Hong Kong braces for another mass rally Sunday as public anger seethes following unprecedented clashes between protesters and police over an extradition law, despite a climbdown by the city's embattled leader in suspending the bill.
Organizers are hoping for another mammoth turnout as they vowed to keep pressure on chief executive Carrie Lam, who suspended work on the hugely divisive bill Saturday after days of mounting pressure, saying she had misjudged the public mood.
Critics fear the Beijing-backed law will tangle people up in China's notoriously opaque and politicized courts and damage the city's reputation as a safe business hub.
The international finance hub was rocked by the worst political violence since its 1997 handover to China on Wednesday as tens of thousands of protesters were dispersed by riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
Lam stopped short of committing to permanently scrapping the proposal and the concession was swiftly rejected by protest leaders, who called on her to resign, permanently shelve the bill and apologize for police tactics.
Jimmy Sham, from the main protest group the Civil Human Rights Front, likened Lam's offer to a "knife" that had been plunged into the city.
"It's almost reached our heart. Now the government said they won't push it, but they also refuse to pull it out," he told reporters.
'KEEP THE HEAT ON'
On Sunday afternoon, protesters are set to march from a park on the main island to the city's parliament -- a repeat of a massive rally a week earlier in which organizers said more than a million people turned out.
Lam's decision to ignore that record-breaking turnout and press ahead with tabling the bill for debate in the legislature on Wednesday was the spark that lit the clashes which brought key parts of the city to a standstill.
The protest movement has morphed in recent days from one specifically aimed at scrapping the extradition bill, to a wider movement of anger at Lam and Beijing over years of sliding freedoms.
"The pro-democracy group will not stop at this point, they want to build on the momentum against Carrie Lam," political analyst Willy Lam told AFP. "They will keep the heat on and ride the momentum."
Police said they had no choice but to use force to meet violent protesters who besieged their lines outside the city's parliament on Wednesday.
But critics -- including legal and rights groups -- say officers used the actions of a tiny group of violent protesters as an excuse to unleash a sweeping crackdown on the predominantly young, peaceful protesters.
Anger has also been fanned by Lam and senior officers calling the street demonstrators "rioters".
Protest leaders have called for police to drop charges against anyone arrested for rioting and other offences linked to Wednesday's clashes.
Lam has argued that Hong Kong needs to reach an extradition agreement with the mainland, and says safeguards were in place to ensure dissidents or political cases would not be accepted.
Opposition to the bill united an unusually wide cross-section of Hong Kong from influential legal and business bodies, to religious leaders and western nations.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LONDON - British billionaire Richard Branson urged fellow business leaders on Thursday to use their clout and put pressure on countries such as Brunei that persecute citizens for their sexuality.
Brunei's decision to impose the death penalty for gay sex had spurred the call for action, Branson wrote in a blog posted on Virgin.com. He was joined by 20 other top executives, who put their names to a wider initiative in support of LGBT+ rights.
"Why take action now? The answer is simple. I feel that every opportunity to stand up for what we believe in is a good opportunity to shift the conversation on a global scale," said Branson, who made his fortune from a conglomerate of enterprises bearing the Virgin name.
John Fallon, chief executive of education group Pearson, and Paul Polman, former chief executive of consumer goods company Unilever, were among 21 signatories of an initiative supported by Open For Business, a coalition of global firms promoting LGBT+ inclusion.
"It is time for all of us, as business leaders and as human beings, to stand up to ensure that people are free from the fear of abuse for who they love," the 21 signatories wrote.
"This is our responsibility to our employees, to our customers and to communities all over the world."
The initiative calls for businesses to create inclusive workplaces, actively support criminalized LGBT+ communities, and engage with repressive regimes on their policies.
More than 70 countries worldwide, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, enforce anti-LGBT+ laws.
Brunei, a small Southeast Asian country of about 400,000 people, sparked outcry last month when it rolled out laws penalizing sodomy, adultery and rape with the death penalty.
Celebrities, from actor George Clooney to singer Elton John, have galvanized support, with protesters boycotting the Dorchester Collection of hotels, owned by the Brunei Investment Agency.
A growing list of banks, including Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Citi and Nomura, have banned staff from using the hotels.
STA Travel and London's transport network have also begun to cut ties with businesses owned by the sultanate.
In a letter to the United Nations, Brunei has defended the imposition of strict sharia laws, which it began introducing in 2014, as more for "prevention than to punish."
Matt Cameron, managing director of investment industry organization LGBT Great, called for a boycott of countries that enacted anti-gay and anti-transgender laws.
