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Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdoan speaks during a news conference in Ankara, Turkey, March 18, 2020.(AP Photo by Burhan Ozbilici)

ISTANBULThe government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoan is dismantling human rights protections and democratic norms inTurkeyon a scale unprecedented in the 18 years he has been in office, said Human Rights Watch Thursday. The government took further dangerous measures over the past week to undermine the rule of law and target perceived critics and political opponents.

On March 19, 2021, the president issued adecreesuddenly withdrawing Turkey from the Council of Europes Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, known as the Istanbul Convention, a groundbreaking treaty strongly supported by the womens rights movement in Turkey. The move came two days after the chief prosecutor of Turkeys top court of appeal announced that he was opening a case to close down the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), only hours after the Erdoan-controlled parliament improperlyexpelledan HDP deputy.

President Erdoan is targeting any institution or part of society that stands in the way of his wide-ranging effort to reshape Turkeys society, saidKenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. The latest developments against parliamentary opposition, the Kurds, and women are all about ensuring the presidents hold on power in violation of human rights and democratic safeguards.

President Erdoans dramatic move to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention with an overnight presidential decree is part of efforts to shore up support from religious conservative circles outside his party and shows his readiness to use the convention as a pretext to promote a highly divisive and homophobic political discourse. That discourse disingenuously claims womens rights undermine so-called family values and promotes a hateful and discriminatory view of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

The presidents communications chief on March 21 issued awritten statementdefending the decision to withdraw Turkey from the treaty, saying that it was hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality which is incompatible with Turkeys social and family values. The claim stems from the conventions language prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Womens groups across Turkey have been staunch supporters of the convention as it legally obligates governments to take effective steps to prevent violence against women, protect survivors, and punish abusers.

Given the hundreds of murders of women by partners and former partners in Turkey each year, Erdoans move to withdraw from and weaponize the treaty for political ends and to ignore the treatys desperately needed protections for women is shocking, Human Rights Watch said.

The decision to withdraw is a profoundly backward step in the struggle to protect womens rights in Turkey and a major blow for all women across the political spectrum, Roth said.

In response, on March 20, thousands of women protested in cities across Turkey, declaring that the womens movement in Turkey will continue the struggle and demand government action to combat the entrenched problem of domestic violence and femicide.

The move by the chief prosecutor of the Court of Cassation on March 17 to close down the Peoples Democratic Party, the second-largest opposition party in parliament, came shortly after parliament expelled the HDP deputy mer Faruk Gergerliolu on the pretext of his conviction for a social media posting. Gergerliolus expulsion was in reprisal for his consistent focus on the thousands of victims of Erdoans human rights crackdown, while the effort to close the HDP targets the rights of millions of Kurdish voters and subverts the principle of parliamentary democracy, Human Rights Watch said.

Over the past 30 years, Turkey has closed down five pro-Kurdish political parties. As in earlier cases, the chief prosecutors indictment accuses the Peoples Democratic Party of acting against the indivisible integrity of the state with its country and nation (separatism) and violating the constitution and laws, necessitating its full and permanent closure.

The prosecutor also asked the court to ban 687 named individuals, including current and former members of parliament and hundreds of party officials, from political life for five years and to cut the treasury funding that the HDP, like other parties, is entitled to. The evidence cited includes speeches and political activities by parliamentary deputies in office at various times over the past eight years.

Initiating a case to close down a political party that won 11.7 percent of the vote nationally in the 2018 general election and has 55 elected members of parliament is a major assault on the rights to political association and expression, Roth said. The move could deny close to six million voters their chosen representatives in violation of their right to vote.

On March 20 and 21, Peoples Democratic Party voters turned out in force at Kurdish new year (Nowruz) assemblies in Turkeys major cities, turning the gathering into a powerful expression of support for the party and protest at the onslaught on the rights of its predominantly Kurdish base. On March 22, the Diyarbakr prosecutor initiated an investigation into the partys co-leader for his speech during the Nowruz celebrations. And an Istanbul courtsentencedthe partys former co-leader Selahattin Demirta to three years and six months in prison for insulting the president in a 2015 speech.

