the EU, Spain will promote the application of measures to improve the situation and care for cross-border victims of terrorism. He stated the need to establish a protocol for action in terrorist attacks involving victims who are residents or nationals of different Member States of the EU. In his opinion, reparation for the victims of terrorism must involve recovering and preserving their memories, and he therefore urged states to safeguard the memories of the victims of terrorism “as an act of justice and, at the same time, an instrument for socially delegitimising violence”.
Previous Themes