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Aurat march
Nischal dave
On International Women's Day Pakistan witnessed its Aurat March in different cities in support of women who experience violence, subjugation, and harassment in public and private spaces. The march was organized by Women Democratic Front (WDF), Women Action Forum (WAF) and many others while it was endorsed by the Lady Health Worker's Association and multiple women rights organizations. The march was first of its kind which commenced in 2018 in the port city of Karachi and later spread to various other major cities like Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta, and Hyderabad. Aurat March is an annual political demonstration to uphold the women's rights in Pakistan which is highly patriarchal in nature.
Pakistan’s society is an embodiment of deep-rooted socio-religious political structures dominated by males. These public and private spaces have become unsafe for women who are already victim to systematic subjugation and discrimination by the patriarchal society. The Aurat March played a significant role in highlighting the issues like domestic violence, sexual harassment, gender inequality and discrimination in realizing the rights of women. The march is considered as the new wave of feminism in Pakistan’s history; the unique feature that comes to mind is the transition from women’s right to other social issues like gender inequality and trans rights and so and so forth. Aurat March demonstration had witty, powerful and provocative posters like “Mera Jism Meri Marzi”, “Ghar Ka KaamSabkaKaam” and many others.
The Aurat March is a significant development in the feminist history of Pakistan but it was not without any criticism, the march was severely criticized by the religious groups and the ulemas who considered the demonstration against the laws and ethos of Islam. The right-wingers attacked the march calling it vulgar and provocative. The moderate liberals refrained from giving any reaction to the movement. Despite such comments, the Aurat March was a momentous and powerful movement to enlighten the Pakistani society about women’s struggles.
Guyana Elections
Ishita Singh
The Republic of Guyana is set to hold crucial elections on March 2nd, 2020 ahead of a predicted oil boom and subsequent transformation of the country’s economy. Around eight billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas reserves have been discovered off the shores of this South American country by a consortium led by Exxon Mobil Corp in 2016. Owing to this, Guyana is estimated to receive $168 billion as revenue, which is 120 times the country’s annual budget. This discovery has made these elections pivotal as it will determine which party will oversee the oil exploration and economic development in the country in.Depending on how the government handles the capital influx from this resource development, the country can either emerge as world’s richest in per capita or become another country marred by the resource curse
Despite gaining independence from the British colonial rule in 1966 the country has been plagued by ethnic friction between the descendants of the Indian and African slaves brought during the colonial period to work on the rice and sugarcane plantations. These tensions have also seeped into the country’s political milieu. Guyana is often referred to as a ‘duopoly’ with two dominant parties in the political parties, namely,the People’s National Congress (PNC) and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) which exercise strong influence on the Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese populace respectively.
In 2015, PPP was unseated after 23 years by President David Granger and the APNU-AFC (‘A Partnership for National Unity’ and ‘Alliance for Change’) coalition, which essentially comprises of Afro-Guyanese political parties including PNC. Currently, Irfaan Ali, the former housing minister of PPP is leading the opposition in their attempt to oust Granger and the APNU-AFC coalition. Experts state that the development of the country has been hindered for decades due to the lack of infrastructure, human capital, transparency and the subsistence of endemic corruption which needs to be resolved for it to enjoy the benefits of the oil boom. Thus, there is a need for both the parties to focus on these factors in order to boost Guyana’s development trajectory in the near future.
Brazil-Venezuela Downgrade Relations
Pranali Deshmukh
Brazil-Venezuela relations took a downturn as the right-wing Brazilian government of Mr. Jair Bolsonaro called back its five diplomats and eleven members from the consular staff which included Consul General Elza de Castro and two minister counsellors from the embassy back to Caracas, Venezuela. Maduro has refused humanitarian aid from the Latin American countries of Brazil and Colombia. While, Maduro has refused aid from these countries, the humanitarian aid coming from Russia, an ally of Maduro has been accepted.
The aid stand-off grew deadly at the borders between the demonstrators of the opposition party and the security forces leading to the death of seven demonstrators at the Colombian border and twenty-five deaths at the Brazilian border. This recent crisishave escalated the tensions between the two countries. Bolsonaro has been critical of several leftist governments including that of Maduro.
Since the Venezuela crisis of 2016, daily thousands of Venezuelans flee the country in order to escape fromhunger, poverty and unemployment. According to the UN, there are nearly 3.4 million Venezuelan refugees worldwide. Brazil has received around 96,000 refugees from Venezuela. In order to curb this massive influx, Brazil has doubled its security forces at the border in an effort to screen the refugees. Mr. Bolsonaro,a right-wing leaderhas time and again called Maduro to “dictator” stating that his brothers and sisters in Latin America have suffered enough at his hands. Bolsonaro’s Brazil along with United States and Colombia and 50 other countries have recognised self-declared interim President Mr. Juan Guaido to be the country’s acting President.
Instability Dismantling Israel’s Political Structure
Kanika Sansanwal
After weeks of acrimonious election campaigning leading to third election in less than a year has reiterated Israel’s political system based on a proportional representation with parties winning seats based on votes earned rather than the winning of votes in a constituency. The current Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is constantly fighting for his political survival in an inconclusive general election for the third time. PM Netanyahu is the longest serving prime minister in Israel holding office from 1996 to 1999 and then again from 2009. He and his main challenger Benny Gantz, from centrist Blue and White party have been unable to form a majority coalition since past two elections. Neither Netanyahu nor Gantz can secure enough support from other parties to make them control majority in the 120-seat parliament.
Benjamin Netanyahu has been evading the court’s orders as he is to appear in the court in Jerusalem on being charged for corruption and breach of trust in three separate cases. He has however denied such claims by calling himself a victim of a politically motivated “witch hunt”. Meanwhile, his opponents have called him to step down as many see his and Donald Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan – Peace to Prosperity, as more of an electoral gimmick than a serious attempt at resolving an intractable conflict.
Voters seem entrenched. Complaints are rising among soft voters of election fatigue. If Gantz’s party wins then it will mark an end to the rule by the biggest party, Likud, for more than 10 years advocating a right-wing nationalist agenda. If Likud wins forming a coalition then Netanyahu vowed to annex the Jewish settlements in the Jordan valley. Another election is forceable if the impasse is not broken which seems unlikely in current context, but another election cannot be afforded currently due to the global pandemic of Coronavirus.
ICC Investigation of Afghanistan
Sindhu Deshni
On March 5th 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court decided unanimously to authorize an investigation into alleged crimes under the jurisdiction of the Court in relation to the situation in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.On November 20 th 2017, the Prosecutor had requested Authorization from Pre-Trial Judges to initiate an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity with relation to the armed conflict in Afghanistan which has been going on since May 1 st 2020, as well as regarding similar crimes related to the armed conflict in Afghanistan allegedly committed in the territory of other states Parties to the Rome Statute since July 1 st 2020.
Ms. Fatu Bensouda, a Gambian lawyer who has spent years collecting information on the Afghanistan war, requested permission to open an investigation into claims of war crimes and crimes against humanity attributed to United States military and intelligence personnel, the Taliban and Afghan forces.The prosecutor has said that the court has enough information to prove that US forces have "committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence" in Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, and later in clandestine CIA facilities in Poland, Romania and Lithuania.
The ruling came days after the United States signed a deal with the Taliban to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan after nearly two decades of conflict.
It has remained unclear as to how prosecutors will further investigate the charges without the cooperation of the Trump administration or the Afghan government. Although the United States is not a state party to Rome Statute, the treaty that created the court, American citizens can be subject to the jurisdiction of the court is investigating crimes in countries that have joined.These countries include Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland and Romania .