Peaceful Protest Research Articles

Violence against Healthcare Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Incidents from a Lower-Middle-Income Country.

Background:Healthcare workers (HCWs) across the globe have met tremendous challenges during the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, such as shortages of personal protective equipment, extensive work hours, and constant fear of catching the virus or transmitting it to loved ones. Adding on to the already existing burnout, an increase in incidents of violence and aggression against HCWs was seen in Pakistan and globally.Objectives:Primarily to review cases of violence against HCWs in Pakistan, highlighting and comparing the instigating factors seen within the country and globally. Secondly, to enlist possible interventions to counter workplace violence in healthcare during a pandemic and in general.Methods:Incidents of violence towards HCWs in Pakistan during the COVID-19 pandemic occurring between April 7, 2020, and August 7, 2020, were included. The incidents reported from local newspapers were reviewed.Findings and Conclusion:A total of 29 incidents were identified, with perpetrators of violence most commonly being relatives of COVID-19 patients. Most frequent reasons included mistrust in HCWs, belief in conspiracy theories, hospitals’ refusal to admit COVID-19 patients due to limited space, COVID-19 hospital policies, and the death of the COVID-19 patients. Protests by doctors and other HCWs for provision of adequate PPE, better quarantine conditions for doctors with suspected COVID-19, and better compensation for doctors on COVID-19 patient duty resulted in police violence towards HCWs. To avoid such incidents in the future, institutions, healthcare policymakers, media organisations, and law enforcement agencies must work together for widespread public awareness to counter misconceptions and to exhibit responsible journalism. In hospitals, measures such as de-escalation training and increased security must be implemented. Furthermore, law enforcement agencies must be trained in non-violent methods of crowd dispersal and control to manage peaceful protests by HCWs over legitimate issues.

Comparative Study Between the Omani and British Legal Systems in Terms of Judicial Independence and Separation of Powers

Abstract The legal system of Oman is a junction of the locally inherent religious legal norms and foreign influence of the French and British legal systems. The legal documents of the country, such as Constitution Articles 60 and 61, may claim that the judiciary is independent, yet the Omani experience within the executive branch, and its role in legislation, demonstrate that the Middle-Eastern state stands in contrast to the United Kingdom (UK), where the separation of powers (SOP) has been in effect since at least 1701. As is indicative of the common historical theme, considering the powers of the sultan, Oman may be said to be in need of popular participation through the parliamentary branches, for the creation of a regional prosecutorial body, and the enforcement of international judicial independence and conduct resolutions. Oman showed a positive response during the peaceful protests in 2011. Still, Oman may require national conferences to discuss such cases with popular participation.

For the Love of Alma, Black Hopes Matter.

For the Love of Alma, Black Hopes Matter.

