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	Freedom of expression is a right at the heart of healthy, functioning societies by Reuters, AFP, UN News, agencies France   11 Jan 2015   "Live together, free, equal and in solidarity".   Between 1.5 to 2 million people took to the streets of Paris. An estimated 3.7 million took to the streets across the whole country, in a nationwide of solidarity.   Parisiens of all ages, religions and nationalities turned out en masse not only to show their respect for the victims of the recent terrorist attacks, but their support for the values of the French Republic: “liberté, égalité, fraternité” – freedom of speech and freedom of the press.   “On est tous Charlie” (We are all Charlie), they chanted, waving French flags, singing La Marseillaise, brandishing pens, pencils, placards and banners in French, English and Arabic.   Presidents, prime ministers, statesmen and women took buses from the Elysée palace to join the march from Place de la République to Place de la Nation, two of Paris’s best-known squares.   Leaders of all the religions marched behind a banner bearing the slogan “We are Charlie”.   “We are united – Muslims, Catholics, Jews, we want to live peacefully together,” one woman told reporters.   The head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, participated in the historic march for freedom and solidarity in Paris, held in the wake of the deadly terrorist assault on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, and after three days of subsequent attacks that killed 17 people in the country.   “Beyond expressions of sympathy and solidarity, we must act. For UNESCO, this means, first, to continue supporting and advancing freedom of expression and of the press, fighting for the safety of journalists and against impunity.”   “We must bolster all our work in education, in promoting dialogue and understanding between cultures and religions”.   “As sectarian violence spreads through hate speech, through lies and the manipulation of religion, we must respond by fostering tools that enable young people to resist such manipulations, and this brings us back to the founding principle of UNESCO – since wars begin in the minds of men and women, we must build the defenses of peace in the minds of men and women.”   The Director-General reiterated the commitment of UNESCO in promoting freedom of expression and defending a free, pluralistic and independent media. On behalf of the Organization, she expressed deep concern at such brutal sectarian violence, calling for unity and solidarity in response.   Ms. Bokova said terrorists are seeking to divide society, to set communities against each other, “and we must prevent this at all cost. This is the significance of this march, and the meaning of my participation, on behalf of the United Nations, guided by this spirit of solidarity."   10 Jan 2015   More than 700,000 people took to streets across France in tribute to the 17 people killed in three days of violence by Islamist extremists, the interior minister said.   From Nice and Marseilles in the south to Besancon in the east and Lille in the north, people poured onto the streets to express their solidarity following Wednesday"s attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that left 12 people dead.   The massacre was followed by the fatal shooting of a police officer on Thursday and the murder of four hostages during a siege at a supermarket on Friday.   "700,000 people have marched" in cities around France, Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters on the eve of a huge Paris rally planned.   In the southern city of Toulouse, police said about 80,000 people took part in a march.   "Live together, free, equal and in solidarity," read the banner behind which at least 30,000 people also marched in the western city of Nantes. In Marseille, 45,000 people expressed similar sentiments with a rally banner that said "For democracy, equality, freedom, let"s fight fascism".   In Pau, a further 30,000 to 40,000 people staged a silent march with school pupils leading the way. In Besancon, another 20,000 took to the streets, an AFP correspondent said, while in northern Orleans around 22,000 rallied.   In Nice, 23,000 demonstrators were counted, in a demonstration which snaked for a kilometre along the famous seafront Promenade des Anglais, ending at the war memorial where a wreath was laid in the presence of representatives of different faiths.   Outside France, several thousand people, including many Muslims, rallied in Milan with many carrying signs that said "I am Charlie" or "Not In My Name".   The rallies came ahead of a march expected to draw over a million people in Paris on Sunday.   8 Jan 2015   People have gathered in cities across France to pay tribute to 12 people killed in an attack against the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo.   French officials said 11 other people were injured, when two masked men stormed the central Paris offices of the magazine on Wednesday.   Two police officers and ten journalists are thought to have been killed.   Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly) is renowned for courting controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders and has published numerous cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammed.   Some Parisians expressed fears about the effect of the attack on community relations in France. The attack, comes amid what a number of commentators have identified as rising xenophobia in Europe, with thousands of protesters in several German cities rallying earlier this week against Muslim immigration.   France"s five-million-strong Muslim population is Europe"s largest.   "I am extremely angry. These are criminals, barbarians. They have sold their soul to hell. This is not freedom. This is not Islam and I hope the French will come out united at the end of this," said Hassen Chalghoumi, imam of the Drancy mosque in the northern Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.   