The major developments of the past few days follow a series of grave setbacks for human rights in Turkey in 2020 and 2021. The Erdoan government has repeatedly flouted binding European Court of Human Rights judgments ordering the release of therights defender Osman Kavalaandpolitician Selahattin Demirta.

In December 2020, the government rushed in alawgiving it much wider powers to target civil society organizations on the pretext of combatting terrorism financing and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The government wrongly contended that the new rules are in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.

In January, the president moved to deepen his control over higher education, with the appointment of a rector to one of Turkeys top universities and subsequent restructuring of the institution in the face ofwidespread protests by the university staff and students. Anti-LGBT speeches and social media posts by top government officials have become common most recently againststudents arrested for an artwork with LGBT flagsandon International Womens Day.

The publication of a Human Rights Action Plan on March 2 is completely at odds with the reality on the ground, where arbitrary detentions and prosecutions of journalists, activists, and others are routine and intensifying. Two weeks after the President announced the Human Rights Action Plan, ztrk Trkdoan, the co-chair of a prominent human rights association, wasarrestedduring dawn raids in Ankara. He was later released.

The European Union and US administration have acknowledged the profound setbacks for human rights but continue overwhelmingly to focus on Turkeys strategic importance in the region, its foreign policy, its active role in regional conflicts, and migration policies.

On March 25 and 26, EU leaders are to review their relations with Turkey. The European Council should speak out over the sharp decline in the human rights situation in Turkey. The council should make clear that anEU-proposed positive agendawith Turkey would be tied to ending attacks on opposition figures and measurable progress in upholding human rights.

EU leaders should not pretend it is business as usual, while Turkeys government is escalating its assaults on critics, parliamentary democracy, and womens rights, Roth said.

More:
HRW Warns of Erdogan's Onslaught on Rights and Democracy - Asbarez Armenian News

President Joe Biden said he has no intention of seeking conflict with China, but did criticise the country's leader, Xi Jinping.

Mr Biden made the comments during a press conference on Thursday.

The president said he was familiar with the Chinese leader from his days as vice president under Barack Obama.

He doesnt have a democratic with a small d bone in his body, but hes a smart, smart guy, Mr Biden said.

Mr Biden also compared the Chinese leader to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Read more

Hes one of the guys like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, who thinks that autocracy is the wave of the future [and that] democracy cant function in an ever complex world, he said.

The president pledged to prevent China from becoming the wealthiest and leading country in the world by leaning on allies and boosting the US's investment in technology.

I see stiff competition with China, Mr Biden said. China has an overall goal, and I dont criticise them for the goal, but they have an overall goal to become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world and the most powerful country in the world. Thats not going to happen on my watch, because United States is going to continue to grow and expand.

The president said the competition between the countries would be one of democracy versus autocracy.

Were not looking for confrontation, although we know there will be steep, steep competition, he said. This is a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century, and autocracies.

Mr Biden and Mr Xi spoke for the first time since the former's election during a phone call in February.

According to a White House synopsis of the call, the men discussed Mr Biden's concerns about Beijing's stifling of democratic demonstrations as well as human rights abuses and economic practices.

The call underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing's coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan, according to the White House.

Mr Biden has referred to China as the US's most serious competitor.

The Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, said Mr Xi expressed a desire to improve US-China relations after four contentious years of Donald Trump's sabre-rattling.

You have said that America can be defined in one word: Possibilities. We hope the possibilities will now point toward an improvement of China-US relations, Mr Xi reportedly said.

Mr Xi reportedly also said that the US side should respect China's core interests and act prudently.

