4 Jun 2025 | Middle East and North Africa, News and features, Syria
“We affirm that we will hold accountable, firmly and without leniency, anyone who is involved in the bloodshed of civilians or harming our people, who overstepped the powers of the state or exploits authority to achieve his own ends,” said Ahmed al-Sharaa in a speech broadcast on national TV and posted online. “No-one will be above the law and anyone whose hands are stained with the blood of Syrians will face justice sooner rather than later.”
With these words, the self-proclaimed new Syrian president wanted to reassure the public about his desire to govern the country as a head of state for all Syrians, not only Sunnis.
Sharaa’s words came on 9 March, following the killing of civilians belonging to the Alawite minority – the branch of Shia Islam which former president Bashar al-Assad belonged to – in Syria’s coastal regions. Thousands of people were killed over days of clashes between security forces and Alawite fighters loyal to the former Assad regime.
In response, the new president announced the creation of a committee to conduct an investigation into the massacre of civilians, including women and children. The committee, which includes several judges, a lawyer and a defected Criminal Security Branch officer, will have to shed light on “violations against civilians” and “bring those responsible to justice”.
Sharaa also announced the creation of a second committee “to preserve civil peace”, which aims to listen to the requests of coastal minority groups and offer them future security and stability.
In another speech, the president addressed the country from a Damascus mosque, with Al-Sharaa reiterating his government’s desire to “preserve national unity and civil peace as much as possible”. “God willing, we will be able to live together in this country,” he said.
The government has not yet provided any official report on the massacre; but as of 17 March, the UK-based organisation Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) counted more than 1,500 civilians killed on Syria’s coastline as a result of the sectarian violence. They are mostly Alawites, but also Christians.
The Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, who is the head of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, responded: “The tragic events unfolding in the Syrian coastal region have claimed the lives of many civilians and public security personnel, leaving numerous others wounded. However, the majority of the victims were not affiliated with any militant factions; rather, they were innocent, unarmed civilians, including women and children.”
In addition to civilians, there were more than 500 combatants killed, including 273 members of security forces and the Ministry of Defence, and 259 Alawite gunmen affiliated with the former Assad regime.
A month later, clashes were reported near Damascus, resulting in the death of 13 people of the Druze minority group. Attackers from the town of Maliha and other predominantly Sunni areas reportedly converged on the majority Druze town of Jaramana after an audio clip circulated online attacking the Prophet Mohammad. The clip was attributed to a Druze leader, who denies that the audio was made by him. Authorities have again said there will be an investigation into the incident.
Violence is ongoing, and internal sectarian clashes show the risks to civilians, particularly those of minority groups. Given the historical oppression of Sunnis under the Assad regime, it would not be surprising if Al-Sharaa’s focus becomes transforming Syria into a centre of Sunni power, which could make the situation worse for minority groups.
This idea is not new. Sunnis in Iraq, for example, have long called for such an entity in the form of a federal region that would enable them to avoid the control of the Shia-led government in Baghdad.
But the new Syrian leader faces a fundamental problem: 25% of Syria’s territory is neither Sunni nor Arab, and is made up of minority groups such as Alawites, Kurds, Druze, Christians, Turkmen, Circassians, and Ismailis, who are unlikely to accept marginalisation. In a report for Syria in Transition, Malik al-Abdeh argued that the potential solution proposed by Al-Sharaa could be “a form of soft federalism – a loosely decentralised arrangement that accommodated minority demands while allowing the Sunni core to assert political and ideological dominance”. This could be the best solution, even if some Al-Sharaa supporters are skeptical or are working against such a “federalism” solution.
Despite the recent violence, the Syrian government appears to have made some progressive moves. An agreement has reportedly been signed with the Druze community leaders of the southern province of As Suwayda, which would reintegrate the province back into state institutions. A similar agreement has reportedly been made between the government and Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria, which states that “the Kurdish community is an authentic community in the Syrian state” – the first time this has been proclaimed in contemporary Syrian history.
However, such agreements have not come without disruption or violations to free expression. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in As Suwayda seven journalists were attacked by local armed factions when covering the signing of the political agreement. Some of these journalists were accused of being affiliated with government forces in Damascus.
This followed at least five journalists being targeted and injured during the violent clashes on Syria’s coastal regions earlier this year. The RSF is calling on Syria’s new government to implement seven priority recommendations to restore press freedom in the wake of Al-Assad’s regime, in which at least 181 journalists were killed since 2011. The new regime has promised to restore a free press, but only the future will tell if this promise will be kept.