Other cities across Europe and around the world were also holding rallies to pay tribute to the dead.   United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the attack. “I am appalled and deeply shocked by the attack against Charlie Hebdo in Paris this morning”. “This act of violence can in no way be justified. This is an attack against freedom of expression and freedom of the press - the two pillars of democracy.”   According to media reports, masked gunmen opened fire with assault rifles in the office of Charlie Hebdo in central Paris, killing four of the magazine"s cartoonists and its editor.   The Secretary-General stressed his solidarity with the Government and people of France. “This horrific attack is meant to divide. We must not fall into that trap,” he said. “This is a moment for solidarity. Around the world, we must stand strong for freedom of expression and tolerance and stand against forces of division and hate.”   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra"ad Al Hussein said, “If this attack is allowed to feed discrimination and prejudice, it will be playing straight into the hands of extremists whose clear aim is to divide religions and societies. With xenophobia and anti-migrant sentiments already on the rise in Europe, I am very concerned that this awful, calculated act will be exploited by extremists of all sorts.”   He stressed that freedom of expression and opinion are cornerstones of any democratic society and said those trying to divide communities on grounds of religion, ethnicity or any other reason must not be allowed to succeed.   Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said she was horrified by the “attack against the media and against freedom of expression.”   “The international community cannot let extremists sow terror and prevent the free flow of opinions and ideas.”   Mr. Bokova paid homage to the 12 victims of the “savage attack,” including four renowned cartoonists, Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut (Cabu), Bernard Verlhac (Tignous) and Stephane Charbonnier (Charb).   “Never before has one media outlet been so deliberately targeted and its staff decimated in an act of such extreme violence,” the Director-General said.   “Today’s unprecedented and horrifying attack is a tragic reminder to us all that the right to freedom of expression is fragile, and that those who defend it may pay the ultimate price for doing so.”   “At the same time, the spontaneous demonstrations that this appalling crime has provoked across France and around the world - the outpouring of sorrow and anger expressed by citizens from all faiths - also reveal that freedom of expression is a right that is cherished, and understood by all as being at the heart of healthy, functioning societies,” Ms. Bokova said.   * The hashtags #CharlieHebdo and #JeSuisCharlie continue to trend on Twitter.   http://www.france24.com/en/20150108-france-media-statement-solidarity-charlie-hebdo-press-freedom/ http://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2015/01/07/charlie-hebdo-shooting-a-barbaric-act-against-media-freedom/ http://www.humanrightseurope.org/2015/01/france-thorbjorn-jagland-and-anne-brasseur-condemn-charlie-hebdo-terrorist-attack/ http://dartcenter.org/content/12-killed-in-terror-attack-at-paris-newspaper#.VLBtaMmpVJM http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=49741#.VK3CR8mpVJM http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/07/guardian-view-charlie-hebdo-guns-trained-free-speech http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/opinion/nicholas-kristof-lessons-from-the-charlie-hebdo-shooting-in-paris.html http://www.cfr.org/france/media-conference-call-farah-pandith-violent-extremism/p35944 http://www.unaoc.org/wp-content/uploads/Statement-of-Multi-Religious-Action-English-13-December.pdf http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/01/13/dispatches-after-charlie-hebdo-tackling-intolerance-against-jews-and-muslims http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/freedom-of-expression/press-freedom/unesco-condemns-killing-of-journalists/ http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/int-day-to-end-impunity/international-day-to-end-impunity-2014/ http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomOpinion/Pages/FeatureStories.aspx http://www.fidh.org/International-Federation-for-Human-Rights/united-nations/17087-the-human-rights-council-should-reaffirm-international-consensus-on   * See 2015 report by UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief - Preventing Violence in the Name of Religion: A/HRC/28/66   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/FreedomReligion/Pages/Issues.aspx Visit the related web page
	Nonviolent Conflicts in 2014 you may have missed because they were not violent by Erica Chenoweth   December 31, 2014   Last week, Steven Pinker and Andy Mack wrote an article reassuring Slate readers that the world is not falling apart. Despite startling increases in violence in 2014, Pinker and Mack write that we live in one of the most peaceful times in human history.   I spend a lot of my time crunching numbers about violence and its alternatives, and I tend to agree with Pinker and Mack’s assessment. Don’t get me wrong – 2014 was not a banner year for those seeking peace, but the world has been in much, much worse shape.   So why does everyone think we’re on the verge of stepping over the precipice and witnessing the violent collapse of human civilization? Pinker and Mack are right to point out the tendency for the media to report bad news rather than just news. There is a well-recorded violence bias in media reporting, meaning when you turn on your TV or browse the internet to look at the news, you’re likely to get a highly biased sample of material that focuses only on spectacular and negative stories. To add to the misperception, human beings also have a wide variety of cognitive limitations that help us to sort information but interfere with our ability to accurately assess the relative share of violent events we see in the world compared with other less jolting happenings. Very simply, it’s easy for us to recall the bad stuff and hard for us to recall everything else.   