Here is the original post:
Biden says Chinese president Xi Jinping 'doesn't have a democratic bone' in his body - The Independent

Your leader rightly deplores the severe reductions in adult education and part-time learning provision in recent years (The Guardian view on adult education: bring back evening classes, 21 March). This has numerous negative consequences, not only for potential adult learners themselves but also for wider society. One key aspect of such education, which has now virtually disappeared, is critical liberal adult education. In my view, this is a foundational aspect of a vibrant, participative democracy, which requires an informed, socially aware and tolerant citizenry. Adult education is thus a key element in civil society.

Some years ago, Raymond Williams argued that the primary task of the adult educator was to critique the prevailing common sense. University extramural departments and the Workers Educational Association (WEA) and other similar organisations provided the space where such critical education was provided much of it for adults who had had no opportunities for education since leaving school at the minimum age. Moreover, from this symbiotic relationship between adult students, with rich life experience, and tutors, with academic expertise, emerged such seminal works as EP Thompsons The Making of the English Working Class.

Unless and until we recreate, in appropriate contemporary forms, such critical, social purpose adult education, we are at real risk of undermining our democracy.Richard TaylorFormer director of adult education and lifelong learning, universities of Leeds and Cambridge; former chair of trustees, WEA

In your editorial on adult education, your argument rightly concerned improving literacy and training for reskilling. However, if lockdowns have taught us anything it is surely that tuition is essential for developing leisure skills. Lockdown with furlough pay has been mentally scarring for some, but consider what retirement on less income is like. I was fortunate that in my 30s to 40s I was able to try painting (I hadnt got much colour sense) and pottery (the clay wouldnt stay where I put it) without a large outlay on equipment, as it was shared between a large community. Sculpture, woodworking and metalworking came next, and wine-tasting. Now, retired, I can explore these skills and supplement them with writing, music and photography. Lockdown? I hardly noticed it. But it is essential for the mental health of future generations that leisure skills are available as subsidised topics at evening classes for all.Donald HawthornRuddington, Nottinghamshire

During the 1980s and 90s I taught Norwegian at evening classes, first in London and then in Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland. Some came for family reasons, some because of work, but many came because they had met Norwegians on holiday. Since almost all Norwegians speak English it is certainly not necessary to learn it, but they wanted to be able to talk to their friends in their own language and understand a bit about their culture.

For many of my students this was the first time they had tried different sounds, different ways of expressing themselves and above all, different ways of looking at things. They enjoyed learning, they gained confidence, and they enjoyed their encounter with Europeans and a wider world. Cutting down evening classes has had a massive effect in making this country more insular and less good at thinking.Dee ThomasSt Albans

It was great to see your editorial on the benefits lifelong learning can bring. We at Birkbeck, part of the University of London and the only constituent college with a part-time focus, have been pursuing this agenda for nearly 200 years supporting working Londoners through evening teaching. We know the government has raised the profile of this issue through the Skills for Jobs white paper, but further support is needed for part-time higher education. With increasing numbers of graduates (in fact pre-pandemic London had a 50% graduate workforce), for some the only way will be to reskill rather than upskill. This may mean studying, part-time, at a similar level to the qualification they already hold. To that end we would ask the government to further support part-time study through its strategic priorities grant in the next spending review. This will increase opportunity and choice for all.Prof David LatchmanVice-chancellor, Birkbeck, University of London

As a longtime tutor in adult education (creative writing), I would point out another important factor: the helpfulness, for retired people, of getting them together with other people, exchanging ideas, and exercising their brains. Many of my students were retired; some had long ago been told by their teachers that they were bad at writing, and were now excitedly using their imaginations for the first time; some were taking a much-needed weekly break from caring responsibilities; some were writing their life history and often coming to terms with past pain.

The utility of this goes way beyond employment, which was what the 1990s government changes to adult education wanted us to focus on. As you say, this probably led to wider savings in health. I used to feel that by participating in my classes these admirable people were protecting their mental health; maybe also their physical health. I would add that I feel privileged, still, to have been able to work with them.Lesli WilsonReading, Berkshire

Your editorial on adult education highlights the urgent need for initiatives to be provided in a wide variety of settings for adults with previously limited educational opportunities.

