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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 1d

Politicising security and intelligence services is a faultline for democracy⚡️🇮🇱

In a context of high tension and active conflict, as in Israël, it only further erodes the very principles those institutions are meant to protect and Israël's democracy.

🔗 www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

President Isaac Herzog (right) welcomes David Zini (left) to the President's Residence in Jerusalem, on Sunday. Credit: Avi Hayoun (Haaretz)

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 4d

The attack on civil society is a major faultline⚡️

🌍 Civil society closures
💸 Aid collapse
🛑 Weaponised laws
👩‍👩‍👧‍👦 Gender & LGBTQI rights attacked
⚔️ Security over rights

An existential threat to democracy, solidarity, human dignity.

@unsrapporteurfoaa.bsky.social

🔗 www.ohchr.org/en/documents...

A/80/219: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Gina Romero - Freedom of assembly and association rights, collective action and human solid...

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Gina Romero, sounds the alarm about the compounding existential threats to these rights,...

www.ohchr.org

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 7d

Heartbreaking 💔

@coe.int can pride itself of all it did to prevent torture and ill treatment and improve detention conditions, in collaboration with civil society, notably @penalreformint.bsky.social and the Swiss APT.

Looks like another faultline ⚡️⤵️

Campaign to End Repression in Azerbaijan @endrepression-az.org · 7d

The appalling conditions of the prison system in Azerbaijan is well know🔴⚖️🔴

Arbitrarily detained journalists are now reporting on what they witness and undergo in prisons accross the country.

🔗 www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Areas/Az...

Jailed journalists turn the spotlight on Azerbaijan’s prisons

Since November 2023, around thirty journalists have been arrested in Azerbaijan. From behind bars, these journalists have revealed the appalling conditions of the prison system, something previously i...

www.balcanicaucaso.org

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 8d

District Court of Massachusetts rules: using immigration law for Trump’s “retribution” against dissent violates the First Amendment 🇺🇸
When leaders punish speech, courts show up for democracy. A faultline ⚡️

We stand by you, Chief Judge William G. Young 🙏

🔗 storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Donald Trump tours the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. ‘If Trump is able to punish lawyers who oppose him and ignore the courts, he will be only steps away from becoming the king he seems to want to be,’ said one law professor.
Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 8d

Laureates of @coe.int's Václav Havel Prize remain jailed. International organisations praise democracy and human rights defenders, yet their leadership fails to act (even to try) to free them.

Recognition without protection risks hypocrisy. A faultline⚡️

🔗 www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democ...

Demonstrators in Tbilisi, Georgia, stand behind symbolic prison bars during a protest demanding the release of political prisoners and new elections. picture alliance / NurPhoto | Jerome Gilles

Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 10d

When multilateral organisations yield to a “culture of caution”, they lose legitimacy in the eyes of those who most embody their values, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists.

That loss is a faultline ⚡️

🔗 www.linkedin.com/pulse/cautio...

Caution Costs: Human Rights Defenders Left Behind

“From my prison cell in Georgia, I implore Europe not to abandon us to Russia” — journalist Mzia Amaglobeli These words from Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli cut to the heart of today’s faultline. ...

www.linkedin.com

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 16d

Worth listening into this: discussions at the Leonidas Donskis Memorial Conference last week, discussing 50 years of the Helsinki Agreements.

🎬 youtu.be/N_aiZxBA6EU?...

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 16d

From the UN Human Rights Council to Egypt's prisons: Pres. Sisi issues pardon for 6 prisoners following UN appeal, including @monasosh.bsky.social's brother, prominent activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah.

Today we're happy. Yet, too many around the globe remin behind bars⚡️

@marylawlorhrds.bsky.social

Egypt's President Sisi pardons high-profile Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, al Qahera news says

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pardoned high-profile Egyptian-British activist, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, after a lengthy imprisonment and repeated hunger strikes that prompted international pleas for his release, Al Qahera news said on Monday.

www.reuters.com

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 17d

“It’s difficult to know how many children are dying worldwide as a result of the Trump aid cuts…credible estimates…suggest that the child death toll may be in the hundreds of thousands this year alone—likely an even higher number next year.”

