Uzbekistan presidential elections 2015- our recommended links

Presidential elections have been taking place in Uzbekistan
Here are some recomended links for finding more

IFES election guide provides insight into the system and recent research results.

The Official Election Commission website has the latest news results and further background on the system
observation of the conduct of the 2015 elections have been undertaken by Organization of Islamic Cooperation

and the OSCE the website includes statements from recent and past elections.

Concerns about the democratic structure have also been raised by Human Rights Watch
UK Foreign and Commonwealth office in its 2014 annual report
Amnesty International
United Nations human rights reports relating to Uzbekistan.

Thailand elections - who are the protestors?

Elections in Thailand have been marred by violence.

Asian Correspondent had a blog on its website called SIAM Voices which recorded events live.
our previous posting has some suggestions on academic sites where you can keep up to date with news and think tank coverage


For further information on one of the main organisers of the protests -
Suthep Thaugsuban see these suggestions.
 There is an official facebook site and the website Reform Thailand (thai language)
 but for those seeking saomething more basic.

Radio Australia had a basic introduction which asked who is Suthep Thaugsuban
which was aided in December 2013. It is introduced by Dr Nicholas Farrelly, Research Fellow at the Australian National University and there is a transcript on the website.

The Washington Post has a collection of articles about him and the unfolding Thailand protests.
As does the Bangkok Post.
and the Nation.

Equatorial-Guinea elections - what are the human rights issues?

Equatorial-Guinea is due to hold elections on 26th May 2013. See the IFES guide for basic facts on the forthcoming and recent elections.
Get the government perspective on their official website. This includes a section on election news.
they also have a blog which has some coverage of events.

However commentators have raised issues about the state of human rights and civil liberties in the region- try these links to get the facts.

Reporters Without Frontiers has accounts of opposition social media and websites being blocked
All Africa.com also has a good selection of recent news stories which focus on this and other related human rights issues.
Amnesty International has expressed concerns about the treatment of opposition politicians. See also their annual report for a more general discussion of wider conditions.
Human Rights Watch also has coverage in its annual report plus more recent statements.
Freedom House has an annual ranking of freedom in the world. See its latest entry
Genocude Watch reports on Equatorial Guinea.
US Department of State 2012 country report on human rights practices.

finally an excellent resource is EG Justice Justice for Guinea. It has a section on its website called election concerns.

Arab spring - useful sources for tracing electoral reform information

In December the EU launched its own response to the Arab spring
This memo highlights reactions from the EU to events in specific nations.It includes details of aid.
Here are some other recommended starting points.
News services.
Guardian blogs and news analysis from the Middle East. There is also a separate news stories page.
Aljazeera - includes live blogs and video content
BBC news
Lede Blog from New York Times.
Speigel Online
Economist - includes access to many articles from the journal. See the interesting Shoe throwers index from Feb 2011 for graphs and predictions.
Other think tanks with analysis and reports include:
The Carnegie Endowment.
Council on Foreign Relations.
ASWAT
NDI
Brookings Institution.
Chatham House. For instance see the transcript of a recent event on Israel and the Arab spring Which was held in London In December 2011.

Nigeria elections will they take place?

Nigeria has again postponed its parliamentary elections.
here are some sources for finding out more about why this has occurred.
IFES has some general news and discussion.
Find more detailed materials on the ACE Electoral site. This includes current news stories, plus links to recent reports and assessments of the political system.
For discussion of the human rights situation excellent starting points are:

Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
International crisis Group
and the Human Security Gateway The latter is a particularly good site which aggregates articles and reports from a number of different sources. It also has maps and statistics.

Sudan background information on human rights

As an add on to the previous message. Here are some suggestions on where you can get further full text information on human rights in the aftermath of the conflict in Sudan. These might be helpful for considering the background to the elections.
The Human Security Gateway (a joint project of the Human Security report project and School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver)is a great starting opoint for tracing links to recent reports, plus maps, key blogs and data sites. It has a specialist Sudan gateway.

The Sudan Open Archive aims to provide free access to a digital archive of materials about Sudan. It is a special project of the Rift Valley Institute with support from UNICEF, UNEP and the Southern Sudan Centre for Census, Statistics and Evaluation. Topics covered include: economic, social and political development in the region, the civil war and peace process; conflict in Darfur. There is also general country information about the history, culture, politics and economy of Sudan.

Sudan Human Rights Watch reports. Topics include the Civil war in Sudan, human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing in Darfur and the peace process
Amnesty International Reports on Sudan full text from the mid 1990s onwards.
Sudan: International Crisis Group resources - free access to a collection of full-text briefing papers, articles and reports about Sudan, includes coverage of the elections.
Gurtong Trust - Peace and Media Project is an independent, not-for-profit, community-based project, which seeks to promote democracy and human rights in Southern Sudan. Its website provides information on its mission, organisation and recent activities. This includes some articles and discussion of politics, political reform, elections and the peace process in Sudan

Sudan Information Gateway: United Nations. Includes reports, press releases on economic, social and political conditions in Sudan.

Burma were the 2010 elections fair?

Following on from the previous posting- here are some recomended resources for news coverage and analysis of the 2010 elections.

Irrawaddy - well regarded news service with up to date stories and coverage.Also provided are electoral laws, interviews and quotes.

PBS reported on Media censorship during the elections. Its article contains useful links to related reports on Media freedom in the region.

Burma Election 2010 website pulls together reports from ethnic media and reporters inside Burma. Highlights include reports from individual electoral districts, and election bulletins

Mizzima is amnnother well regarded news network which features work from journalists in exile. The site includes online interviews.

Alternative Asean Network on Burma is a human rights organisation. Its website has special election coverage. This includes electoral laws, statements and reports on the state of democracy.

Radio Free Asia is an American backed organisation. Its blog has recent postings on censorship and the state of democracy in Burma.

AsiaPortal is maintained by over 20 universities and research bodies who are members of the Nordic NIAS Council and NIAS/NIAS LINC. It aims to provide researchers and students with free access to topical news, articles and research reports about Asian nations. It also offers links to the latest Asian studies research from Nordic Universities (based in Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden). Its site includes some blogs about Burma

Finally the Democratic voice of Burma, a non profit media freedom body, also has excellent coverage of the hujman rights situation during the elections. Its election map has results and mappings of alleged violence and other incidents.

Burma: could an election ever be fair?

According to Barack Obama the recent elections in Burma were 'anything but fair'
Here are some useful resources for tracing facts about why he said this. They focus on the human rights situation in Burma. later today I will post on other news sources which you may find useful.

The Fund for Peace ranks Burma in 16th place on its 2010 Failed States Index.
Freedom House - Freedom of the Press report 2010 states that the press in Burma is not free
Its Freedom of the World Report also assesses the general state of democracy in Burma as unfree.
As does the Reporters without Frontiers Press Freedom Index 2010
Many leading international human rights organisations have reports covering the state of democracy in Burma. For example see the
International Crisis Group
Human Rights Watch
and Amnesty International
The United Nations has had a special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burma. Read the reports and comments online
Also useful is the Red Cross which has news and reports on prisoners detained in Burma
Finally a wealth of links on all aspects of Burma can be easily located on the Online Burma/Myanmar library . This is part of the WWW virtual Library and has excellent coverage of blogs and organisations. It also indexes individual key documents. These include items relating to the 2010 elections