Prior to major cuts in all forms of adult education, there were a number of projects which focused on developing this provision.

For example, between 1982 and 1986 Leeds University adult education department organised 343 courses which attracted 4,000 participants. These were organised with working-class groups in Leeds, Bradford and subsequently Teesside, and held in many different venues such as community centres, church halls and working mens clubs. Courses were organised for unemployed people, older adults, women and BAME groups. Community groups, local voluntary organisations and tenants associations were centrally involved in these initiatives.

Close links to the TUCs network of 210 Unemployed Workers Centres led to regional day schools and national residential courses (held at Ruskin College for many years).

Education for the missing millions was a key issue in the 1980s. Its a tragedy that it is even more needed now.Kevin WardLeeds

In your leader you note the erosion of adult education and emphasise its importance in allowing people a second chance.

I grew up in Risca in south Wales, a small town which had a thriving adult education centre Oxford House. In 1972 this was catering for some 1,600 students and acting as a social, cultural and educational centre for the area.

Most of its classes were not vocational. They met a wide range of interests such as Welsh, geology, psychology, car maintenance, amateur dramatics, dressmaking and industrial archaeology.

Over time, the funding of adult education courses became dependent on them leading to qualifications which most of these adult learners were not seeking. Many of the general interest classes got squeezed out.

A revival of adult education must go beyond providing training for skills. It needs once again to feed that hunger for learning for its own sake.John BoalerCalne, Wiltshire

Hear! Hear! to your leader. In the early 1960s I taught French conversation evening classes once a week at Risinghill school, run by the much-lamented ILEA.

Among my students were Charles Weekley, son of Frieda Lawrence, (later married to the novelist DH Lawrence) whose first husband was the eminent linguist Ernest Weekley, a retired Welsh miner, a chef and a retired office cleaner. They had all come to learn for pleasure no tests or exams.

Charles, whose French was fluent and better than mine, entertained us with stories of the Lawrence household, the chef described mouth-watering dishes, the miner talked about his life in the mines and the cleaner told us about some interesting habits of the occupants of the houses she cleaned.

With this this heady mix of sex, food, politics and social mores, we had hugely enjoyable evenings and I hope they felt that their French improved!Eva TutchellTeddington, London

I did not go to a conventional university, instead training and working as a nurse and midwife during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. But I did achieve a degree, in a wide range of social science subjects, with the admirable Open University, at a modest cost.

More recently, I have studied, and would thoroughly recommend Future Learn, the totally free offshoot of the OU . Again, a wide range of subjects, in the arts, sciences, and other subjects; short courses, totally free, and with, to me, one of the most interesting elements the ability to correspond not only with tutors, but with students all over the world doing the same course. On completion, students may obtain a certificate of achievement at a modest cost.

I have just finished a course on sustainable futures, after several other climate change-related courses, in preparation for a greater understanding of Cop26 in November. If anyone is still in lockdown, and looking for something useful, interesting, and relevant to the world today, then just sign up for Future Learn. Just Google it.Rose HarvieDumbarton

Original post:
Adult education, mental health and democracy - The Guardian

Its time to set the record straight: Voting in Connecticut is overwhelmingly safe and secure; it is administered by election professionals from both major parties.

Whether in-person, by mail, or placed in drop boxes in each municipality across the state, Connecticut voters turned out in record numbers for the November 2020 election.

In fact, at 79.7%, it was the highest turnout rate in Connecticuts history, thanks to an executive order issued by the governor and affirmed by the legislature permitting any voter to vote by absentee ballot. But because of our states restrictive absentee ballot laws, this was only allowed under these special circumstances.

Now, the legislature has an opportunity to extend these changes and make no-excuse absentee ballots and early voting a reality in Connecticut.

In the past few weeks, there have been many instances of false, out of date, and misleading statements made about how Connecticuts elections are conducted. Misinformation is dangerous because it undermines our democracy and election administration a process that has multiple checks and balances to ensure that only eligible voters can participate.