"The financial services sector is a massive part of the global economy and carries a lot of clout," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"I do think there's a responsibility and an accountability for the industry to step up and use its force."
However, Daniel Winterfeldt, a partner in law firm Reed Smith's global capital markets practice, stressed the value of talking with governments, whatever their views.
"Engagement is incredibly important. If you build up a barrier, things can actually get worse," Winterfeldt said.
"When (business leaders) attend high-level meetings with governments, it is important that on their lists of concerns are equality issues."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
LONDON/BEIRUT - Women in Saudi Arabia will be notified by text message if they are divorced under a new law designed to protect them from having their marriage ended without their knowledge, the government said on Sunday.
The new law, that came into effect on Sunday, was seen as a way to end secret divorces and ensure women are fully aware of their marital status so they can protect rights such as alimony.
The move comes as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has started to give women more rights in the conservative kingdom, which included lifting a ban on women driving last year.
"Saudi courts have started to send such (divorce) notifications ... a step aimed at protecting the rights of female clients," the Saudi Ministry of Justice said in a statement on their website.
It said women could check their marital status on the ministry's website or visit the relevant court to get a copy of divorce papers.
"In most Arab countries, men can just divorce their wives," said Suad Abu-Dayyeh from global rights group, Equality Now.
"At least women will know whether they are divorced or not. It is a tiny step, but it is a step in the right direction," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
But Abu-Dayyeh said knowing about a divorce does not mean a woman will get alimony or the custody of her children.
In recent years women in Saudi Arabia have been allowed to enter sports stadiums for the first time, vote in local elections, and take a greater role in the workforce as Saudi Arabia tries to diversify its oil-dependent economy.
But many Saudi women have taken to social media to push from more freedom, including protesting against the country's strict dress codes with women required to wear an abaya - a loose, all-covering robe - when in public.
Campaigners said the main sticking point remained Saudi Arabia's guardianship policy, whereby women must have permission from a male relative to work, travel, marry, and even get some medical treatment.
"The male guardianship system is a core issue and it must be dismantled. It controls women in each and every step of their lives. This system strangles Saudi women," said Abu-Dayyeh.
Although many have hailed the Saudi government's reforms, these have been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent with about a dozen female activists arrested.
In November, rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accused Saudi Arabia of torturing and sexually harassing some detained female activists - allegations denied by a Saudi official to Reuters.
A group of British parliamentarians and lawyers on Wednesday requested an "urgent response" from the Saudi ambassador by Jan. 9 to allow them to speak with the detained activists.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
VALLETTA - Malta's parliament voted Wednesday to allow same-sex couples to marry, three years after passing a law permitting civil partnerships in the overwhelmingly Catholic country.
Lawmakers gave near-unanimous approval to the bill, which represents a major step for LGBT rights on the island, which legalized divorce only in 2011 and where abortion is outlawed.
Malta, the EU's smallest nation, becomes the bloc's 15th member to legalize same-sex unions.
The vote was one of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's first actions following his election victory last month.
"It's a historic vote. This shows that our democracy and society have reached a level of maturity and we can now say that we are all equal," he said after the text was passed.
"Pledge delivered, future secured," he later tweeted.
The Catholic church was solidly opposed to the bill but gay rights activists on Wednesday hailed the result, rallying outside the premier's office in downtown Valetta.
The facade of the building was lit in rainbow colors and the slogan: "We've made history".
'WHOEVER THEY LOVE'
All but one lawmaker supported the new law, which will now open the door for same-sex couples to adopt. Previously this was possible only if one person applied rather than as a couple.
Though Malta scores relatively well in European-wide freedom indexes, society in the tiny Mediterranean island is still influenced by religion.
A major bone of contention ahead of the vote was a change in legal jargon to replace terms such as husband, wife, mother and father with more gender-neutral phrasing such as partner or parent.
On Tuesday evening, opponents of the measure held a silent vigil outside parliament, but Wednesday's vote was hailed by many commenters on social media.
"Now I'm proud to be a dad who can tell my boys that whoever they are and whoever they love, they can still call Malta home," said one Twitter user.
Since gay unions were approved in 2014, 141 couples have taken advantage of the partnerships, while 22 others who had gotten married outside the country had registered their unions.
The Netherlands was the first European country to legalize same-sex marriage, in 2001, with the most recent being Germany on June 30 after a surprising shift on the issue by Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Gay marriage has also been approved in Canada and the United States, and in four South American countries, though it remains illegal in most of Africa and Asia.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
