HIR Blog Articles

 
GERB, the party of Bulgaria’s ousted prime minister Boyko Borisov, secured a slim victory at the 2013 snap parliamentary elections Sunday night. Although for the first time in Bulgaria’s modern history a party repeats its electoral success in a second consecutive vote, Mr. Borisov and his political cohort have more to worry about than to celebrate. Winning 97 out of the 240 seats in the National Assembly, GERB fell quite short of obtaining the 121 legislative seats requisite for a parliamentary majority. Thus, Mr. Borisov will now have to turn to the other three parties, which entered parliament, so as to form either a coalition or a minority government with enough political support. 
 

In Norway, the maximum prison sentence is 21 years. This fact, startling to many, came to light a few years ago after Anders Breivik massacred 77 in the usually peaceful country. Though Breivik’s sentence eventually included a clause enabling jailers to extend his sentence as long as he was deemed a “threat to society,” the fact that his case was the exception to the rule marks Norway’s body of law as vastly different from many nations, especially the United States. A recent piece in the Guardian explored the actual Norwegian prison system, which seems cushy compared to our own. This cushiness, though, has led to some of the lowest recidivism rates in the world. The question of how best to deal with prisoners is one that affects every country, and one well worth considering in terms of human dignity, but also in terms of the practical considerations of inequality and crime.

Late last week, the Israeli Defense Forces fired missiles against suspicious vehicles on Syrian territory, allegedly carrying munitions to the paramilitary wing of Hezbollah - Israel’s most bitter and aggressive enemy in the region. During the unexpected airstrike, one of the Israeli rockets razed to the ground a Syrian research center. Although still unclear whether Tel Aviv officials actually targeted the center actuated by some doubts about its illicit functioning for terrorist purposes, the incident elicited a vehement reaction from the government of al-Asad, Syria’s troubled president.

When police caught Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a genuine discussion took place about whether to treat him as a citizen (which he is) or as an enemy combatant. Just a day before the attack, an op-ed in the New York Times from a prisoner in Guantanamo Bay called attention to the horrific way the US treats those we have deemed too dangerous to try in court and too much of a risk to release to their home countries. What do these cases have in common? They both underscore the disturbing ability of the US government to pick and choose those to whom it affords rights.