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On 24 June, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted resolution “The functioning of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan?” that was prepared by Monitoring Committee Co-rapporteurs on Republic of Azerbaijan Andreas Herkel and Joseph Debono Grech.

Despite being a member of the Council of Europe for almost ten years, the lack of democracy, a fair judicial system, free media and a free civil society is imminent. Several national and international human rights organizations draw the attention to the serious human rights violations taking place in the Republic of Azerbaijan in a statement issued this week. Right, Azerbaijan’s parliament in session.

This week the Norwegian Helsinki Committee presents its report on Nakchivan at the winter session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE). NHC’s Berit Lindeman and Vugar Gojaev accompanies the 2009 Rafto award winner Malahat Nasibova from Nakhchivan and her husband. Ane Bonde of the Human Rights House Foundation is also part of the delegation.

There is an on-going debate in the Polish press presently concerning the importance of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) for the effective functioning of Polish democracy. Agnieszka Graff, a well-known Polish feminist, in a publication “Bureaucrats without hearts, without souls” (“Gazeta Wyborcza” 6 January 2010) formulated a number of critical remarks addressed at Non-Governmental Organizations in the Republic of Poland.

From 13 to 20 January the Belarusian-Lithuanian-Swedish group visited Ukraine for the presidential election. Participants of the Election Observation: Theory and Practice project went to Odessa, Donetsk, Kyiv and Lviv regions to see for themselves the election campaign for the head of the neighbouring state.

On January 26, 2010, the Human Rights Centre organized a press conference on the fact of physical assault of the HRIDC’s regional coordinator Saba Tsitsikashvili, right, by the security guard of the Shida Kartli Regional Administration. The incident occurred on January 22 when the journalist visited the regional administration to get the public information he had requested several days before.

Organisation ‘Article 19’ condemns the conviction of four Vietnamese pro-democracy activists, including leading human rights lawyer, Le Cong Dinh, 20 January 2010. ‘Article 19’ also expresses its grave concern about increasing repression of activists and an accompanying clampdown on freedom of expression in Vietnam, ahead of the Communist Party congress due to take place next year.

According to Inger Lise Husøy, Director of Norwegian Burma Committee, the international sanctions against Burma are weak and uncoordinated. She says that time is not ripe for a suspension of the sanctions policy toward Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar), but contrary – sanctions should include oil and gas. At the same time she is more liberal concerning the import of clothing from Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar).

The Uyghur American Association (UAA) fears that the near doubling of the security budget for East Turkestan will broaden the scope of the ongoing official repression of Uyghurs and exacerbate ethnic tensions in the region, UAA claims Beijing fails to acknowledge the deep social and developmental inequalities that contributed to the unrest in the regional capital of East Turkestan in July 2009.