The World's Top Dissidents

A small sample of the thousands of brave men and women leading the global fight for freedom and democracy.

BY ANDREW SWIFT, PETER WILLIAMS | MAY 7, 2010

Yoani Sánchez in 2008.

 

Cuba

Yoani Sánchez: Born in Havana in 1975, Sánchez is best known for Generación Y, a blog she writes about daily life under the political oppression of the Cuban government. She evades the censorship of Raúl Castro's government by emailing her entries to friends and associates outside the country, who then post them online. Although Sánchez has suffered harassment and intimidation by the Cuban government -- she described a 2009 episode in which she claims to have been abducted and beaten by government thugs -- she nevertheless continues to write, drawing attention to the political plight of Cubans living under the Castro regime.

Peru

Francisco Soberón: Soberón is most famous in Peru for his 1985 founding of the Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos, a human rights NGO headquartered in Lima. The organization's initial purpose was to curb abuses by the Peruvian military and various insurgent groups during the country's civil war. Today, it has embraced the broader agenda of improving Peru's judicial system and improving the poor's knowledge of their rights. In 2008, Soberón accused President Alan García's government of manipulating public opinion by denouncing organizations as diverse as labor unions and environmental NGOs as terrorist groups in an effort to stigmatize them and muffle dissent. García hasn't taken such accusations lightly, calling Soberón a traitor, according to Reuters.

Guatemala

Frank La Rue: The founder of one of Guatemala's first human rights NGOs, the Center for Legal Action on Human Rights (CALDH), La Rue is among Guatemala's most impassioned human rights activists. La Rue and CALDH provide technical legal advice to the many Guatemalan communities that brought cases in 2001 against former presidents Gen. Romeo Lucas García and Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, both of whom were implicitly found guilty of committing genocide by Guatemala's Historical Clarification Commission.

ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images

 SUBJECTS: CHINA, IRAN, RUSSIA, CORRUPTION
 

Andrew Swift and Peter Williams are researchers at Foreign Policy.

DRAGAN NENADOVIC

3:22 PM ET

May 8, 2010

Western countries dissidents

Are there any Western countries’ dissidents that for some reason were not included on this list.

For example, I am just wandering if there is someone protesting in the USA for the basic rights of Latino minority ( numbering around 60 million, legal and illegal ) to be allowed to educate themselves on their mother tongue ( Spanish ).
Same goes for Turkish minority in Germany ( 12 million ), Arab minority of France and so on.
Not to mention protests for autonomous regions to be allocated within Western countries for those minorities in the areas where they represent majority.

Is it possible that no one is protesting against something as basic as this in the Western countries. Or, maybe they are well hidden from the public eye, and as such did not deserve to be included on this kind of list.

All the Best from Beautiful Serbia ?

 

NORBOOSE

9:31 AM ET

May 9, 2010

Dissidents exist where Protestors cant

First, Im just going to refer to America (and, by extension, Canada) for purposes of "the West." The Euros can go to hell. Those latino advocates are protestors, not dissidents. The FBI doesnt kill them and make it look like a botched mugging , the National Guard doesnt massacre their Catholic monks. In the US, there arent any disidents. Dissidents implies nonviolent individuals who are targeted by the government for political purposes. If people in the US are peaceful, noone hunts them down, they are given the right to argue their case. If they are violent, they are not a legitamate dissident. Why are latino children not taught in Spanish? Well, for one, they can be. We allow homeschooling, private schools, and religious schools, which can teach children any language they want. More importantly, most want their kids to learn english. The ones that dont learn english arent trying not to learn, they dont get a chance. As someone who speaks Spanish and English, I know that if you know one of the two languages, its very easy to learn the other. Almost all American latinos want their children to speak both easily. I understand that populations and cultures are largely stgnant in your hemisphere. They are not that way here in the great melting pot. If we held on to our ancestors the way you eastern-hemispherers do, my kids would have to learn over a hundred languages and dialects. ( I said I just want them to speak 4: English, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian.)

 

RAGE

3:37 PM ET

May 8, 2010

you are missing the point

Dissidents in the west are capable of freely expressing their dissent. Also, the right to be educated in whatever language you wish is hardly a basic right. Public education is funded by the state, which deems it in the best interest of everyone to promote integration via education in one language alone.

 

DRAGAN NENADOVIC

4:03 PM ET

May 8, 2010

Confused???

You are saying that the public education in Western world is promoted in one language because it is in the best interest of its minority to better integrate in the society. But, have anyone ever asked that very minority if they really want that ? Or, would prefer to be educated in their mother tongue. As far as I know, and I happened to live in North America half of my life, most of Latino people living in the USA prefer to be educated in Spanish. What is more, they despise English language.

And what is even more tragic and unreasonable is the fact that that same USA, German, France or UK government is enforcing sanctions, even threatening force against countries in the world that do not allow their minorities education in their mother tongue. That is what it is really confusing if not arrogant.

How do you explain that ??????

