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On 2 March 2010 the European Court of Human Rights issued an interesting sentence in the case Adamkiewicz v. Republic of Poland (Application No. 54729/00).

The Supreme Court should hear appeals against assembly bans. On 3 May 2007 the European Court of Human Rights pronounced a sentence in the case “Bączkowski and others v. Poland” (complaint no. 1543/06), concerning the ban put on the Warsaw Pride Parade in 2005.

English PEN welcomes the release of editor and Catholic priest Father Nguyen Van Ly on 15 March 2010 on medical grounds. However, PEN remains concerned that his release is conditional, and that he is expected to return to prison in March 2011 to complete his full eight-year prison term. PEN encourages sending appeals to Vietnamese authorities calling for his unconditional release.

Amnesty International presented the document, “No end in sight: The ongoing suffering of Somalia’s civilians”, in which organisation reviews violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed over the past six months in the Republic of Somalia.

European companies are participating in the global trade in types of equipment widely used in torture or other ill-treatment, according to evidence presented in a new report by Amnesty International and the Omega Research Foundation released on March 16. In the full version of the report Georgia is also mentioned. More precisely, the report states that Georgia purchased torture tools from Germany and Czech Republic.

Human rights defenders were detained during a street action against the death penalty in Minsk on 23 March. They were apprehended by the presidential security services and later transported to a police precinct. Now they are awaiting a court decision for ‘violating rules of conducting mass gatherings,’ Article 23.34 of the Civil Code. Ales Bialiatski, Iryna Toustsik and Valiantsin Stefanovich will spend a night before a trial incarcerated.

English PEN protests the detention without charge of leading journalist and human rights activist Emadeddin Baghi. Baghi is among over fifty writers and journalists currently detained in Islamic Republic of Iran, many of whom were arrested in the crackdown following the disputed presidential elections of 12 June 2009.

Macedonian Women’s Rights Center – MWRC attended the seminar in Kotor, Montenegro, along with few other organizations from the region, on fundraising and donorship. A four-day seminar was held in organization of the Swedish Foundation Kvinna Till Kvinna and CIRa (Center for Institutional Development) from Skopje, in the second half of March.

On 17 March Belarusian HRH hosted a documentary screening dedicated to Yana Paliakova, a human rights defender. One year ago she took her own life. Besides showing the tragic story of young woman’s suicide the film author asked a broader question as to who the Belarusian HR defenders were and what kind of problems they encountered working in the Republic of Belarus.