Alex Gladstein

Erykah Badu’s Oppressively Apolitical Stance on Human Rights

Gloria Steinem, two Nobel Laureates, and 26 other women will be making a big mistake if they march across the DMZ with Christine Ahn.

Africa’s Game of Thrones

The hazards of human-rights work in the continent’s last absolute monarchy

Mourning a Musical Dissident

The story of Cameroon’s late ‘Guitar Man,’ who spent his life fighting to take down a brutal autocrat.

Requiem for a Reprobate: Ethiopian Tyrant Should Not Be Lionized

With the dust beginning to settle on yesterday’s death of Meles Zenawi—ruler of Ethiopia since 1991—Western leaders have been quick to lavish praise on his legacy. A darling of the national security and international development industries, Zenawi was applauded for cooperating with the U.S. government on counter-terrorism and for spurring economic growth in Ethiopia—an impoverished, land-locked AfricanContinue reading “Requiem for a Reprobate: Ethiopian Tyrant Should Not Be Lionized”

Hope for Obiang, but Not Equatorial Guinea

Beginning next week on August 20 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea the world’s longest-ruling non-royal—Teodoro Obiang Nguema—will host a “human rights” summit. It is being organized by a US-based charity, the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, which is headed by Hope Sullivan Masters and includes president Bill Clinton as co-chairman of the board and former UN Ambassador Andrew Young as its other co-chairman. The effort is part of Obiang’s systematic effort to whitewash his repressive regime and sweep 33 years of dictatorship and 44 years of human rights violations, under the rug as his government continues to amass oil wealth.

Taiwan Fails to Learn From Its Own History

The leader of China’s ethnic Uyghur minority, Rebiya Kadeer, was recently banned from entering Taiwan for three years. Kadeer, a human rights advocate and spokesperson for millions of China’s repressed Uyghurs, had been invited by a Taiwanese arts organization to attend screenings of The 10 Conditions of Love, a documentary about her life story.

Malaysia’s Bridge is Falling Down

The farcical trial of Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim resumes this week in Kuala Lumpur. This is the second time that the country’s ruling establishment has tried to destroy Anwar’s career with trumped-up allegations of sodomy. It succeeded 12 years ago, when he was imprisoned for six years on similar charges. Now Anwar faces up to 20 years in jail and whipping if convicted.