Here are some facts about how things work in Connecticut:

The suggestion that an absentee ballot application automatically becomes an actual vote is categorically false.

An absentee ballot is only mailed after a completed and signed application has been reviewed and verified by the town clerk and the registrar of voters to make sure that the voter is on the active voter list. If the voters information cannot be verified, the application is rejected and the voter is notified that in order to vote by absentee they must provide more proof of their town residency.

How do election officials update the voter rolls?

Connecticuts voter rolls are continuously updated throughout the year. By state law, registrars are required to mail annual notices to every voter making sure that they still reside at that address. Registrars use the U.S. Postal Services National Change of Address (NCOA) system and participate in the national Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) which notifies the state when a Connecticut resident has registered to vote in a different state.

When is a voter put on the Inactive List?

In Connecticut, if a voter hasnt voted in several election cycles or not responded to mail sent by the registrars, (returned as undeliverable by the post office) they may be placed on the Inactive List rather than removed from the voter rolls entirely. The only other way to remove a voter is when they die, and town clerks (who are in charge of vital records) share this information regularly with the registrars. A voter on the Inactive List may still vote in-person or by absentee ballot as long as they can provide current information that they still reside at that address.

A few other facts about voting in Connecticut: There has never been widespread voter fraud. In fact, over the past 40 years, there have been fewer than 300 filed referrals made to the State Elections Enforcement Commission related to absentee ballots, an average of seven complaints a year with the majority being mistakes made by individuals in a single household, none of which changed the result of any contest or constituted widespread anything.

Some people have referenced voting issues from the past, such as when the system changed to computers from the old paper methods back in the early 2000s, or problems that occurred over 40 years ago, none of which are relevant today. The public should feel confident and assured that every time there is a reported irregularity, the Secretary of the States office has enacted changes to strengthen the system and ensure that it doesnt happen again. In addition, because Connecticut uses paper ballots, there is a verifiable paper trail which allows the state to conduct audits after each election to ensure the accuracy of our opti-scan machines.

For over 100 years, the mission of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut has been to register and educate eligible citizens with the goal of increasing participation in our democracy. It is time for the Land of Steady Habits to enter the 21st century and give Connecticut voters more freedom as to how and when they can vote by offering them no-excuse absentee ballots and additional days of in-person voting.

The League of Women Voters of Connecticut overwhelmingly supports resolutions HJ 58 and HJ 59, that address these important issues. We ask voters to reach out to their own legislators and urge them to vote yes on these resolutions to change the state constitution and allow the voters to decide.

Democracy wins when we all participate.

Carol Reimers, President; Laura Smits, VP, Voter Services; andJudy Lhamon, VP, Advocacy, of theLeague of Women Voters of Connecticut.

CTViewpoints welcomes rebuttal or opposing views to this and all its commentaries. Read our guidelines andsubmit your commentary here.

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Democracy wins when we all participate. Allow early and absentee voting - The CT Mirror

At this point, you probably know: Its all about 61. Nothing else matters.

What Israel's last-minute polls say, and can we trust them? LISTEN to Election Overdose podcast

Will Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeed or fail in forming a 61-seat coalition consisting of the right wing; the extreme right wing; the racist, homophobic, xenophobic and misogynistic right wing and the ultra-Orthodox? This coalition, he hopes, will provide him immunity from trial through retroactive legislation and continue the assault on Israeli democracy.

Israel is approaching a Weimar moment of democratic crisis: a point of inflection with an equal probability of following either of the two paths is presents. That is what it this election is all about.

Exactly how many Knesset seats each party will receive is of great interest only to lower-slated candidates, election handicappers and hyperventilating political pundits. The one and only important question for the broader public is whether Netanyahu and his allies will have the magical number of 61, enabling him to form his immunity-granting coalition.