Front and Back Covers, Volume 37, Number 2. April 2021

Front and back cover caption, volume 37 issue 2Front coverTHE CAPITOL INSURRECTIONThousands of people marched toward the US Capitol building on 6 January 2021. The rally that day was part of an attempt to overturn the outcome of the presidential election. The attempted coup was carried out by multiple means. While the violent attack on the Capitol building that day has captured the world's attention, attempts to undermine democratic processes in the United States have a longer, more insidious history, including multiple forms of voter suppression, some of which are built into the system.The US has never been a direct democracy. In fact, in 2000 and 2016, candidates who lost the popular vote ‘won’ the election. The 2020 presidential election was perhaps outstanding because the unabashed attempts to disenfranchise voters – primarily minority voters – were suddenly on full display. The losing candidate tried to strong‐arm state election officials into fraudulently changing the vote count and pressured the vice president to overturn the lawful outcome of the elections – all of which happened in full view of the public.When it became clear that the vice president would not undermine the election result, the losing candidate called on his supporters to come to Washington, DC to demonstrate their belief that the election had been stolen from him and from them. The ensuing violent attack on the Capitol building was a spectacular display of a larger failed attempt at a coup.In this issue, Gregory Starrett and Joyce Dalsheim narrate their eye witness fieldwork accounts of the ‘March to save America’ rally earlier on that fateful day.Back coverTHE MYANMAR COUPOn 2 March 2021, police shot Kyal Sin, a 19‐year‐old protester, in the head from behind with live ammunition while she was engaged in peaceful civil disobedience in Mandalay against the Myanmar military, which seized control through a violent coup on 1 February. The artwork depicts Kyal Sin, whose name means ‘pure star’, as one of the martyrs of the democracy movement. Prior to attending the rally, Kyal Sin had posted on Facebook her wish for her organs to be donated should she die during the protest.Since the coup, millions of civilians across Myanmar have taken to the streets in protest. Civil servants, along with the general public, have participated in a nationwide strike. In response, the military have fired weapons into crowds of peaceful protesters, engaged in extrajudicial killings, raided civilian homes and businesses, kidnapped and illegally detained protesters, strikers, political and civil society leaders, tortured detainees and terrorized countless other civilians.In this issue, Seinenu M. Thein‐Lemelson reviews the history of violence and persecution perpetrated by the Myanmar military against participants in the Burmese democracy movement. The persecution of activists has included repression of their cultural and ritual life. The democracy movement possesses its own list of saints, martyrs (azarni) and heroes (thuyegaung). Between 1988 and 2012, keeping photographs or artistic depictions of these martyrs and heroes constituted an illegal act. During that time, owning or publishing this artwork of Kyal Sin could have resulted in imprisonment and torture. Indeed, even now the Myanmar military is so concerned about her martyrdom that they exhumed her body and filled her grave with cement.When Kyal Sin was shot, she was wearing a black T‐shirt emblazoned with the words: ‘Everything will be OK’, revealing a youthful hope and innocence. This sense of child‐like purity has deepened the poignancy and loss felt by all those who mourn her death. Kyal Sin's nickname was ‘Angel’ and a halo hovers above her head. She holds the Myanmar flag, shredded with bullet holes, in her left hand. Behind her are the outlines of other protesters or perhaps past martyrs of the movement, giving the three‐fingered salute, in approval and solidarity.

South Africa – Peaceful Protest Killing

Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social and Cultural SeriesVolume 58, Issue 3 p. 23101C-23101C National Security South Africa – Peaceful Protest Killing First published: 16 April 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-825X.2021.09929.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume58, Issue3April 2021Pages 23101C-23101C RelatedInformation

Coverage of Protest Stories in Tweets of International News Agencies: A comparative Analysis on Kashmir and Hong Kong Protests

In April 2019 Hong Kong government introduced an extradition bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China. The introduction of the extradition bill resulted in an eruption of mass level peaceful protests across Hong Kong, which turned out to be more violent later on. On the other side, the protests in Kashmir erupted out after the Modi led Indian government revoked the special autonomous status of Kashmir on the 5th of August, 2019. A sudden and momentous decision to eliminate article 370 enrage the Kashmiri people being deprived of their rights resulting in massive protest across the valley. In the context of modern information and communication systems, the present study is designed to examine the protest paradigm in the international news coverage of Kashmir and Hong Kong's recent protests in tweets of international news agencies. Theoretically, the study takes roots from protest paradigm and international news flow. Methodologically, we employed content analysis method. Firstly, content analysis of purposively selected tweets of four international news agencies, AFP, AP, Reuters, and Xinhua, was performed. Secondly, we used visualization technique to examine the framing of international protests by employing news framing, and protest paradigm. Findings reveal that Protest paradigm is supported in context of international disputes due to the vested interests of global powers as well as the dominated agenda of international news agencies.

