Read the print essay here.
Turkey
On May 21, in a continuation of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s crackdown on the democratic opposition in Turkey, a court nullified Özgür Özel’s 2023 election as chairperson of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). On May 24, Turkish police officers stormed the CHP’s headquarters to forcibly evict party members, using tear gas and rubber bullets. Özel gave a statement from within the building before being removed. Excerpts are below.
We are at the headquarters. We are at the Republican People’s Party headquarters. We are in the office entrusted by Atatürk. We are under attack.
Our crime is making the party the leading party after 47 years. Our crime is defeating the AK Party. Our crime is entering an internal party race in the Republican People’s Party, calling for change against those resisting a shift in power after the last election defeat and making our party first, together with youth, women, and everyone who wanted change. There’s an alliance between those who cannot digest these two outcomes . . . or our March 30 election victory. That is, there is an invalid alliance between the AK Party and the judiciary. Now, as if taking that unlawful decision wasn’t enough, they have shown up at our door.
First, at seven in the morning, they showed up at our door with [people whose] only job is to fight, none of whom were CHP . . . except for a few MPs walking in the front. Our youth pushed them back, but they came again—they came back in larger numbers. The doors were closed; the resistance began. Now they have come with the police, and they want to enter the building, enter with gas, enter with batons, enter with police . . . They want to seize this building.
We will not leave here. I don’t know how long we can hold out. After all, we are not in a position to raise a hand against the state’s police. But, we said that no one but the delegates who placed us in these seats can remove us.
They can remove us. They can rip us out and throw us into the street. But we didn’t make this party the leading party by sitting in this building anyway. Elections are not won by sitting in this building—some people know this best. Elections are won on the streets and in the squares.
From now on, we will resist here until the end, and even if they drag us out, we will continue our march to power in the squares. Let no one forget. When this party was founded, it didn’t have a headquarters. It was first founded on the battlefields and in tents. . . .
A room is enough for us. A tent is enough for us. Our nation is enough for us. But enough is enough of what these coup plotters are doing to our nation. I invite our nation, and those who love us, to react to this, to react in words, to react on social media, for those who can come to show solidarity, and for them to protect our provincial headquarters . . .
We will fight until the end, and in the end, no matter what happens, they may take our bodies, but they will never be able to capture our struggle.
Hong Kong
On 9 February 2026, a Hong Kong court sentenced prodemocracy activist and media mogul Jimmy Lai to twenty years in prison. Convicted in December on conspiracy charges under the Beijing-imposed National Security Law for publishing prodemocracy articles in his now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, 78-year-old Lai has been jailed since 2020. In April 2026, his children, Sebastien and Claire Lai, published letters their father wrote from prison. Excerpts from several appear below.
. . . Through suffering I realize that living a life you won’t stake your life for is not worth living for. I must say, I have not lived a fully alive life, only now is getting close to it. . . .
. . . Each time I heard that your effort in trying to put in clothes and money for me at the prison was rejected, my heart pained each time more than the last. . . .
. . . This is the second day of Chinese New Year. In the evening, they gave us a drumstick and yesterday for breakfast, a vegetarian dish. Both were good. What a feast. Prison is a place of simplicity and poverty. . . .
. . . If we let our comfort and safety take precedence over the value of good and evil, evil will prevail over our life, our life shall be empty, boring and meaningless. Truth and justice must stand above our comfort and well-being, otherwise our lives will be lived with “a millstone hung on our neck.” . . .
Cuba
On May 20, Freedom House recognized Cuban democracy activist Rosa María Payá Acevedo with the 2026 Alfred Moses Liberty Award for her activism in seeking freedom for political prisoners and democracy for Cuba. She is the daughter of slain opposition leader Oswaldo Payá and executive director of the Foundation for Pan-American Democracy. Excerpts from her acceptance speech are transcribed below.
Tonight, I do not stand before you in any official capacity. Rather, I want to speak to you first and foremost as a Cuban.
