2022

Iran: fearless protests, fierce repression

Theocratic regime responds with full force to its biggest-ever challenge

Barbados: third time’s a trend

Third state in Commonwealth Caribbean to decriminalise same-sex relations in 2022

Tanzania: an encouraging step forward for girls’ rights

African Union body orders government to lift ban on pregnant students, safeguarding education and reproductive rights

Indonesia’s new criminal code: a turn for the worse

Long-overdue changes to outdated law only make it more hostile to women, LGBTQI+ people and other excluded groups

Civil society caught in the crossfire of Mali’s row with France

Military junta bans organisations that receive French funding as it moves ever closer to Russia

CONFLICT | CRISIS

US midterm elections: a temporary respite?

Imminent danger averted in an election that put voting rights and women’s rights on the ballot – but threats continue

China: pandemic protests force a rare retreat

Authoritarian state gives into protest pressure by dropping its ‘zero covid’ policy

Syrian and Venezuelan refugees: two faces of the same crisis

The two biggest migration flows of our time, Syrians and Venezuelans, face distinct challenges in their host countries

Tunisia: dismantling democracy, one step at a time

Upcoming parliamentary election will be held under new rules designed to allow the president to continue to accumulate power

NORTHERN AFRICA

A ‘New Kazakhstan’, or more of the same?

President positions as a reformer – but his latest implausible landslide election win is straight out of the old playbook