CAMPACC: Campaign Against Criminalising Communities

The parliamentary elections of August 2015 brought into power a coalition government between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP), the two major political parties that had ruled Sri Lanka since independence from the British in 1948. - INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre, 2016

After the Marikana massacre where 44 people were killed during the strike at Lonmin’s Platinum mine on 16th August 2012 (34 shot dead while trying to disperse, while 10 people died before and after the massacre) the government set up the Farlam Commission which cost R153 million. The police and the striking miners were not asked to give evidence. This ‘inquiry’ failed to ask the right questions (who gave the order to issue guns to the police...and to shoot to kill?) or to address the issues - better wages and living conditions for the mineworkers.

Lawyers in Pakistan have begun a nationwide strike after dozens of attorneys were slain in a suicide bombing outside a hospital in the city of Quetta in Balochistan, the country’s poorest province. Authorities said at least 70 people died in the attack, including as many as 60 attorneys; 120 were injured. The suicide bombing targeted lawyers who had assembled outside the hospital to mourn the assassination of Bilal Kasi, the president of the Balochistan Bar Association, who was killed earlier on Monday as he headed to court. Kasi had strongly condemned recent attacks in the province and had announced a two-day boycott of court sessions in protest of the killing of a colleague last week. A faction of the Pakistan Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack and for the murder of Bilal Kasi. ISIS also claimed responsibility. - Democracy Now, 9 August 2016

There’s an old expression in Brazil: “it is for the English to see.” This means the country’s elites will construct, when necessary, a veneer for Global North outsiders. This veneer displays a more attractive version of Brazilian society than what actually exists. Northern tourists and investors have long been happy to enjoy the fantasy on display as long as they could extract their pleasures or profits, and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro could have been another chapter in this long history of facades for foreign consumption. - The Nation, 26 July 2016

I VISITED Iraq in 1999. At the time, there were no so-called “jihadists” espousing the principles of “jihadism,” whatever the interpretation may be. On the outskirts of Baghdad was a military training camp, not for al-Qaida, but for Mojahedin-e-Khalq, an Iranian militant exile group that worked, with foreign funding and arms, to overthrow the Iranian Republic. - RAMZY BAROUD, Morning Star, 26 July 2016

After the atrocity of Nice, nothing summed up the weariness and despair over another attack better than the Daily Telegraph front page. No propaganda or accusations. Just a sad reel of where attacks have fallen recently and asking where it will end. - The Morning Star, 21 July 2016

"Brexit is Brexit," said Theresa May on Monday, after it was confirmed that she would be the next prime minister of the UK during an incredibly challenging time for the country. - Ars Technica UK, 13 July 2016

In an astonishing revelation, the Daily Telegraph has established that Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague will examine the Chilcot Inquiry Report in to the Iraq invasion – due to be released on Wednesday 6th July - Global Research, 3 July 2016