Despite all of the bad news you might remember from 2014, I’d like to highlight a few other key stories that you might have missed because of our very human tendency to focus on things that literally blow up.   Now, I am the first to say that there is nothing innately “good” about nonviolent movements, but the historical record clearly suggests that people who wage nonviolent struggle (rather than armed struggle) tend to win more often without killing nearly as many people or creating the infrastructural damage that leaves societies in perpetual states of social, economic, and political disarray.   So call the following developments good, bad, or a indifferent—they are simply five fairly surprising stories I paid attention to precisely because the events they covered were not violent:   The Fall of a Dictator in Burkina Faso. Yes, the 27-year-rule of yet another dictator came to an end in Burkina Faso after months of collective protests demanding his resignation. After significant elements of the political opposition defected and security forces began to disobey orders, President Blaise Compaore had no choice but to step down. Although the army’s seizure of power leaves the future of Burkina Faso uncertain, the mostly nonviolent nature of the Lwili Revolution gives us reason to be hopeful about the country’s longer-term prospects.   The Fall of a Government over Corruption Issues in Bulgaria. The “Dance with Me” campaign emerged in 2013 to protest government corruption and economic hardship. Civil society went into all-out revolt against the ruling leadership after the government appointed Delyan Peevski, a businessman with a spotty corruption record, to head up Bulgaria’s internal security service. As deepening economic crisis generated shared grievances against the entire government, the movement gathered steam. In July 2014, the entire government resigned.   Nonviolent Resistance during the Ukrainian Civil War—in both Ukraine & Russia. You’ve heard all about the Ukrainian army’s operations against separatist rebels in the east. You’ve probably heard less about the growing nonviolent resistance to those separatists, including an episode in May wherein thousands of unarmed demonstrators drove these rebels out of Mariupol. Anti-war sentiment has transformed into rallies against the Kiev government’s all-out war in the east. The anti-war activists in Ukraine are not alone. They have allies within Russia itself, as seen during a thousands-strong march against the war in September.   Nonviolent Resistance to the Taliban in Pakistan. In December, the Pakistani Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar, killing hundreds of children and injuring hundreds more. In response, communities throughout Pakistan have staged protests and demonstrations against armed groups throughout the country. In one episode, community members in Islamabad have surrounded and threatened to “reclaim” a Taliban-aligned mosque to begin to break down the power structures of the group.   Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine and Israel. Many Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip tire of the constant question: “Where is the Palestinian Gandhi?” In reality, there is a great deal of nonviolent resistance in the Palestinian Territories, as well as a great number of grassroots activists with a sophisticated understanding of its strategic advantages. As the Gaza War raged over the summer of 2014, media attention was understandably distracted away from the many thousands of Palestinians engaged in nonviolent struggle for self-determination—and the Israeli soldiers who refused to participate in the war.   Of course, you probably did hear about mass protests for electoral and political rights in Hong Kong, for an end to violence and corruption in Mexico, and for an end of racial discrimination in the United States. Given the state of Ukraine today, it is east to forget that it was a primarily nonviolent uprising that drove Yanukovich from power in February. Despite the dubious nature of its anti-democratic demands, a nonviolent challenge to Yingluck Shinawatra’s government in Thailand resulted in the bloodless coup in May, reminding us that nonviolent means and nonviolent ends are not always in alignment.   These were all fairly high-profile episodes with a high degree of salience for news consumers in the U.S. But a number of lesser-known, ongoing nonviolent conflicts are also worth watching in 2015. Ongoing protests in Bosnia-Herzegovina have challenged corrupt political practices, economic hardship, and discrimination since early 2014. These demonstrations appeared to reach their peak last spring, but pockets of protest persist. In Venezuela, protests that began in late 2013 are still underway nationwide, demanding an end to violence, political harassment, corruption, and discrimination.   This year also saw the resurgence of several nonviolent self-determination campaigns in Catalonia, West Papua, Southern Yemen, and Western Sahara. And finally, waves of protest endure in Sudan, Bahrain, Mauritania, and Uganda. Dictatorships in all four countries have faced continuous nonviolent resistance since 2011 that persist despite numerous setbacks both at home and abroad.   It’s anyone’s guess how these ongoing conflicts will end, and where new nonviolent uprisings will emerge. Here’s hoping that 2015 ushers in less violence—and more attention to the nonviolence that is happening all around us.   http://politicalviolenceataglance.org/2014/12/31/nonviolent-conflicts-in-2014-you-may-have-missed-because-they-were-not-violent/
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