Something is certainly moving in Syria: despite the sectarian violence and ongoing troubles, hopes for coexistence between religious and ethnic groups could be higher than expected.
It’s too soon to say whether it will become a country with a centralised system of equal rights for all Syrians. But now that the US administration has announced the end of sanctions on Syria and President Donald Trump has shaken hands with Al-Sharaa, the impossible has become possible. If Syria wants to return to the world order, it will need appropriate actions and reforms, and the leadership will need to do everything possible to reduce sectarian violence and societal instability.
2 Jun 2025 | Europe and Central Asia, Hungary, News and features, Newsletters
The European Convention on Human Rights was set up in the aftermath of World War Two to protect the rights of people in the Council of Europe’s 47 member states. Enshrined within it are fundamental obligations around free speech, including the right to free expression and the right to protest. It was intended to act as a blueprint for democracy and a rules-based order – but certain member states are tearing up this rulebook, none more so than Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, and seemingly getting away with it.
In recent years, Orbán has intensified his crackdown on democratic principles, including eroding academic freedoms and increasing hostility towards the media. In April, Orbán even decided to withdraw Hungary from the International Criminal Court – a pan-global organisation set up to uphold the rule of law and hold those charged with the gravest war crimes accountable.
The LGBTQ+ community has been particularly targeted in Hungary, with laws passed abolishing the legal recognition of transgender people in 2020 and banning the depiction of homosexuality to under-18s in 2021. A recent escalation is a law banning Pride marches, introduced in March, under the guise that such gatherings are harmful to children. At the time, Orbán said: “We won’t let woke ideology endanger our kids.”
Hungary’s parliament has since passed a series of other amendments tightening the government’s grip on those seeking to attend Pride, which will allow authorities to use facial recognition technology to identify people at events, and potentially fine them up to 200,000 Hungarian forint (HUF), the equivalent of $560. Protests have erupted across Hungary since the law was passed, and thousands are expected to turn out in defiance at Budapest Pride on 28 June.
Meanwhile, other draft legislation is making its way through parliament that is reminiscent of Russia’s “foreign agent” law – the Transparency of Public Life bill, if passed, would allow the government to penalise and ban dissenting voices and critics deemed detrimental to Hungary’s national interests, including the press and NGOs.
Hungary’s recent actions not only contravene the ECHR, but also the European Union’s (EU) policies around democracy and human rights, as laid out in its treaties and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, of which its 27 member states are meant to abide by.
But the political tide appears to be turning. Hungary is clearly moving further and further away from the fundamental values of the EU, and many member countries are growing frustrated with the Central European state, and with the European Commission for not taking strong enough action.
This week, 17 EU countries, including France, Germany, Ireland and Spain, signed a declaration expressing their concerns and dismay over Hungary’s anti-Pride law. They have called on Orbán to revise it, and have asked the European Commission to take legal action against Hungary if it does not do so.
Michael McGrath, the EU commissioner responsible for democracy, said this week the “willingness is there” to take action against Hungary, and that a “comprehensive analysis of the relevant legislation is underway now”.
But so far, retribution for Hungary’s actions has been negligible. The European Council has discussed Hungary’s rule of law violations seven times in the European Parliament since 2018, but has never taken the next step in the process, which would allow member states to vote on sanctions against Hungary.
There have been some financial penalties, but relations between the EU and Hungary are likely complicated by the need for cooperation against Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In December 2022, the European Commission froze €30 billion ($34 billion) in funds to Hungary, after the country’s failure to address concerns around democracy and the rule of law; a year later, a third of these funds were unfrozen, with speculation that Orbán was threatening to impede the EU’s actions in supporting Ukraine.
Patience with Hungary amongst EU nations appears to be wearing thin. The question is: how long will Orbán’s impunity be allowed to continue, and what example does this set for other EU countries wishing to replicate his methods?
30 May 2025 | Africa, Americas, Asia and Pacific, Egypt, Europe and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa, News and features, Russia, Samoa, Uganda, United Kingdom, Venezuela
In the age of online information, it can feel harder than ever to stay informed. As we get bombarded with news from all angles, important stories can easily pass us by. To help you cut through the noise, every Friday Index publishes a weekly news roundup of some of the key stories covering censorship and free expression. This week, we look at a controversial new monument to an infamous dictator, and Uganda’s “state-sanctioned bigotry”.