 

TOOLBAG

9:15 PM ET

May 8, 2010

Language

I think it greatly benefits non English speakers to learn English. It gives them a leg up on many due to the fact that they become Bi-Lingual. This helps them in aworld where engluish is the language of commerce and business. This isn't a form of discrimination it is a necessary step for them to be as successful as possible. The world will not change to a Spanish speaking world in their lifetime so it benefits them, as would us all, to learn both languages. Furthermore their is no proscription against teaching solely in Spanish. A charter school could be created that does just that and their is no law prohibiting it, it would also receive federal funding.

 

PAUL STRUTYNSKI

4:20 PM ET

May 8, 2010

western countries' dissidents

Why no mention of US dissidents such as Noam Chomsky, or of dissidents of major US allies such as Saudi Arabia, or or major recipients of US aid such as Columbia?

 

DRAGAN NENADOVIC

4:32 PM ET

May 8, 2010

Right on Paul ( Applause )

That is exactly what confuses me.
Is it possible that no one from the Latino community of the USA has ever protested against not having autonomous region in, for example, California, where Latino people represent huge majority ??. Or, in regard to educating their children in their mother tongue like in any other country of the word ( in most of the countries of the world minorities are allowed that ).

Or, 12 million Turks in Germany. That is another question. Is it possible that no one has ever protested in that country for the basic right of that minority to be allowed education in Turkish language, or to be given autonomous region where they represent majority.

Not to mention probably 1/3 of France population that are Arabs.

I would like to hear a bit about that. Because, about the dissidents of other countries but Western one, I have heard it million timers already.

 

CLEVERLEMMING

6:44 PM ET

May 8, 2010

Ever Hear of a Place Called Tibet?

I believe that there's a man who escaped from there in 1959 and who has devoted the rest of his life to the liberation of his fellow Tibetans. Gosh, what was his name...

 

MARKBASH

7:32 PM ET

May 8, 2010

No mention of Palestinian human rights dissidents

why no mention of Palestinian dissidents to Israels occupation and collective punishment of the people in Gaza? Foreign Policy just included an article on Mustapha Barghouti (an internationally recognized non-violent human rights advocate, who was recently on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart). Why not include Mustapha Barghouti? I sense politics and bias.

See Foreign Policy article on Mustapha Barghouti:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/07/holding_obama_to_his_word_in_the_middle_east

 

TOOLBAG

9:20 PM ET

May 8, 2010

Lack of recognition

The reason their is no mention of Western dissidents is because the American Government forbids it. It would shed an unfavorable light on the US. The US Gov't will abide no slander against its good name. It enforces laws on its own people prohibiting negative speech against America and its allies. The government places extreme pressure on others in the western hemisphere to never speak ill of the American Empire.

I think that was the answer some of you are looking for.

 

MALICEIT

10:41 PM ET

May 8, 2010

Totally agree.

Totally agree.

 

NORBOOSE

2:32 PM ET

May 9, 2010

Is ignorance an opinion?

You are factually wrong. You have never been to America. You have never seen America through anything but the lense of propaganda. And you are unworthy of any better refutation than this.

 

TOOLBAG

3:02 PM ET

May 9, 2010

Garbage

I'm guessing there are some of you who have bough the garbage I spewed in my previous post. Sarcasm is a bit difficult to project through the internet.

 

GRAFOMANKA

6:21 AM ET

May 9, 2010

Russian dissidents

Lyudmila Alexeyeva has been attacked by unemployed drunkard, who was drunk at the moment of attack. She was happy for the court to give him shortest possible sentence. This was not calculated attack by Kremiln supporters as this article suggests.

 

NOKIDDING

12:23 PM ET

May 10, 2010

Kasparov "forced to withdraw"

Kasparov "forced to withdraw" - what a joke. One wouldn't be able to force Sakharov to withdraw "in the face of a campaign of harassment". Get away from the Russian dissident seat!

 

DAMIAN OYIBO

7:32 AM ET

May 11, 2010

Propaganda?

Norboose wrote that 'You have never been to America. You have never seen America through anything but the lense of propaganda...' You talk as if America itself was not spewing so much propaganda that some people were shocked to discover later that homelessness and other social injustices abound in America-of course predominantly among the minorities who incidentally were more in rank and file fighting Americas' wars here and there. Was what made Greenspan to advice that if America's minorities are dying for America, they should be cared for when they are discharged due to war disabilities. Or was that propaganda as well? In the eighties and earlier Americans were ignorant of what VOA was broadcasting to some parts of the world- facts tinged with propaganda.

Thanks to the information evolution, one does not need to come to America to understand many things about America or how it works.. Naturally those who speak against policies like the recent immigration laws and policies would be dissidents won't they? Or is that propaganda as well..?

 

GERRY BOLGTHOP

5:02 AM ET

May 30, 2010

Dissidents - our future?

Ray I believe that the dissidents will become our future, but if you look at the examples of other dissidents, many of them were for "one use only". That means when they get to power and enforce change they loos most of their appeal. So I do not think hat they represent the stability for our future.

Gerry from site lastlongerguide.com

 

DEBRA

6:37 AM ET

June 3, 2010

Thank you for the time you

Thank you for the time you spend just to share this information with us.
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