Under international law, the offenses committed against Rohingya Muslims by the state apparatus of Myanmar constitute crimes against humanity, and are tantamount to genocide. The Rohingya are a religious minority that have lived in Myanmar, previously Burma, for generations, primarily in the western state of Rakhine. However, some of Myanmar’s Buddhist majority has long viewed…

Since the onset of Libya’s civil war in 2011, civilians have disproportionately borne the brunt of violence committed by bellicose parties. Libya has been fractured since the 2011 Arab Spring movement that deposed longtime authoritarian leader Muammar Qaddafi. Disputed elections over the future governance of Libya further splintered the country, culminating in a renegade general…

Yemen has been embroiled in a bloody civil war since 2014, when the country’s government was ousted by rebels following an unsuccessful political transition. In 2011, popular protests fueled by the Arab Spring movement forced longtime authoritarian leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to step down and be replaced by his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. After coming…

Protests have broken out in Thailand, with people demonstrating against the country’s government and monarchy. Over 10,000 people gathered in the capital of Bangkok in early August, in what is the biggest political demonstration in Thailand since a 2014 coup when the military seized power. The protests were prompted by student-led activism which has grown…

In recent months, Zimbabwe has struggled with civil unrest as the population turns against strongman President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa succeeded authoritarian leader Robert Mugabe after a military coup, and many Zimbabweans hoped he would lead the country into a new age of peace and prosperity. However, under Mnangagwa’s rule, Zimbabwe has faced ethnic tensions, and…

Protests broke out in Belarus after incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko declared victory in an election widely considered  to be illegitimate. Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994 and is often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator.” His competitor, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was forced to flee to neighboring Lithuania amid suggestions her life was under danger from the…

Multiple prominent protests have taken place throughout Iran against the corruption, economy, and human rights issues plaguing the country. Iran’s protest movements, despite the regime’s violent responses, show little sign of abating. As security forces step up their crackdown, dissatisfaction runs deeper than ever and dissidents continue to stage demonstrations. For nearly two years now,…

What started by several civil society affiliated groups within Lebanon, grew into millions of Lebanese, and descendants of Lebanon, joining together in Beirut and across cities around the world to express their anger over the deep economic crisis and rampant state corruption plaguing Lebanon. A decision to impose a tax on all WhatsApp and Facebook…

On February 15, 2019, ten days after Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his candidacy for a fifth term, the Revolution of Smiles or Hirak Movement began. These peaceful protests, fed up with Bouteflika’s rule and the corruption, led the military to assert Bouteflika’s immediate resignation on April 2, 2019. Following a month later, many powerbrokers close to…

Late September saw the return of climate protests throughout France. The demonstrators, who have been dubbed as “Yellow Vests” for their fluorescent outerwear, had a lull over the summer but returned to the streets en masse to protest French President Emmanuel Macron’s environmental policies. Authorities estimated 16,000 people turned out, with a majority of the…

The Prime Minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, said he would step down in January amid civil unrest over the unresolved murder of a journalist in 2017. Daphne Caruana Galizia was an investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist who was killed by a car bomb. Galizia exposed corruption at the highest levels of Malta’s government, and Muscat’s…

The 2019 protests in Hong Kong have the potential to completely redefine the relationship between mainland China and the semi-autonomous province. The demonstrations initially began as backlash to an unpopular extradition bill, in which criminal suspects would be able to be extradited to mainland China to stand trial. The bill prompted concerns among Hong Kongers…

Controversial bills proposed by the Indonesian Parliament have incensed citizens, who have taken to the streets en masse. The proposed legislation would weaken Indonesia’s anti-corruption laws, and reform the penal code to outlaw extramarital sex, ban abortion except in cases of rape and incest, strengthen rules against blasphemy and treason, and make it a crime…

Proposed economic reforms by Chilean President Sebastian Pinera have infuriated Chileans, who railed against the widespread inequality throughout the country. Pinera had initially proposed an increase in metro fare across Chile, in addition to a hike on electricity rates. Unrest across the country in the face of these policies was magnified in Santiago, where citizens…

A constitutional amendment being considered by Guinean President Alpha Conde has ignited tensions in the West African nation. President Conde is contemplating changing the constitution to allow him to run for a third term in the 2020 elections. Opposition parties and civil society groups who oppose these efforts have pledged to use all legal measures…

Demonstrations against President Daniel Ortega began on April 16, 2018, led by university students in Nicaragua’s capital Managua after the government failed to handle forest fires in one of the most protected biological reserves in the nation. Soon after, the government further antagonized citizens by introducing a plan to raise taxes while cutting pensions and…

Since Oct. 20, 2019 Bolivia’s capital La Paz has seen its largest protests in decades against Bolivia’s first indigenous President Evo Morales for what is increasingly seen as an erosion of democratic values. Morales has held power in Bolivia since 2006, a 13 year reign which makes him Latin America’s longest serving leader. His time…

Over the past few months, violent protests have erupted in Haiti calling for the resignation of President Moïse and an end to government corruption in the country. The first round of protests occurred in February 2019; however, a more recent round of protests started in September 2019 and have quickly turned deadly. Tens of thousands…

Thursday, October 4th, large scale protests erupted in major cities across Ecuador. The protesters were predominantly people employed in the transportation sector who are upset that President Moreno has moved forward with rollbacks on subsidies for fuel. Without the 1.3 million dollar subsidy fuel prices will soar, angering protesters as most employees in the public…

The Spanish government incensed the northern autonomous region of Catalonia when it imprisoned leaders of the Catalan separatist movement for sentences spanning between nine and thirteen years. The jailed leaders had organized a referendum considering Catalan independence in 2017 that the Spanish government viewed as illegitimate. Following the referendum, in which over 90% of people…

Protests, the largest since the 2013 military coup, have taken place in Cairo and across Egypt demanding the fall of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in late September due to discontent over soaring prices, corruption, and subsidy cuts. The protests began when Mohamed Ali, a forty-five-year-old actor living in Spain and a former construction contractor with close…

On October 18, 2019 Juan Antonio Hernandez, a former Honduran congressman and brother of the current Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, was found guilty of state sponsored drug trafficking. Over the following days large protests calling for the removal of President Juan Orlando Hernandez have turned violent. Citizens and opponents have been emboldened by the…

Demonstrators in Russia are demanding an end to the policy of arbitrarily imprisoning opposition politicians. Tens of thousands of people from a myriad of opposition parties have demonstrated in Moscow, demanding an end to the crackdown on political dissent in Russia. Activists at the anti-government protests have been diverse, with individuals from a wide-ranging array…

Students across Bangladesh protested in droves following the murder of an engineering student in Dhaka. The student, Abrar Fahad, had recently posted on Facebook criticizing the government of Bangladesh for export deals signed with India. Authorities believe that the murder was carried out by the Bangladesh Chhatra Party, a student wing of Prime Minister Sheikh…

In South Africa, femicide is five times higher than the global average and South African women are demanding a change. On September 1st at the conference center for the World Economic Forum (WEF), hundreds of mainly female protesters attempted to storm the building demanding protections for women in South Africa. The march occurred after the…