This is what a lost decade for humanity looks like⚡️⤵️

Andrew Stroehlein @andrewstroehlein.bsky.social · 17d

"...not only are [Trump's] aid cuts killing children every day ... the death toll is accelerating"
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/o...

Opinion | Trump’s Most Lethal Policy

www.nytimes.com

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 17d

We just like this ⤵️ 💜

Holly Berkley Fletcher @hollybfletcher.bsky.social · 18d

Important people who are nice to me get art whether they want it or not.
A few more of you are getting dangerously close. You don’t know who you are.

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 17d

Why it matters?

Because the Court reinforces protection for all against unchecked power to medicate & confine ⚖️ 🏥

Abuse of psychiatry must be a priority in any democratic pact⚡️ And it — now, at last — should be high on the agenda of the @coe.int and its Secretary General @alain-berset.coe.int.

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 17d

This week, the @echr.coe.int ruled in Spivak vs Ukraine:
❌ Unlawful detention
❌ Forced neuroleptics without necessity
❌ Degrading conditions
❌ Lack of remedies

➡️ Dnipro Hospital was described as “Hell on Earth” by @robertvanvoren.bsky.social in 2017:
nv.ua/ukr/opinion/...

Пекло на землі

Ми побачили людей, повністю втрачених в нелюдській системі

nv.ua

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 17d

Abuse of psychiatry: a dramatic faultline⚡️⤵️

Dec 2011: Mr Spivak was arrested and sent for psychiatric examination
Dec 2012-Oct 2014: confined in Dnipro Psy. Hospital, forcibly medicated, held in degrading conditions

Psychiatric abuse in action in Belarus

The Hanchar family of the town of Krasnapolle, Mahiliou region, has called upon Belarusian human rights activists and independent journalists to help protect their under-age daughter from psychiatry abuse. The Hanchars claim that their daughter Liudmila is about to be hospitalized by order of local police. According to Liudmila’s elder sister Volha, two policemen accompanied by a psychiatrist paid a visit to the family’s apartment to hospitalize the girl, claiming that she needed immediate medical intervention due to ‘severe mental disorder’, cause by a school incident a year ago, when the girl was badly beaten by her classmates. After Liudmila’s mother said the girl was out and demanded that the officials left the flat, the policemen pinioned the woman’s arms and the doctor made an injection of unknown medicine.
Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 17d

Gaza’s inadmissible death toll lays bare a faultline⚡️

Robert Malley on lessons from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Western double standards, and why ending the “carnage” in Gaza must come first—then real diplomacy.

🔗 www.theideasletter.org/essay/diplom...

@open-society.bsky.social

Diplomatic Delusions - The Ideas Letter

Malley, the lead negotiator of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, reflects on decades of US policy in the Middle East, from the promise and unraveling of diplomacy with Iran to…

www.theideasletter.org

Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 22d

Migration is one of Europe’s deepest faultlines⚡

Worth joining @timep.bsky.social on 18 Sept for Beyond Fortress Europe, which will explore how EU migration policy (un)shapes human rights, civic space & democracy, and what a humane alternative could be.

🔗 timep.org/2025/09/02/b...

Beyond Fortress Europe: Rethinking Migration Governance in the EU and MENA

In 2015, more than one million people—many fleeing conflict and unstable conditions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)—undertook dangerous journeys to reach European shores, sparking the conti...

timep.org

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 22d

Human rights & democracy are not add-ons, rather foundation of European security. Anything else is a faultline⚡️

@switzerlandosce.bsky.social 2026 presidency will test if rules-based security still holds.

By @eleonoramongelli.bsky.social & @florianirminger.ch
🔗 www.swissinfo.ch/eng/war-peac...

Poster for the Eighth Leonidas Donskis Memorial Conference, titled “Back to Square One? The Rise and Fall of the Helsinki Agreements”, held on 18 September 2025 at ISM University of Management and Economics in Vilnius, Lithuania. The design features large red numbers “1975–2025” with a background photo and event details.

