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A lawyer for the family of a Chechen woman murdered by former army Colonel Yury Budanov was shot dead Monday in central Moscow after holding a news conference decrying Budanov’s early release from prison last week.

Unnamed Macedonian government sources told local media that more restrictive legislation on abortion is in the works, with tighter rules for abortion including seeking the opinion of the fetus’s father.

Republic of Croatia made modest improvements in human rights in 2008, motivated by its desire to join the European Union, but it has yet to fully address obstacles to the return and reintegration of Serbs. The impartiality and effectiveness of domestic war crimes prosecutions remains in doubt. The closure of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe mission in December 2007 created a human rights monitoring gap.

Mladen Mimic (on right), human rights defender and president of Association Milicanin, gives an interview for HRH Sarajevo after being heavily physically attacked in March last year for promoting and defending human rights in the Republic of Srpska.

“Authorization in the Polish Media Law” was the title of a conference organized on 13 January 2009 at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw. Journalists, lawyers and academics discussed whether the new media law which introduces obligatory authorization of media stataments (e.g. in interviews) violates freedom of speech.

As operation ‘Lightening Thunder’ enters its second month, many are questioning the value of the military campaign waged by Republic of Uganda and its allies against the Lord’s Resistance Army. Republic of Uganda was unable for 20 years to defeat the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) or capture their leader Joseph Kony, right, who with his top commanders has been sought by the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity since July 2005.

Today, researchers from Human Rights Watch and the Congolese human rights organisation Justice Plus revealed detailed information on the slaughter of 620 civilians and the abduction of 160 over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2008. Right, archive picture of an abducted child turned LRA soldier.

Lawyers of the Belarusian Association of Journalists do not hope for improvements in the area of freedom of expression this year.

Юрысты Беларускай асацыяцыі журналістаў не спадзяюцца на сёлетняе паляпшэнне сітуацыі са свабодай слова ў краіне.