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On 18 May the court dismissed a cassational appeal of Siarhei Kavalenka, the activist of the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, who resumed hunger strike on 8 May protesting against his sentence. His wife and cousin had been detained before the trial.

At the World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS), taking place in Geneva, Article 19 and 30 other NGOs asked for greater transparency and civil participation in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and preparatory process undertaken for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) 2012.

The Circuit Court in Warsaw decided the case brought by the journalist Bogdan Wróblewski against the head of the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA). The Court ruled in favour of the journalist and found that the CBA had infringed Mr Wróblewski’s right to privacy, secrecy of communication and the reporter’s privilege by acquiring and consulting his phone records.

A journalist and the editor-in-chief of a local newspaper were proclaimed guilty of disclosing information on closed-door court proceedings. The guilty verdict was rendered despite the fact that it was the court itself who had allowed the journalists to access the records of the proceedings to write a newspaper article.

18 мая суд адхіліў касацыйную скаргу актывіста Кансерватыўна-хрысціянскай партыі — БНФ Сяргея Каваленкі, які 8 мая аднавіў галадоўку на знак пратэсту супраць свайго прысуду. Перад судом былі затрыманыя жонка і стрыечны брат актывіста.

After working for more than a decade to put land on top of the international agenda, FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN) welcomes the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) adoption of the FAO (the U.N. Food and Argiculture Organization) guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forest in the context of National Food Security.

Parliamentary election on 6 May was Armenia’s first electoral campaign since the disputed 2008 Presidential race that led to massive protests and eight persons being killed by security forces. There were a few improvements as compared to the previous election, but abuse of administrative resources and pressure on voters remained a serious problem.

On 6 May citizens of Serbia, EU-candidate state, voted in presidential, parliamentary, regional and local elections. Even though the support for the need for European integration is greater now than it was in 2008, it is obvious that candidates struggle to prevent that this ambition alienates voters.

Liubou and Tatsiana Kavaliova, mother and sister of Uladzislau Kavaliou, who was executed in March 2012, addressed the President of Belarus Aliaksandr Lukashenka and other officials with a question about the articles in the Belarusian legislation, under which the body of an executed death convict is not returned to his family.