Nepal in 2002: Emergency and Resurrection of Royal Power

Asian Survey ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 208-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl-Heinz Kräämer

Under a nine-month state of emergency amid civil war, violence escalated and the human rights situation deteriorated. Dissent over extension of the emergency, and personal aversions between Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and party president Girija Prasad Koirala, led to a split in the ruling Nepali Congress Party. King Gyanendra dissolved the House of Representatives on the recommendation of the prime minister and called new elections for November 13. Gyanendra dismissed Deuba on October 4, as Deuba proved unable to hold the elections in time. The king assumed executive powers himself, nominated a new council of ministers, and delayed elections for an uncertain time.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulia Galkina

The letter by French “consul” Jeannot proposed to the reader highlights the participation of French military and diplomatic representatives in the Civil War in the Volga Region in 1918. Soviet historiography considers Jeannot one of the key figures who caused the situation in the Czechoslovak Corps in the spring of 1918 to destabilise; however, information about him is scarce. This letter highlights the role of Jeannot in events related to the mutiny of the Czechoslovak legion and demonstrates his motivation and understanding of events in Russia between 1914 and 1918. The letter dates from September 1919 and is addressed to Georges Clemenceau, president of the Council of Ministers of France. According to the document, Jeannot wanted compensation for the financial costs that he had incurred during his mission in Russia and aspired to demonstrate his usefulness and competence in the “Russian question” to the officials of the Third Republic. The document touches upon the financial side of French anti-Soviet actions in the Volga Region and French speculation in the Russian domestic market in 1918. Jeannot’s letter is kept in the fund of the Second Bureau of the General Staff of France of the Historical Service of the French Ministry of Defense (Service Historique de la Défense).


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edilu Shona

Ethiopia confirmed its first Covid-19 case on March 13, 2020. At the moment of writing, (11 August 2020), over 24, 000 cases of Covid-19 are confirmed and the pandemic is rising in unprecedented rate. Ethiopia has started taking various legal and informal measures prior to its first confirmation announcement on March 13, 2020 and since then. Among others, Ethiopia set up the Ministerial Committee led by the PM on February 29 and the committee gave a press release on March 16 announcing a postponement of ‘large gatherings and meetings including sporting event, limiting religious institutions and places of worship to limit gatherings and closure of all public and private schools except higher learning (HI) and later on the HI was also totally closed to combat the crisis. The committee announced that security sector to enforce measures of ceasing large gatherings to maintain social distancing’ on 23 March. Similar measures were also taken by Amhara, Southern and Oromia regional states among the nine member states of Ethiopian federation though without legal gazette publication. On the top of that State of Tigray declared a State of Emergency (SoE) on March, 25, 2020. In similar vein, the federal government declared SoE by the Council of Minsters (CoM) on April 8, followed by the approval of the House of Peoples Representative (HPR) on April 13, 2020. Subsequently the Council of Ministers also adopted its implementation regulation. But the implications of these measures on human rights and freedoms, social, economic and political rights of the public was not strictly thought and studied. Thus, the main objective of this piece was to investigate implications of the above measures on human rights and rule of law principles. Accordingly, it shade some lights on substantive and procedural content of SoE in light of legality principle, proportionality and transparency, competence of government’s power at different level to mention the least in contrast to measures taken in various jurisdictions.


2020 ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Monika Urbaniak

An epidemic caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has been existed in Europe and worldwide for several weeks now. On 11 March 2020, the WHO declared it a global pandemic. At the time of writing, Europe, in particular Italy, is the largest outbreak of coronavirus. Italy is attempting to tackle the virus with increasingly drastic legal measures. On 31 January 2020, its Council of Ministers declared a state of emergency related to the sanitary risk of coronavirus infection. Italy has started the fight against the virus using two legal instruments: the first is the Council of Ministers’ declaration of a six-month state of emergency on 31 January 2020, and the second is a decree-law (decreto legge) issued by the Prime Minister temporarily restricting the freedom of movement throughout the state. In exceptional cases, the Italian Government has the right to issue normative legal acts. Recent legislative acts issued in Italy have undoubtedly limited the fundamental rights granted by the Constitution of 1947. These limited rights include the right of movement, but also freedom of assembly, the right to work, freedom of economic activity and freedom of conscience and religion. As a result of the legal solutions introduced, fundamental human rights are subject to justifiable restrictions in order to protect the constitutionally guaranteed right of the community to health care. In situations of epidemiological threats, protecting the lives and health of citizens is essential. Any restrictions on rights and freedoms are intended to protect these goods. However extensive these restrictions may be, in a democratic state this must be introduced under strict control and for a specified period of time linked to the duration of an epidemic.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burcu Togral Koca

