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ARTICLE 19 has recently analysed Kazakhstan’s 2008 draft Law on Publishing Activities and suggested it for the reconsideration by the Kazakh authorities. The major concern with the existing draft was the authorities’ proposed registration and licensing scheme for a wide range of publishing activities and the rigid approach to relations between authors and publishers that it would impose.

In late September, the Swiss Association against Impunity (TRIAL – Track Impunity Always) lodged six cases before the European Court of Human Rights. The cases concern a massacre that took place on 21 August 1992 at Mount Vlasic, in which around 200 civilians were killed.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights is one of this year’s winners of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Award. The Prize is awarded for active involvement in peaceful coexistence and cooperation of communities, religions and denominations, and cultures. Right, de Mello, who was killed in a bomb attack in Baghdad in August 2003.

Widespread corruption scandals by judges and magistrates and inappropriate political interference in the judicial systems are denying people their right to a fair and impartial trial, said High Court Judge Stella Arach in an interview yesterday. Arach elaborated that the lower courts are the most affected with many magistrates receiving bribes from litigants.

On Tuesday 21 October, the Bergen International Film Festival and the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, will organise a movie and discussion seminar for pupils of secondary schools in the Bergen region. The focus will be on human rights violations in Burma and two movies will be used to illustrate the struggle of the citizens of Burma with their government.

The independent organisation Journaliste En Danger, JED, is extremely concerned about the safety of Radio Okapi’s Bunia correspondent Jean-Paul Basila, who has been the object of recent threats by officers with the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC).

According to Novaya Gazeta, an attempt has been made in France on the life of Russian human rights lawyer and World Movement participant Karinna Moskalenko, right. On October 13, the prosecutor in Strasbourg launched an investigation into the placement of mercury, a potent poison, into Ms. Moskalenko’s car. Ms. Moskalenko noticed that her health, and the health of her husband and children, has been deteriorating over the past week, but she does not know for sure when the car was contaminated.

Margaret Sekaggya, right, the newly appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders and the chairperson of the Republic of Uganda Human Rights Commission was honored yesterday with a public lecture on the UN Special Rapporteur mandate she has jut taken over. The lecture was organized by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

On 4 October, members of the security forces arrested Negin Sheikholeslami, a human rights activist and journalist from the Kurdish minority in Islamic Republic of Iran, at her home in Tehran. Sheikholeslami is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, says the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan (HROK).