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Rabab Amidane, right, is awarded the Norwegian Student’s Peace Prize for her work for human rights, students’ rights and peace in Western Sahara. Amidane is contributing to inform the world about the discrimination and the violence that the Sahrawis are exposed to by the Moroccan government. Even though Amidane uses peaceful means in her fight for human rights, she has been exposed to torture and arrested by the Moroccan police several times.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its African group, the Federation of African Journalists, today urged the Kenyan government to launch an immediate investigation into the murder of Francis Nyaruri, a Kenyan journalist whose decapitated and beaten body was found in a forest in the west of the country.

Djibril Bassolé, right, the United Nations and African Union (AU) joint chief mediator for the peace process in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region today expressed grave concern over renewed combat in the southern part of the vast region, saying it undermines hopes for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, right, said Tuesday she was alarmed by reports of the rapidly deteriorating conditions facing civilians in the Muhajeria area of South Darfur, where fighting between Government forces and the Sudanese Liberation Army/Mini Minawi faction (SLA/MM) against the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has resulted in civilian casualties and displaced some 30,000 people.

The Architecture Advisory Council in the Republic of Croatia is envisioned as a bureau where persons with disabilities and other interested citizens can get free professional advice regarding architectonic adjustments to people with disabilities. The Advisory Council provides professional help, not only to individuals and professioal institutions, but to other organizations that work on the disability issue as well.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) deplores the election of Libyan leader Mouammar Kadhafi as President of the African Union (AU).

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has ordered his staff to revise a controversial bill which would loosen the definition of treason. The draft legislation, earlier backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has been met with public outrage and criticism. Opponents say the bill harkens back to the days of Soviet repression, and could potentially allow authorities to brand any government critic a traitor. A group of prominent Russian rights activists defines the bill as “legislation in the spirit of Stalin and Hitler”.

In an official statement, the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) condemns a recent attack on the Pescanik internet site and the demolition of Pescanik’s radio programme author Svetlana Lukic’s car in a parking lot near the radio building.

It has been almost a year since the Polish prime minister Donald Tusk appointed Elzbieta Radziszewska for a Governmental Agent for Equal Legal Status. Her work, in particular lack of involvement in discrimination issues, has been strongly critized by NGOs.