Turkey has followed an “open door” policy towards refugees from Syria since the March 2011 outbreak of the devastating civil war in Syria. This “liberal” policy has been accompanied by a “humanitarian discourse” regarding the admission and accommodation of the refugees. In such a context, it is widely claimed that Turkey has not adopted a securitization strategy in its dealings with the refugees. However, this article argues that the stated “open door” approach and its limitations have gone largely unexamined. The assertion is, here, refugees fleeing Syria have been integrated into a security framework embedding exclusionary, militarized and technologized border practices. Drawing on the critical border studies, the article deconstructs these practices and the way they are violating the principle of non-refoulement in particular and human rights of refugees in general. 


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-291
Author(s):  
Manuel A. Vasquez ◽  
Anna L. Peterson

In this article, we explore the debates surrounding the proposed canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero, an outspoken defender of human rights and the poor during the civil war in El Salvador, who was assassinated in March 1980 by paramilitary death squads while saying Mass. More specifically, we examine the tension between, on the one hand, local and popular understandings of Romero’s life and legacy and, on the other hand, transnational and institutional interpretations. We argue that the reluctance of the Vatican to advance Romero’s canonization process has to do with the need to domesticate and “privatize” his image. This depoliticization of Romero’s work and teachings is a part of a larger agenda of neo-Romanization, an attempt by the Holy See to redeploy a post-colonial and transnational Catholic regime in the face of the crisis of modernity and the advent of postmodern relativism. This redeployment is based on the control of local religious expressions, particularly those that advocate for a more participatory church, which have proliferated with contemporary globalization


Author(s):  
Emily Robins Sharpe

The Jewish Canadian writer Miriam Waddington returned repeatedly to the subject of the Spanish Civil War, searching for hope amid the ruins of Spanish democracy. The conflict, a prelude to World War II, inspired an outpouring of literature and volunteerism. My paper argues for Waddington’s unique poetic perspective, in which she represents the Holocaust as the Spanish Civil War’s outgrowth while highlighting the deeply personal repercussions of the war – consequences for women, for the earth, and for community. Waddington’s poetry connects women’s rights to human rights, Canadian peace to European war, and Jewish persecution to Spanish carnage.


Author(s):  
Kevin Vallier

Americans today don’t trust each other and their institutions as much as they used to. The collapse of social and political trust arguably has fueled our increasingly ferocious ideological conflicts and hardened partisanship. But is the decline in trust inevitable? Are we caught in a downward spiral that must end in war-like politics, institutional decay, and possibly even civil war? This book argues that American political and economic institutions are capable of creating and maintaining trust, even through polarized times. Combining philosophical arguments and empirical data, the author shows that liberal democracy, markets, and social welfare programs all play a vital role in producing social and political trust. Even more, these institutions can promote trust justly, by recognizing and respecting our basic human rights.


Author(s):  
Ramon Das

This chapter argues that the philosophical debate around humanitarian intervention would be improved if it were less ‘ideal-theoretic’. It identifies two ideal-theoretic assumptions. One, in target states where humanitarian intervention is being considered, there are two distinct and easily identified groups: ‘bad guys’ committing serious human rights abuses, and innocent civilians against whom the abuses are being committed. Two, external to the target state in question, there are suitably qualified ‘good guys’—prospective interveners who possess both the requisite military power and moral integrity. If the assumptions hold, the prospects for successful humanitarian intervention are much greater. As a contrast, some possible non-ideal assumptions are that (i) there are many bad guys in a civil war, and (ii) the good guy intervener is itself supporting some of the bad guys. If these non-ideal assumptions hold, prospects for successful humanitarian intervention are small.


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