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 23d

Europe’s real security challenge is to reclaim democracy.
Defending civic space, participation and human rights must be a core pillar of EU security policy, as @florianirminger.ch and @vanjasko.bsky.social wrote for @ecnl.bsky.social

🔗 ecnl.org/news/europes...

Europe’s Real Security Challenge: Reclaiming Democracy

In this blog Vanja Skoric and Florian Irminger argue that defending civic space, public participation and human rights must become a core pillar of EU security policy.

ecnl.org

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 23d

International Day of Democracy ⚖️🗳️🕊️

A perfect day to welcome @kajsaollongren.bsky.social as EU Special Representative for Human Rights.

Her experience is key to tackling a growing European faultline: human rights within the emerging defence architecture⚡️

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 28d

States use of “the tools of democracy itself — its laws, institutions, and freedoms — restrict rights, suppress dissent… or stifle criticism” wrote @alain-berset.coe.int, underlining the need new democratic pact.

➡️ Read his piece of May 2025 www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

Democracy is Europe's first line of defence

In an Euronews exclusive, Council of Europe Secretary General and former Swiss President Alain Berset makes the case for a new democratic pact before Europe hits a tipping point. #EuropeNews

www.euronews.com

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 28d

A silent crack, a faultline with far-reaching consequences⚡️

Using criminal law to silence dissent undermines democratic security.

All governments should take note of the new @coe.int guidance issued today. Courts should use it to uphold individual rights ⚖️

🔗 www.coe.int/de/web/porta...

Excessive limits on freedom of expression harm Europe’s democratic security - Portal - www.coe.int

<p>New guidance issued to countries on limiting use of criminal law to restrict freedom of expression </p>

www.coe.int

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · 29d

#UNGA80 opens in New York 📍

A major faultline deepens at the heart of the UN system:
China is reshaping multilateralism to suit its interests — silencing dissent, rewriting norms, evading scrutiny ⚡️

As the US retreats, who will step up?
👉 fpc.org.uk/op-ed-us-ret...

@fpcthinktank.bsky.social

Side-by-side image of three flags: the flag of the United States on the left, the United Nations flag in the center, and the flag of China on the right. The image visually symbolises the shifting power dynamics at the UN as the US retreats and China rises.

Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · Sep 8

Also read @anneapplebaum.bsky.social's recent piece in @theatlantic.com, “The War About Nothing”

bsky.app/profile/flor...

Florian Irminger @florianirminger.ch · Aug 6

Pointless and meaningless war, which nobody cares about. Thanks to @anneapplebaum.bsky.social for her attention ⤵️

Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · Aug 6

Earlier this year, I made two trips to Sudan, where a terrible civil war has displaced 14 million people. The state is absent, international institutions are weak.Outside powers, motivated by greed and nihilism, have stepped into the vacuum

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · Sep 8

➡️ Report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan #HRC60

www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

“A war of atrocities:” Sudan civilians deliberately targeted, UN Fact-Finding Mission reports international crimes on large-scale

GENEVA – Rival forces in Sudan are deliberately targeting the devastated nation’s civilian population, committing atrocities including war crimes on a large scale, the Independent International Fact-F...

www.ohchr.org

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · Sep 8

Sudan: A War of Atrocities

Over 12 million people displaced; at least 150,000 killed.

Camps shelled & burned 🏚️
Systematic rape & sexual slavery used as weapons of war 💔
Starvation inflicted through sieges & blocked aid 🍂

A crisis the world cannot keep overlooking ⚡️ #HRC60

A group of Sudanese women with young children sit in a health clinic, some holding babies, while a man in a white shirt takes notes at a desk, in a UNICEF-supported clinic in war-torn Sudan, where children suffering from severe malnutrition receive treatment and lifesaving care.
© UNICEF/Ahmed Mohamdeen Elfatih

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Notes from the Faultline @faultlinenotes.bsky.social · Sep 8

#COP27 🇪🇬 #COP28 🇦🇪 #COP29 🇦🇿
#COP32 likely Ethiopia 🇪🇹

For #COP31, Australia is negotiating with Türkiye.
Shouldn’t a climate COP be hosted in a place where you don’t risk arrest for speaking about climate justice?

🔗 www.turkiyetoday.com/nation/austr...