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The 2009 Religion Law of Kyrgyzstan fails to comply with the Constitution and with international human rights standards, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee states. Moreover the law severely restricts religious freedoms, including imposing registration requirements that in effect ban registration of new religious communities other than the Orthodox Church and the Spiritual Board of Moslems. Authorities should take steps to initiate an open and inclusive process of revising the Bakiyev-era Religion Law.

Political prisoner Siarhei Kavalenka (right), who has recently stopped hunger strike, is currently held in a psychiatric hospital “Navinki”, where he has been sent to for a forced psychiatric examination. The activist’s wife speaks about his current condition and about the way he was treated in the Vitsba-3 colony.

In Azerbaijan five independent reporters, including award-winning journalist Idrak Abbasov, were brutally assaulted just weeks before the Eurovision Song Contest.

Актывіст Сяргей Каваленка (на фота) паводле рашэння Віцебскага абласнога суда цяпер утрымліваецца ў псіхіятрычным шпіталі ў Навінках, куды ён накіраваны на прымусовую псіхіятрычную экспертызу, што мусіць цягнуцца 24 дні. Жонка актывіста распавяла пра ягоны цяперашні стан і пра тое, што адбывалася з ім папярэдне ў калоніі «Віцьба-3».

Georgian Bar Association and human rights defenders protest institutional persecution of lawyers in Georgia. The parliamentary majority avoids speaking about it. Minority representative, deputy chair of the Parliament’s Human Rights Committee Dimitry Lortkipanidze rebuked the Public Defender for not having reflected the facts of lawyers’ rights violation in his annual report.

The European Court of Human Rights delivered the judgement in the case of Kaperzyński versus Poland. The case concerned a conviction for the failure to publish a correction to a press article. The Court held unanimously that the criminal liability for the failure to publish a correction violated the freedom of speech.

The Polish Council for Foreigners decided to expel a homosexual from Uganda to his home country. The Council upheld a decision of the Head of the Office for Foreigners who refused to grant the foreigner a refugee status or other type of protection. The Ugandan came to Poland in August 2009 and applied for a refugee status. He claimed that in his country of origin he had been persecuted because of his sexual orientation

Lukpan Akhmedyarov, Uralskaya nedelya journalist, was attacked by a group of three men on the night of 19-20 April near the porch of his house. Akhmedyarov is known for his criticism of the government and his participation in protests.

The World Bank’s policies for land privatisation and concentration have paved the way for corporations from Wall Street to Singapore to take over 80 million hectares of land from rural communities across the world in the past few years, says farmers’ movement and its international allies in a collective statement released at the opening of the World Bank’s Conference on Land and Poverty in Washington, D.C.