A tribute to repression?: Moscow unveils new Stalin statue in subway station
At the Taganskaya metro station in central Moscow, a controversial new monument has been revealed: a life-sized figure of Joseph Stalin, perhaps the most infamous and brutal of Soviet Russia’s dictators, amongst a crowd of adoring citizens. He stands before St Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin’s Spasskaya Tower, with a banner to his predecessor Vladimir Lenin unfurled above his head.
A monument to a leader who executed nearly 800,000 people, whilst millions more died in prison work camps known as Gulags and from famine under his reign, is of course highly controversial. The display has been dubbed a “gift” to the people who travel Moscow’s metro, and opinions have been firmly split amongst citizens – bouquets of red carnations adorn the feet of Stalin, left by those who look back fondly on the man who industrialised the Soviet Union, while others, such as members of Russia’s liberal Yabloko party, have protested the installation of a homage to “a tyrant and a dictator”, describing the statue as “an act of mockery against the descendants of the repressed”.
Should such a monument be permitted? To many, Stalin symbolises decades of brutality, repression, fear and censorship, and many have raised concerns that honouring him in this way embraces a history of violence at a time when Russia is waging an aggressive war in Ukraine. But some Russians see the monument as a memorial to a man who shaped much of their nation’s history. Artistic expression must be protected and history, including its horrors, must not be forgotten. However, ironically, when protesters left a poster on the monument displaying quotes from Vladimir Putin previously condemning Stalin, it was quickly removed, and one of the activists was detained, somewhat undermining the notion of artistic agency.
State-sanctioned bigotry: Human Rights Watch report condemns Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws
International NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has issued a damning report detailing how the Ugandan government has consistently repressed and restricted LGBTQ+ people throughout the reign of president Yoweri Museveni, particularly since the introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in May 2023.
Uganda has been described as having the world’s harshest anti-gay laws, and the report reinforces this notion. The report details the 2023 act’s egregious punishments, which include the death penalty for “serial offenders” of “aggravated homosexuality”, and life imprisonment for same-sex conduct. It also enforced censorship, making any advocacy or discussion of LGBTQ+ rights punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
HRW reported a surge in threats towards LGBTQ+ Ugandans over the past two years, due to a targeted effort by Ugandan politicians to spread misinformation and shape public discourse against the LGBTQ+ community. Oryem Nyeko, senior Africa researcher at HRW, stated that Uganda must “end its assault on LGBT people and choose a future of dignity, equality, and freedom for all those who live there.”
The dangers of defamation: Samoa urged to repeal defamation law that silences journalists
On 1 May 2025, Samoan journalist Lagi Keresoma published an article alleging that a former police officer had appealed to the Head of State to have charges against him removed, reported to be forgery charges regarding a loan application. Just over two weeks later, Keresoma, head of the Journalists Association of (Western) Samoa (JAWS), was arrested and charged with defamation under a law which has long drawn international scrutiny.
Samoa’s harsh criminal libel law was previously repealed, but was reintroduced in 2017 with harsher penalties, and has since been weaponised against critical and investigative reporting. JAWS has stated that the case represents “a troubling development for press freedom in Samoa”, and that the defamation charges could be perceived as “an abuse of power to suppress public scrutiny and dissent.”
The country treats defamation as a criminal rather than a civil matter, something which the UN Human Rights Committee has warned against. Samoa has fallen significantly in Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Index, from 22 in 2024 to 44 in 2025.
Arbitrary detention: UN rules that Alaa Abd el-Fattah is being held illegally in Egypt
Following an 18-month investigation, an independent UN panel has found that the British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah is illegally detained in Cairo, and has called on the Egyptian government to release him immediately.
Detained since 2019, el-Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison in 2021, convicted of spreading false news and harming Egypt’s national interests. Amnesty International described the verdict as a “travesty of justice”. Since September 2024, his mother Laila Souief, who is based in London, has been on hunger strike to protest his detention. She was admitted to hospital this week, marking the second time she has been hospitalised since February.
