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A new report released Monday by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and MONUC (the UN Mission in DR Congo) outlines a rolling series of attacks carried out over a ten-month period by the renegade armed group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), during which they killed at least 1,200 people, abducted 1,400 – including some 600 children and 400 women – and displaced a total of around 230,000 people. Right, LRA child soldiers in South Republic of the Sudan.

December in the Republic of Belarus was marred by a new wave of ideological coercion. In particular, a campaign of forced subscription to state-owned publications has begun. It is linked to a country wide subscription for 2010.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, delivered today the Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Sejdic and Finci versus Bosnia and Herzegovina, accusing B&H of discrimination towards national minorities. Sejdic and Finci complained of their ineligibility to stand for election to the House of Peoples and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the ground of their Roma and Jewish origin.

In 2009 the government, courts and the police have connived in the suppression of investigative journalism and scientific research. But campaigns for free expression are gaining ground. A summary of the year is suggested by John Kampfner, chief executive of Index on Censorship, for Guardian.

Today, 21 December, IRFS correspondent in Nakhchivan Elman Abbasov was invited to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Internal Affairs Ministry to make a statement as a witness regarding the harassment against the employees of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Democracy and NGO Development Resource Centre Ilgar Nasibov and Vafadar Eyvazov on 15 December 2009.

Снежань у Беларусі адзначыўся новай хваляй ідэалагічнага ціску ў рэгіёнах.
У прыватнасці, распачатая кампанія па прымусовай падпісцы на дзяржаўную прапаганду. У рукі журналістаў трапіў ліст начальніка ідэалагічнага аддзела Слонімскага райвыканкама з загадам ратаваць сітуацыю з кепскай падпіскай на дзяржаўныя газеты.

In Trebinje, the hardest thing today is to be Blazo Stevovic, the president of “Alternative Club Trebinje” and member of “Alliance for Fight Against Corruption and Criminal”.

Malahat Nasibova said her husband Ilgar Nasibov, right, and “Democracy and NGO development Resource Center” employee Vafadar Eyvazov suffer from rib fractures. The two men were trying to arrange a seminar in Nakhchivan State University to combat widespread corruption at the University but some fifty students of Sport faculty dragged them out and beat heavily.

The Human Rights House Foundation and the Human Rights Center Georgia nominates Saba Tsitsikashvili for the Index on censorship award. Saba Tsitsikashvili is a journalists and a human rights defender who lives and works in conflict region.