I want to speak to you about Ernesto Brieva Sempé. Ernesto had a little child he had not seen in a very long time because he had been in prison since the protest of 11 July 2021, when the Cuban people [rose] in one cry for freedom. Yesterday we learned that Ernesto has been dead for over a week. He died in prison from malnutrition because hunger is one of the many tortures to which political prisoners in Cuba are subject today.
Let this recognition honor Ernesto and all Cuban political prisoners today. And let the world know this. The struggle for Cuba’s freedom is more alive than ever. It lives in the prison cells where men like Félix Navarro continued the work of my father Oswaldo Payá, who once embodied the democratic alternative of the Cuban people and was murdered by the Cuban regime in 2012.
The fight for freedom in Cuba lives in the courage of young women like [Ernesto’s] daughter Saylí Navarro. It lives in the memories of the political prisoners like Ernesto and the memory of many other civic leaders that are not with us today.
It lives in the streets of the island, where the protests do not cease because despite the deep humanitarian catastrophe that the Cuban regime has forced [onto] the Cuban people—despite the hunger, despite the lack of medicine, despite the lack of energy, despite the brutal repression, we Cubans, we are convinced that the only way to overcome the crisis is to get rid of the dictatorship, and we are risking everything [for] freedom. . . .
Because for us, for Cubans, achieving freedom, changing the system is existential, but Cuba matters for you too because Havana represents the longest-running national-security threat to the U.S. and to the hemisphere, because Havana is Putin’s best ally; because the regime is directly behind the largest migratory crisis of . . . modern history, displacing millions and destabilizing the entire region; because the regime transformed Cuban’s national territory into a sanctuary for terrorists; because the regime is the home of spy bases from China. But the most affected—the most affected of all—has been Latin America. Tolerating 67 years of the Cuban communist dictatorship [on] the island of Cuba made impossible democratic stability in Latin America.
The regime is behind . . . the collapse of democracy and the maintenance of the Venezuelan dictatorship, is behind the centers of torture in Nicaragua, is behind the destabilization in Bolivia.
And that’s why a democratic change in Cuba is the key to restoring liberty throughout the region and with it, peace, prosperity, and justice. The Cuban regime is the head. It has been for decades the head of the authoritarian octopus in our hemisphere. It is the Berlin wall of the Americas, and tearing it down will require . . . all of us. But tearing it down is the only thing we should do. . . .
Egypt
On May 11, Egyptian filmmaker and screenwriter Omar Salah Marei was arrested at his home by security officers, without a warrant, for content he posted on social media. Marei suffers from a serious health condition but has been denied medical treatment since being detained. Eighteen human-rights organizations, including the Law and Democracy Support Foundation and Egyptian Front for Human Rights, issued a joint statement on May 23 seeking Marei’s immediate release. Excerpts are below.
We, the undersigned organisations, condemn the continued detention of Egyptian filmmaker and screenwriter Omar Salah Marei. We call for his immediate and unconditional release, the dropping of all charges against him, and the closure of Case No. 3835 of 2026 (Supreme State Security).
We are gravely concerned over the serious deterioration of Marei’s health, as he has been denied necessary medical treatment since his arrest on 11 May 2026. He was forcibly disappeared for several days before being brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on 16 May, which ordered his pretrial detention for 15 days pending investigation on charges of “spreading false news,” based solely on his social media posts. The posts reflected a critical perspective on the broader media situation alongside views addressing Egypt’s film industry . . .
A security force in plainclothes had forcibly raided his home without presenting a judicial warrant. They damaged some of the home’s furnishings and confiscated money and personal belongings before arresting Marei and taking him to an unknown location, where he was interrogated about some of his films and the characters depicted in them. . . .
Marei suffers from a thyroid disorder that requires consistent daily medication to compensate for his inability to produce essential hormones for normal bodily function. Depriving him of this treatment since 11 May poses serious health risks and could lead to life-threatening complications. Prior to his arrest, he was also recovering from [a] recent wrist surgery that required ongoing medical care and physiotherapy. He has been denied that treatment, reportedly resulting in complications and swelling in his left arm, according to documented information.