Many leading figures have called on the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) to issue warnings against travelling to the north African country, with former British ambassador to Egypt John Casson describing the country as a “police state” in a letter to The Times. He said that British citizens in the country “cannot expect fair process, nor normal support from the British government”, and that “Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s case is not isolated.” UK prime minister Keir Starmer has called Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sissi twice, urging for el-Fattah’s release, but no movement has yet been seen regarding the fate of one of Egypt’s most prominent writers.
An uncontested victory: Maduro make big gains in elections as opposition parties boycott
On 25 May, Venezuela’s regional and parliamentary elections took place, but the ballot papers were notably barren. Nicolás Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela’s (PSUV) stormed to victory in 23 out of 24 states. However, it was largely uncontested, due to a decision by the majority of opposition parties to boycott the vote in protest at last year’s presidential election, the results of which were proven to have been falsified.
Opposition leader María Corina Machado was a leading voice in the boycott campaign, stating that the true results of the 2024 presidential election must be adhered to before any other vote. In a video posted earlier this month, she announced that “We voted on 28 July. On 25 May, we won’t vote.” Venezuela’s electoral council claimed that the turnout was above 40%, but have neglected to post the election results online as was standard practice before 2024, with the pollster Meganálisis claiming turnout was actually around 14%.
Not all opposition members agreed with the boycott; former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles continued to campaign and urged Venezuelans to vote, arguing that by not voting, “all you’re doing is making things easier for the government.” But it seems that regardless of the outcome, Maduro would have clung on to power – and now, with an overwhelming majority in government and an ever-increasing crackdown on political dissidents, the future of both free speech and fair elections in Venezuela looks bleak.
30 May 2025 | Afghanistan, Asia and Pacific, News and features, Volume 54.01 Spring 2025
This article first appeared in Volume 54, Issue 1 of our print edition of Index on Censorship, titled The forgotten patients: Lost voices in the global healthcare system, published on 11 April 2025. Read more about the issue here.
Over the past 15 years, Bibi Jan has already endured the unimaginable pain of losing four of her children due to malnutrition and inadequate medical facilities. She is now deeply anxious about the health of two of her three surviving children.
I met the 30-year-old in December 2024 at the Zabul Provincial Hospital. I found her sitting beside her two sick children, aged six and three, her face etched with worry. She spoke in a trembling voice.
“Each of [my children] passed away after reaching six months or one year of age,” she told me. “Now, my two other children are also sick. I brought them to this hospital for treatment. The doctors have admitted them. I am staying here while my husband visits us during the day and returns home at night.”
Bibi got married when she was only 15 to a man who was 15 years her senior. “My father gave me away in marriage when I did not consent,” she said. Since then, she has given birth nine times, but only one daughter and two sons have survived.
The women and children’s ward of the hospital was so overcrowded that it was nearly impossible to find any space. Every bed was occupied, and some patients were sharing a single cot or lying on the floor, waiting desperately for medical attention.
Sitting next to Bibi was another woman, 37-year-old Fatima, who had brought her two-and-a-half-year-old child in for treatment. “Due to a lack of sufficient food, my children suffer from malnutrition and one of them is severely ill,” she said. “We barely have anything to eat at home, let alone access to proper medical care.”
The tragic accounts of Bibi and Fatima are just two of countless stories that reflect the dire humanitarian crisis in the southern province of Zabul. Women and children in this province face life-threatening health risks daily. The Zabul Provincial Hospital, which is the only major healthcare centre in the region, is grappling with critical shortages of medicine and medical equipment.
One of the doctors at the hospital, who preferred to remain anonymous, described the grim reality of their struggle: “We are trying to save patients’ lives with the minimal resources available, but we lack adequate medicine and equipment. Foreign aid is not distributed properly, and most of it goes to specific Taliban-affiliated groups. Ordinary people, especially women and children, are deprived of this aid.”
The drastic reduction in international aid following recent political changes has plunged Afghanistan’s healthcare system into an unprecedented crisis. This includes both the reduction of government healthcare assistance within the country since the Taliban’s takeover and recent reductions in foreign aid, particularly from Donald Trump’s administration in the USA and his cuts to United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding.
Organisations that once provided crucial support to medical centres in Zabul have either suspended their assistance or significantly reduced the resources they provide. Meanwhile, the Taliban lacks the capabilities and infrastructure to manage this growing catastrophe, and has actively enforced policies that make healthcare access harder.
A worsening nationwide problem
According to the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Afghanistan has a maternal mortality rate that is nearly three times the global average – for every 100,000 births, 600 women die.
