Notes from the Faultline
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faultlinenotes.bsky.social
Notes from the Faultline
@faultlinenotes.bsky.social
200 followers 850 following 71 posts
We live along faultlines: places where rights, power, and principles collide.
Some cracks are loud. Others are quiet. All of them shape the world we live in.
These are our Notes from the Faultine.
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faultlinenotes.bsky.social
Good news 💚

Were happy to hear @michelforst.bsky.social was reelected as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders 🌻
November 25, 2025 at 9:47 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
Violence against women and girls affects one in three.

🛑 A human rights emergency that must stop
⚡️ A faultline that holds women and girls back

UNiTE campaign to stop digital abuse: www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-d...
A young woman with a tired, distressed expression stands against a black background. She wears a grey hoodie. Around her face and body, various emojis float in the air, including angry faces, clown faces, explosions, crosses, and sad faces, representing online harassment and digital abuse. Source of image: UN Women
November 25, 2025 at 12:32 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
#COP30 ends in Belém🌍🌳

The façade of multilateralism holds, but ambition does not. No fossil-fuel exit plan, weak national pledges, and only vague steps on adaptation finance.

The crisis moves faster than the process ⚡️
A young child with red face paint stands in a crowd at a climate justice protest during COP30 in Belém. The child holds a sign reading: “MUTIRÃO DOS POVOS: FLORESTA” (Portuguese for “People’s Collective: Forest”). Protesters, banners, and bright colours surround them. Photograph by Adriano Machado, REUTERS, 15 November 2025.
November 23, 2025 at 7:41 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
A new “Community of Central Asia” is taking shape 🇰🇿🇰🇬🇹🇯🇹🇲🇺🇿

A regional bloc with no binding standards, no space for accountability. Azerbaijan joining shows what this model rewards: human rights and rule of law are optional 🇦🇿⚡

And the Council of Europe’s recent charm tour in the region proves useless.
Wide view of the Seventh Consultative Meeting of Heads of State, held in Tashkent, on 15 November 2025, with leaders seated around a large circular table in a grand conference hall. Head of States and their delegations sit at individual wooden desks arranged in a ring, surrounded by national flags of Central Asian states and Azerbaijan. Large screens display the meeting’s emblem and the event title. Photograph by the Press Service of Uzbekistan’s President.
November 17, 2025 at 8:05 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
A faultline⚡️

A war criminal welcomed at the highest level yesterday: Sergei Shoigu leading a visit to Egypt🇷🇺🇪🇬

Just days after the EU-Egypt summit, where human rights were set aside, Egypt welcomed Shoigu to Cairo. Silence bought the EU no leverage🇪🇺🇪🇬
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi sits in an ornate meeting room at Egypt’s Presidential Palace, facing a Russian delegation led by Sergei Shoigu, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. Both delegations are seated opposite each other in gilded chairs, with Egypt’s flag and a large tapestry map of the Nile behind El-Sisi. The meeting focused on strengthening Egyptian-Russian relations, regional developments, and cooperation on political, economic, and security issues. (Picture: Presidency of the Arab Republic of Egypt, 10 November 2025)
November 11, 2025 at 7:47 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
Fear has switched sides in Serbia🇷🇸⚡️

After a year of student and civic revolt, the Helsinki Committee lays bare a society at breaking point—corruption, repression, and propaganda met with defiance from a new generation.

🔗 www.helsinki.org.rs/doc/Report20...
November 10, 2025 at 11:45 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
“It's Time for Peace” 🇮🇱🕊️🇵🇸

@pinkfront.bsky.social
Israelis attend a rally in Tel Aviv marking the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Participants dressed in pink hold bright signs reading “It’s time for peace” and slogans in Hebrew, with drums and flags visible around them. Credit: Shir Torem/Reuters.
November 3, 2025 at 1:32 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
There is no such thing as withdrawing from a human rights convention but still respecting it: implementation without standards, obligations, monitoring and accountability is not credible.

Latvia’s move to quit the Istanbul Convention marks a major faultline for women’s rights and the rule of law⚖️⚡️♀︎
A group of protesters march at night holding a large handmade sign reading “STATE VIOLENCE STARTS WHEN THE STATE WITHDRAWS PROTECTION.” The scene is lit by streetlights, with several people in the background showing determination and concern. Riga, 29 October 2025 (private archive from Amnesty International)
November 2, 2025 at 2:57 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
A year after the #NoviSad tragedy, Serbia’s streets still echo with repression🇷🇸⚡️

Protesters beaten, lawyers blocked, sound cannons deployed, NGOs raided. Civic space collapse💥

Read @goranmiletic.bsky.social on what must change, exclusive for @curecampaign.bsky.social