Coup or Not Coup: The African Union and the Dilemma of “Popular Uprisings” in Africa

ABSTRACT Since 2011, Africa witnessed 7 different forms of popular uprisings leading to the overthrow of ruling heads of state. This includes the situations in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia in 2011, Burkina Faso in 2014, Zimbabwe in 2017 as well as the recent cases in Algeria and Sudan in 2019. During these uprisings, the African Union (AU) is criticized for its lack of responsiveness to government crackdown, but quick action to condemn the military-supported revolution. Using the case of Sudan, this article examines the complexities of popular uprisings in Africa and AU’s challenge in managing the situation. The paper argues that the AU faces the dilemma of protecting the rights of peaceful protesters in a sovereign state and ensuring long-term stability, including preventing the history of military adventurism on the continent. Yet, its role has often leaned disproportionately toward maintaining stability, which raises criticisms that it favors state regimes as opposed to its human-centric and democratic commitments. To enhance its credibility, the AU must adopt proactive roles to protect protesters against government crackdowns. Additionally, the AU needs to augment its existing African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) with actionable policy guidance for protesters, governments, and security agencies during popular uprisings.

Formal Education and Contentious Politics: The Case of Violent and Non-Violent Protest

This study investigates the effect that formal education, as a factor of socio-economic development, has on the intensity and forms of political protest. By way of increased socialization of democratic values, increased cognitive understanding of the society at large, and human capital to participate in protests, increases in a country’s level of formal education should theoretically lead to increased levels of peaceful protest. However, increases in formal education are also theorized to play a mitigating role on the intensity of violent protests (riots) for the previously mentioned reasons as well as the fact that education acts as a strong factor in increasing social mobility. With data from 1960 to 2010 and spanning 216 countries, our empirical tests demonstrate a significant positive relationship between formal education and the intensity of anti-government protests at the early stages of socio-political development and a strong negative relationship between education and riots along the full range of data, with the later stages of development revealing a particularly strong negative correlation.

How a moral panic influenced the world’s first blanket ban on new psychoactive substances

Ireland passed the world’s first blanket ban on new psychoactive substance in 2010. This article traces the historical processes culminating in the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act (2010) through a systematic review of Irish media articles published between 2000 and 2010 (N = 338). The review found that head shops were largely tolerated when they sold cannabis paraphernalia (2000–2008), possibly indicating the normalisation of cannabis in Ireland. Some mild condemnatory language emerges between 2008 and 2009 when head shops began selling some new psychoactive substances. The review suggests that the 2010 Act was partly a product of a moral panic, driven and managed by a range of moral entrepreneurs and, involving both peaceful and violent protests. Unlike some traditional moral panics, young people were not identified as folk devils but rather as under threat from a new drug distribution model (head shops) and new drugs (NPS).

Elite response to protest in authoritarian settings: evidence from Russia

ABSTRACT Scholars of contentious politics understand the critical role of opposition protests and the elite in influencing regime outcomes. What is less understood, however, is how opposition protest can impact the “hearts and minds” of elites in authoritarian settings. Using the timing of the Survey of Russian Elites and a 2016 protest in Moscow to commemorate the death of a Russian opposition figure, we show that elites initially responded with sympathy to the peaceful and well-attended protest, but those feelings faded in the weeks following the event. We attribute the ephemeral nature of the protest’s impact to a successful strategy by the Kremlin to acknowledge the event and then promptly ignore it in the following weeks. We posit this allowed the event to leave the consciousness of most elites and their feelings returned to pre-protest levels. Our findings suggest that certain opposition protests can garner sympathy among the elite in authoritarian settings, but also highlight the passive tools of authoritarian regimes in minimizing the impact of protest movements. Opposition movements, thus, not only have to cue sympathetic feelings among the elite, but also have to sustain that persuasion in subsequent news cycles.