The continued denial of medical care constitutes a violation of the right to health and is inconsistent with Egypt’s obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It may also amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment prohibited under international law, including the UN Convention Against Torture.
Marei’s case does not exist in isolation. It reflects a broader pattern of a harsh and ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression in Egypt, taking place within an increasingly closed civic space, alongside mounting restrictions on artistic freedom. This includes the systematic targeting of artists and cultural figures through vague and recurring charges. For over a decade, the authorities have relied on such accusations to pursue critics, journalists, artists, and creatives, resulting in years of imprisonment, either through prolonged pretrial detention or through trials that fall short of international fair trial standards.
The current period has seen an escalation in security and judicial actions against a number of artists and creators. These include cartoonist Ashraf Omar, who is scheduled to appear before a terrorism circuit on 13 July 2026 on fabricated charges of terrorism financing, and poet Ahmed Douma, who is awaiting a verdict in his trial on charges of spreading false news on 3 June 2026. The crackdown also extends to poet Galal El-Beheiri and filmmaker Abdelrahman El-Ansari, who has been re-arrested after years of prior detention in similar cases spanning over seven years, as well as at least 19 journalists currently detained, according to the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate. Content creators on social media platforms, particularly TikTok, have also been increasingly targeted. This troubling pattern reflects a broader trend of criminalising peaceful expression and creative and digital production, undermining the right to freedom of expression and shrinking civic space for independent and critical voices. . . .
Zambia
On May 5, the Zambian government indefinitely postponed RightsCon, the largest global summit on tech and human rights, on the day of the summit’s intended start. In a May 5 statement, Amnesty International called the suspension an act of transnational repression by the Chinese government. Excerpts appear below.
Amnesty International strongly condemns the Zambian government for open-endedly “postponing” RightsCon—the largest global tech and human rights conference, which was due to start [on May 5] in Lusaka and online—after allegedly being pressured by Chinese diplomats.
Conference organizers Access Now have confirmed they believe “foreign interference” was behind the last-minute postponement. According to their statement, officials from Zambia’s Ministry of Technology and Science had communicated that they were under pressure from Chinese diplomats over, among others, the participation of Taiwanese civil society, prior to the Zambian authorities’ decision to postpone the event. . . .
RightsCon is a prominent platform for global dialogue on emerging human rights issues in the digital space.
“The postponement of RightsCon shrinks already limited spaces for global coordination on regulating and governing technology at a time of explosive AI expansion and the deepening entwinement of the tech industry with authoritarian practices and power. This erosion of civic and policy space has real consequences, and it is a loss the world cannot afford,” said Damini Satija, Amnesty Tech Director at Amnesty International. . . .
The Chinese government routinely engages in efforts to silence critics abroad, including targeting overseas students, dissidents and diaspora groups across Asia, Europe and North America . . . China has also long exerted pressure on countries, intergovernmental bodies and companies around the world to exclude Taiwanese voices, both official and civil society, from multilateral fora and global debates and platforms focused on human rights.
China has also shown itself to be increasingly keen to shape global debates around how existing and emerging technologies should be governed, whether at the UN or in other forums . . . As China’s tech and infrastructure investments expand and are exported, so does the risk that these tools may facilitate similar violations elsewhere.
The Zambian government must now explain its role in this fiasco, given that the postponement was reportedly a result of pressure from Chinese diplomats. This episode raises further concerns about the export of authoritarian practices, particularly the support of one government to constrain or silence voices critical of another. . . .
This did not happen in a vacuum. In Zambia, China’s leverage is reinforced through debt and major infrastructure investments . . . This influence also extends into key economic sectors with Chinese companies playing a significant role in copper mining and amplified by Zambia’s roughly US$5 billion debt to China.
Zambia is just three months away from a general election. President Hakainde Hichilema, elected in 2021 on a promise of democratic renewal, has spent recent years enacting cyber laws that have become tools of surveillance and speech repression. . . .
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