🔗 mailchi.mp/csf-ev.org/s...
Aerial view of a massive night-time protest in Novi Sad, Serbia, following the deadly collapse of the new railway station canopy. Tens of thousands of people fill the main boulevard, illuminated by streetlights, holding signs and candles demanding accountability and justice. 5 November 2024, Kreni-Promeni
November 2, 2025 at 8:22 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
When the far right’s words become parliament’s votes ⚡️

For the first time, a #LePen Rassemblement national text was adopted by the National Assembly 🇫🇷
The “cordon sanitaire” that once protected democracy has snapped ‼️

@liberation.fr

🔗 www.liberation.fr/politique/el...
October 31, 2025 at 5:55 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
Honouring those who built democracy matters most when it’s eroding before our eyes⚡️

@freedomhouse.bsky.social awarded the Palmer Prize to dissident, writer, diplomat, and our friend, Miklós Haraszti.

🔗 freedomhouse.org/article/free...
October 29, 2025 at 9:27 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
The UN turns 80 in crisis🇺🇳⚡️

Our new Notes from the Faultline: Dispatch #1 argues the 2026 appointment of the next Secretary-General will test the UN’s legitimacy.

A woman from Eastern Europe must lead — through transparency, courage and reform.

🔗 progress-change-actionlab.org/notes-from-t...
Stylised illustration of the United Nations headquarters building with rows of flags in front, depicted in shades of white and violet. The image features the title “Leadership in a Fractured Order” in bold white text on a purple background.
October 16, 2025 at 12:37 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
Environmental destruction is a crime against humanity 🌍⚡️

Leila Nadya Sadat argues that the UN treaty on crimes against humanity must recognise environmental harm as its 12th crime.

Close a 30-year gap: name what truly “shocks the conscience of humanity.”

🔗 www.justsecurity.org/122271/envir...
Brazilian indigenous people and others take part in a demonstration called by Stop Ecocide International (SEI) for the recognition of ecocide as an international crime, on October 20, 2022 outside the European Council in Brussels where EU leaders were gathered for a summit. (Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)
October 12, 2025 at 1:51 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
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)
October 7, 2025 at 8:38 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
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
September 30, 2025 at 6:26 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
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
September 30, 2025 at 1:33 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
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
September 21, 2025 at 7:55 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
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.
September 16, 2025 at 12:30 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
#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.
September 9, 2025 at 2:27 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
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
September 8, 2025 at 2:08 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
The 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council opens today ⚖️ #HRC60

Headlines will focus on Gaza & the occupied territories, Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Russia, and North Korea.

Many cracks risk going unseen — we'll look where silence reigns, the faultlines that need attention, too⚡️
The UN Human Rights Council chamber in Geneva, filled with delegates seated in a circular hall, under a brightly coloured ceiling artwork with vivid blues, yellows, and reds, albeit the 60th session of the Council starting today will not take place in the Council's chamber (room XX of Palais des Nations in Geneva), due to reparations, but will take place in the Hall of Nations.
September 8, 2025 at 8:23 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
International Literacy Day📚

Literacy is a human right and the key to many others. Yet 739 million people lack basic skills, 2/3 of them are women and girls.

Literacy decline is a silent crack, a faultline threatening justice, equality, and peace 🧐🌍⚡️

#LiteracyDay
Illustration of the Earth with glasses, smiling and reading an orange book, with the words 'International Literacy Day' above and below, framed by two leafy branches on a blue background.
September 8, 2025 at 6:25 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
Today we hear Ethiopia is bidding to host #COP32 🌍📢🇪🇹

Another COP in a country where civic space is crushed, dissent silenced, human rights ignored. Can climate change be tackled without real civil society?

This is a crack we should hear — a faultline ⚡️
Demonstrators participate in a silent protest at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on November 10, 2022. © 2022 Peter Dejong/AP Photo
September 5, 2025 at 11:54 AM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
"I'm not a dictator" — Trump says, while declaring emergencies for trade deficits, protests, even universities.

This is how democracies slide: using the law itself to normalise unchecked power.

By Adam B. Kushner in @nytimes.com
🔗 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/04/o...
Silhouetted figure of Donald Trump in a suit and red “USA” cap, raising his index finger against the backdrop of a pale sunset sky. Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
September 4, 2025 at 1:30 PM
faultlinenotes.bsky.social
⚠️ Russia withdraws from Europe’s anti-torture treaty — stripping people in detention of their last formal international protection, incl. Ukrainian prisoners of war.

A faultline moment 🇷🇺⚡️A state accused of systematic torture now abandons the last possible oversight mechanism meant to prevent it.
Official Russian government decree (dated 23 August 2025, No. 1266) ordering the proposal for Russia’s withdrawal from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture.
September 3, 2025 at 11:00 AM