Review: The World Community and the Arab Spring, edited by Cenap Kakmak and Ali Onur Ozcelik

Review: The World Community and the Arab Spring, edited by Cenap Kakmak and Ali Onur Ozcelik

Britain’s authoritarian turn

Looking back, in December 2020, at the year since Boris Johnson’s Conservatives were swept back into government with a huge majority, the author identifies a raft of new laws, Home Office measures and government proposals in the fields of policing, crime, and immigration and asylum which embody long-held rightwing projects. Coming on top of already discriminatory practices, these include restrictions on the fundamental right of peaceful protest and freedom from invasive and racist policing, the subjection of migrants and asylum seekers to dangerous and inhumane conditions and the removal of legal protections for asylum seekers. Simultaneously, Bills going through parliament restrict or remove altogether the legal accountability of state actors, including soldiers on overseas operations and police informants, for crimes including torture and murder. Citizens’ recourse to the courts to challenge unlawful ministerial decisions is also under threat.

Populism and Protest.

The essay considers populism in the present moment in relation to Black Lives Matter as a popular protest movement. Popular protest movements demand that government change; populism in the present moment seeks to act extra-governmentally, and to this end relies on violence in the face of peace protest movement. This violence demonstrates the white patriarchalism of contemporary populism. I argue that peaceful, popular protest is an important tool to resist white patriarchal populist authoritarianism.

On the Path of the Prophet in Unsettled Times: Sudan’s Republican Brotherhood Looks Abroad

Mahmoud Mohamed Taha (1909–1985) founded the Republican Brotherhood in the early 1950s to promote social reform through a new understanding of divine revelation which had emerged during his two years of khalwa or retreat. From the 1950s through the 1970s, the Republican Brotherhood attracted a few thousand followers to Ustadh Mahmoud’s teachings, whose foundation was the discipline of tariq Mohamed, “the Path of the Prophet.” This Path was a challenging design for life that embraced gender equality and social justice against the backdrop of an increasingly Islamist-oriented Sudan. In the 1980s, the height of the Brotherhood’s membership, the Republicans confronted Sudan President Gaafar Nimeiry’s imposition of his version of “Islamic Law,” with publications and street corner lectures. Through peaceful protest, the Republican’s point was that Islamic Law would only be oppressive to the millions of non-Muslims in the country and to women. The result of this resistance was the 1985 arrest and execution of Taha for trumped-up charges of apostasy. In the decades following the passing of their teacher, the Republicans have kept a low profile in Sudan while trying to maintain both their faith and some social cohesion. In reaction to both the Islamist political conditions in Sudan and the failing economy, many Republicans have joined the Sudanese flight abroad, with modest communities of Republicans now established in the Gulf States of Qatar and UAE, as well as the United States. Through field work and interviews with members of these three communities, I have tried to understand the effort to sustain the discipline of the Path of the Prophet by Republican brothers and sisters under circumstances of the extremist orientations of Gulf politics, or the “moral ambiguity” of the United States. This study is part of a larger book project on the Republican Brotherhood following the execution of Ustadh Mahmoud.

Lebanese Catholic schools: past achievements and contemporary challenges in times of economic distress and COVID 19 pandemic

Lebanon is currently trapped in a full-scale emergency. Apart from the Syrian refugee mass influx of 2011, which had led the country to severe social and economic constraints, a civic uprising ignited in October 2019 against an incompetent government accused of sectarianism and corruption by the Lebanese people. Thousands of peaceful protesters from different religions and social classes assembled in cities across the country calling for social and economic reforms. Frustration and public anger have escalated in recent years over government's failure to manage the country's waste and economic crisis. Lebanon currently confronts a debt, fiscal, currency and banking crisis which inevitably impacted its educational sector. Unlike many countries where public schools are most commonly frequented, Lebanon relies on its private schools including Catholic Schools to educate two-third of students. The current crises are forcing working class families to pull their children out of private schools into the state system.

