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Reporters Without Borders has named U Win Tin, right, “Journalist of the Year” for his commitment to freedom of the press in Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar).  U Win Tin, a 76-year-old Burmese journalist, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for “subversion” and “anti-government propaganda” in 1989. -The Norwegian Burma Committee warmly welcomes RSF’s choice, says information officer Åse Sand. -Burma is one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world and among the worst violators of press freedom. (05-FEB-07)
  

Human rights campaigners have appealed to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to suspend Kenya´s membership for continuing to resist efforts to reform its archaic labour laws. The laws fail to address issues of employment, occupational health and safety or work injuries among others — seriously undermining the constitutional rights of Kenyans. Photo: In the Republic of Kenya, field work is often female work. (05-FEB-07)
 

February 5, 2007 will mark the 10th anniversary of brutal crackdown on a peaceful demonstration in the city of Gulja in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People´s Republic of China. Dozens of people were killed during the crackdown; hundreds, possible thousands, lost their lives or were seriously injured in the unrest that occurred the following day. (01-FEB-07)
 

Tibetans – mostly children – detained at the time of a fatal shooting of a Tibetan nun on the Tibet-Nepal border last September were beaten and held in detention for periods ranging from several days to several months, according to new information that has reached the International Campaign for Tibet. (01-FEB-07)
  Read also: Tibet: How to stifle the opposition
 

In practice, freedom of expression is yet to be a reality for a majority of people’, said Special Rapporteur Pansy Tlakula, who oversees the evolution of free expression in part of South Africa. As Chief Electoral Officer of the Electoral Commission of South Africa, she organizes elections by registering political parties and managing election funds. She calls this her full-time job, and it kept her busy in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006. (31-JAN-07) Photo: Independent Electoral Commission
 

Nobel laureate and South African anti-apartheid struggle hero Desmond Tutu today caught the Indian leadership unaware by strongly advocating independence for Tibet soon after receiving the coveted Gandhi Peace Prize. -Hugely important and very encouraging, says chair woman of the Norwegian Tibet Committee (NTC) Chungdak Koren, right, in Bruxelles last year on the event of the awarding of the Light of Truth Award by the international Campaign for Tibet, also to Bishop Tutu. (31-JAN-07)
 

On the 30th of January, a Lithuania-registered Human Rights House was opened in the capital of Vilnius. – We hope it will be a safe, creative and constructive contribution to the important work of the human rights and democracy movement in the Republic of Belarus and Lithuania, Maria Dahle, E.D. of the Human Rights House Foundation said in her opening speech. – An island of liberty, said Ales Bialiatski (right) from Republic of Belarus, where most human rights organisations are banned. (31-JAN-07)
 

On January 11th, an annual meeting of the RF President with members of the RF President Council for Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights was held. President Putin didn’t argue with human rights activists and agreed with all their proposals. (29-JAN-07)
 

The consequences of the NGO’s law and the media situation were among the themes president Putin discussed with members of the Russian President Council for Development of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights at the annual meeting on January 11th. — The President Council has been transformed into just another decoration of democratic society structure, said Liubov Vinogradova, Director of the Russian Research Center for Human Rights.  (29-JAN-07)