This election is not contested over the right-left fault line. It is not about a Palestinian state, nor about the future of the territories and borders. It is not about the state of the economy or gross inequality, and despite the daunting background of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not about public health and the governments mismanagement of the crisis.

It is about Israeli democracy.

Every election in Israels political history, since the first election in 1949, has been heralded with pathos as critical, formative, historic, defining or fateful. But neverbeforewas an election straightforwardly about the very existence of Israeli democracy, which makes it all of the above.

In the history of Israels fragile democracy, there have always been cracks, flaws, dangers and crises, but never was the threat to liberal democracy so ominous and real as it is today.

The danger is not of a coup detat, an overnight installation of a dictatorship or a drastic wholesale suspension of civil rights. Rather, it comes in the form of a gradual diminishing and weakening of democracy, directed by a prime minister who does it for his own personal political and legal reasons.

What exactly constitutes a Weimar moment? In short, its a dismal failure of democracy. Naturally, Israels current predicament is not historically analogous to the events and processes in the German Weimar Republic. Instead, the similarity lies in the state of democracy and how it is perceived.

It is a historical tipping point in which a relentless assault on an already fragile democracy and its institutions finally manages to crack it and change its very nature, dynamic and direction. It moves the state's form of government to some point on the spectrum between illiberal democracy and benign authoritarianism. Israel is on the precipice of that point.

Despite being used profusely, the term "illiberal democracy" is in essence contradictory. A democracy cannot be illiberal, since its basic tenets are by definition and nature liberal. If it degenerates into illiberalism, it effectively ceases to be a democracy, while maintaining the appearance and illusion through formal processes such as elections.

A democracy is not simply majority rule. It is a prerequisite, but there also needs to be an independent judiciary, a functioning court system free of political pressure, inalienable constitutional rights, the right of appeal, a free press, an effective set of checks and balances, gatekeepers not subjected to and undeterred by political intimidation and academic freedom.

The evolution of the illiberal democracy is a 21st century phenomenon. These are democracies that are deliberately weakened from within by democratically elected but patently undemocratic leaders. They steadily and aggressively target liberal processes and institutions. They question and attack the legitimacy of elections, they undermine the judiciary, they accuse elites of controlling the system, they intimidate the bureaucracy tasked with maintaining checks and balances, they depict criticism and opposition as unpatriotic, they wage total war on the press and they blame problems on supposed foreign interference.

The anti-democratic assault is aided and exacerbated by two types of public attitudes: growing apathy by segments who no longer believe democracy is working for them and, worse still, a sizable group in society content with less democracy, so long as they feel their quality of life is not diminished.

These formal but hollow democracies, such as those of Hungary, Poland and Turkey, descend into an illiberal state. They are not fully authoritarian, but they are also no longer functioning liberal democracies.

Israel is not there yet, but a Netanyahu-right-wing-racist-extremists-ultra-Orthodox coalition puts it on a trajectory leading to that dubious realm.

Under this kind of government, the attorney general will be fired and replaced by a convenient yes man who will cancel Netanyahu's indictment. The current status-quo around religious issues will be disrupted, legislation reversing the rights of Arab citizens and the LGBT community will be presented regularly, and the Supreme Court will be weakened to a point where it won't be able to protect the civil rights that will come under assault.

The majority of the public is resoundingly against this possible future. In several polls, an average of 58 percent of Israelis does not want Netanyahu to remain prime minister. This is not because of a specific foreign, defense or domestic policy, but because of his alleged corruption and the war he is waging against Israeli democracy.

An aggregate average of polls along the anti-Netanyahu versus pro-Netanyahu dividing line shows a consistent 45 to 55 percent split, with the majority of the public opposed to the incumbent prime minister. But this indicates nothing in terms of the election results and the possibility of forming a coalition.

The Israeli electoral system, the political fragmentation and the endemic weakness in leadership among the left and center left may produce the exact coalition that a majority rejects, and put Israel on an irreversible course toward a quasi-democracy.

Link:
Israel election: On the verge of an illiberal democracy - Haaretz