In a recent report, the OCHA warned that this year nearly half of Afghanistan’s population – or 22.9 million people – will require humanitarian assistance just to survive. The report also stated that 14.8 million people, more than a third of the country’s population, will face acute food insecurity by early 2025.
This crisis extends far beyond Zabul. The Abu Ali Sina Balkhi Provincial Hospital in Balkh is also overwhelmed by the growing number of patients and the worsening economic situation.
At about 4pm one afternoon, a sudden commotion erupted in the overcrowded hallways of the hospital. A 42-year-old man, visibly pale and weak, was lying on a stretcher. He was a roadside vendor who had earned no income that day. His blood sugar levels had spiked dangerously high, leaving him unable to move.
His 12-year-old son and a coworker, both visibly distraught, had rushed him to the hospital. Despite the doctors’ immediate attention, his condition was too severe for him to be saved. About 20 minutes later, a doctor’s voice emerged from his office: “The patient has passed away.”
Hospital officials then turned to his young son and requested that he contacted a family elder to collect the body.
Many of the patients seeking treatment in hospitals across the country have lost their jobs, struggle with chronic illnesses exacerbated by economic hardship, or suffer from the psychological toll of Taliban rule. Additionally, cases of suicide among women, driven by social issues such as domestic violence and forced marriages, have been steadily increasing.
Taliban restrictions further endanger healthcare access
The OCHA has expressed serious concerns over the increasing restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women’s employment and education in the healthcare sector. These policies have drastically limited access to essential medical services for mothers and children across Afghanistan.
According to the OCHA, the country’s economy has shrunk by nearly a third since August 2021. The ongoing political crisis, an inefficient financial system, severe cuts in development budgets and Taliban-imposed restrictions have seriously damaged the country’s ability to deliver basic services.
The organisation highlighted the alarming maternal mortality rate during childbirth in particular, emphasising that the Taliban’s restrictions on women working in healthcare have made access to medical care increasingly difficult.
In addition to these policies, last year the Taliban also banned women from studying in medical institutes, further depleting the already inadequate number of female healthcare workers and stopping them from being able to train in professions such as nursing, midwifery and dentistry. These were some of the only educational avenues left for women.
The desperate need for female doctors
In Badakhshan province, women are particularly affected by the shortage of female doctors. Fatima, a 24-year-old woman, expressed her deep concerns: “I always accompany my relatives who come from remote areas to the central hospital in Badakhshan because they don’t know the way. The situation is truly worrying. There are so many patients but not enough female doctors. We must wait for hours just to get seen by one.”
She recounted the harrowing experience of one of her neighbours who suffered severe complications due to a lack of doctors.
“Several specialised doctors we had have all left the country,” she said. “My neighbour had to undergo surgery in the absence of specialists, but due to severe bleeding she had to go through another surgery within a week. She nearly died.”
Dr Noshin Gohar Karimi, who works at Faizabad Provincial Hospital, voiced similar concerns on his Facebook page: “The workload in Faizabad Provincial Hospital has exceeded the capacity of the staff. Unfortunately, due to a lack of budget, increasing bed capacity and staff recruitment are not possible. The hospital was originally designed for 128 beds, but today more than 310 patients are admitted. In the paediatric ward, which has only 30 beds, 120 sick children and their mothers are currently being treated.”
The healthcare workforce crisis
The shortage of medicines and lack of funding remain among the most pressing challenges in Afghanistan’s healthcare system. A nurse at a government-run, public hospital in Kabul highlighted the ongoing crisis: “We used to have more staff, but over the past two years the workforce has decreased significantly. Now, one person has to do the work of several people and, as a result, patients do not receive adequate care. In addition to that, doctors and nurses face persistent delays in their salaries.”
She added: “Before the Taliban took over, medical equipment was already scarce but, after that, even that small supply stopped. Many machines have become old and worn out, and hospital officials say they have no budget to replace them.”
A nurse at a private hospital in Kabul also reported severe staff shortages in various departments. “There is a lack of personnel in all sections. In the nursing department, especially, we do not have enough staff and are forced to do the work of several people alone, while our salaries have also been reduced.”
With a collapsing healthcare system, increasing restrictions on women and dwindling international aid, Afghanistan faces a healthcare catastrophe that threatens the lives of millions.
Additional reporting by Rukhshana Media reporters