Identifying and Minimizing the Risk of Election Subversion and Stolen Elections in the Contemporary United States

The United States faces a serious risk that the 2024 presidential election, and other future U.S. elections, will not be conducted fairly, and that the candidates taking office will not reflect the free choices made by eligible voters under previously announced election rules. The potential mechanisms by which election losers may be declared election winners are: usurpation of voter choices for President by state legislatures purporting to exercise constitutional authority to do so, possibly blessed by a partisan-divided Supreme Court and acquiesced to by Republicans in Congress; fraudulent or suppressive election administration or vote counting by law- or norm-breaking election officials; and violent or disruptive private action that prevents voting, interferes with the counting of votes, or interrupts the assumption of power by the actual winning candidate. Until recently, it would have been absurd to raise the possibility of such election subversion or a stolen election in the United States. Few cases have emerged in at least the last 50 years in the United States of actual election subversion by election officials, leading to an election loser being declared the election winner, despite other unique pathologies of American election administration. Ironically, the conduct of former President Donald J. Trump in repeatedly and falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen has markedly raised the potential for an actual stolen election in the United States. Millions of Trump’s Republican supporters now believe the false claim of a stolen election, and some Republican elected officials have pursued bogus sham “audits” and taken other steps that undermine voter confidence in the fairness of the election process. Threats of violence and intimidation have led to unprecedented attrition among election administrators, and some exiting officials are being replaced by those who may not have allegiance to the integrity of the election system. Those Republican election officials who stood up to Trump in 2020 and saved the United States from a potential constitutional and political crisis have been censured, stripped of power, and challenged for office by those embracing the “Big Lie.” Together, these actions serve both to delegitimate the election of Democrats including President Joe Biden in 2020 and to open the door to election manipulation in future elections. Elected officials, election officials, and others believing or purporting to believe the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen may seek to justify subverting future election results in response to earlier purported fraud. The solutions to these problems are both legal and political. Legal changes should include: (1) paper ballot, chain-of-custody, and transparency requirements, including risk-limiting audits of election results; (2) rules limiting the discretion of those who certify the votes, including Congress through reform of the Electoral Count Act; (3) rules limiting the over-politicization of election administration, especially by state legislatures; (4) increased criminal penalties imposed on those who tamper with federal elections or commit violence or intimidation of voters, elected officials, or elected candidates; and (5) rules countering disinformation about elections, particularly disinformation about when, where, and how people vote. In addition, it will be necessary to organize for political action to reenforce rule-of-law norms in elections. This means advocating for laws that deter election subversion and against laws making stolen elections easier; politically opposing would-be election administrators who embrace false claims about stolen elections; and preparing for mass, peaceful protests in the event of attempts to subvert fair election outcomes. Part I of this Essay describes the path to this unexpected moment of democratic peril in the United States. Part II explains the three potential mechanisms by which American elections may be subverted in the future. Part III recommends steps that can and should be taken to minimize this risk. Preserving and protecting American democracy from the risk of election subversion should be at the top of everyone’s agenda. The time to act is now, before American democracy disappears.

ПОЛІТИКА РОСІЙСЬКОЇ ОКУПАЦІЙНОЇ ВЛАДИ ЩОДО КРИМСЬКИХ ТАТАР

The article based on a wide source base (official materials of authorities, human rights organizations, statements and interviews of politicians and public figures, representatives of the Crimean Tatar movement, eyewitness testimonies, analytical and informational publications in the media) conducted a comprehensive analysis of Russia’s policy towards the Crimean Tatar people. The actions of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People in defense of Ukraine’s territorial integrity during the meeting on February 26, 2014 were analyzed. The position of Crimean Tatar political and public organizations on the illegal referendum on March 16, 2014 and Russia’s capture of Crimea was highlighted. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between the Russian authorities and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, which included three periods: the confrontation in late February – March 2014 (peaceful protests, boycott of an illegal referendum), the search for compromise in late March – May 2014 (when the Majlis delegated its representatives to the leadership of the «government» and «parliament» of Crimea, controlled by Russia); since May 2014, when the Russian authorities failed to bring the Mejlis under their control and set a course to ban it and persecute leaders. The facts of collaboration of the Crimean Tatars, which, however, did not become widespread, were also considered. Attempts by the Russian authorities to establish relations with the Crimean Tatars are analyzed: rehabilitation of deported nations, preservation of the high status of the Crimean Tatar language, involvement of certain representatives of the Crimean Tatars in the occupation administration. The principles of the state policy of Ukraine and Russia regarding the Crimean Tatars are compared, the fact is emphasized that Ukraine, unlike Russia, recognizes them as the indigenous people of Crimea. The main forms of repressive policy against Crimean Tatars are considered: abduction and persecution of activists, liquidation of opposition media, restriction of freedom of peaceful assembly, violation of the right to freedom of association, imprisonment and deportation of leaders of Crimean Tatar organizations.

Echo of Arab Spring in Western Europe

Our analysis allows us to talk about two waves of the echo of the Arab spring in Western Europe. The first wave was observed in 2011 and was expressed in the explosive growth of mainly peaceful protests. Taking into account the data on the direct impact of the events of the Arab Spring on the protest activity in Western Europe, the explosive increase in the number of anti-government demonstrations, riots and general strikes recorded in Western Europe in 2011 can be attributed to the influence of the Arab Spring up to a very considerable extent. In 2012–2014 the protest movement in Western Europe acquired its own logic and continued at a fairly high level, despite the disappearance of the "Arab impulse" – to a large extent under the influence of the second wave of the financial and economic crisis. The second wave of the echo of the Arab spring in Western Europe was observed with a noticeable time lag in 2014–2015. and manifested primarily in the form of rapid growth of terrorist (mainly Islamist) activities. One of the consequences of the Arab Spring was the collapse or sharp weakening of several sufficiently effective Arab authoritarian regimes, which led to a significant improvement in the possibility of the activities of terrorist organizations of various kinds, the rapid growth of their strength, influence and effectiveness of organizational forms – including, which is very important for Western Europe, in cyber space. Terrorist activities penetrated from Arab countries to Western Europe through various channels: refugees, quite effective Internet propaganda of ISIS, jihadists returning to Western Europe, and so on. The second wave was expressed in a certain increase in protest activity, but it radically differed from the protests in 2011, since in the latter case it was a matter of the protests organized mainly by the right-wing forces against the migrant wave, which was generated to a very high degree by the tsunami of the Arab Spring.

ASSESSING THE ROLE OF RELIGIONS IN AFRICA USING THE EXAMPLE OF NIGERIA

In the modern world, there is a rapid civilizational development of African countries. The largest and most influential state in the West African region is Nigeria. Strategically, Nigeria strives to be a regional leader and take leading positions in the development and provision of regional security. Africa currently remains the most religious continent in the world, socio-ethnic and socio-confessional characteristics of society have a significant impact on the development of almost all social processes and changes in Nigeria and other countries of this region. Research results: it is proved that in the conditions of active civilizational development in Nigeria, religions have a great influence in the process of societal developments. The essential role of religion in the formation of civil society is determined; the study revealed that religions in Nigeria have significant impacts on the political development of society; the influence of religious organizations on the attitude of the population to the authorities has been proved. It is concluded that religions are of great value and are directly related to the development of Africa. Religions are channels for the transmission of social and political values from one generation to another. It is further proved that religions in Nigeria actively contribute to the moral development of the society. 77.7% of respondents agreed to be active members of a political party due to the encouragement from religious organizations. At the same time, 50% of respondents are politically active in accordance with their personal interest in politics. Half of the respondents agreed to have been participating in peaceful protests, as a result of encouragement from their various religious organizations.

Análisis del derecho a la resistencia desde la protesta pacífica

The right to resistance, took a sumptuous role in the second decade of the 21st century. Globally, the self-determination of peoples organized in peaceful protests or transformed rebellions with an excessive level of violence showed that there is a need to model new government measures that adapt to the demands of the 21st century. What will be evaluated in this article is a social reality, which now with the innovative information technologies allows us to discover the context in which the different manifestations around the world originate. And with this we can compare the different realities and relate it to our social scheme; which will allow us to discover if we are facing the genesis of a universal ideological revolution or if each case simply corresponds to internal issues of the States which, if so, would allow us to formulate conclusions limited only to our national territory.