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The leader of the youth organization “Young Front” Zmitser Dashkevich was sentences today to 1.5 year of imprisonment because of “acting on behalf of unregistered organization”.  The cruel verdict has been passed in a closed trial by a judge Ala Bulash. Belarusian civil society expresses the active protest against the tough sentence and the existing of this Criminal Code article as such. (1-NOV-06)
  

Concern is mounting that moves by the United Nations aimed at curbing xenophobia in the media could be used to attack the freedom of the press in some countries. The United Nations’ willingness to use the word ‘defamation’ in conjunction with religion gives cover to countries that want to use blasphemy laws to target the independent media. In light of the jailing of journalists following the publication of cartoons which depicted the prophet Mohammed, free press campaigners are warning that the casual deployment of the phrase may mortally wound objective media outlets in some countries. (27-OCT-06)
 

Political aggravation of the Russian-Georgian relationship turned into mass violations of   human rights. People, who have nothing to do with politics suffer from ethnic discrimination and humiliating check-ups. Police detains all Georgians regardless of their citizenship, age and social status. (26-OCT-06)
 

-In recent years, the People´s Republic of China has gone from bad to worse, growing ever more indifferent or even arrogant to whatever messages the country gets, be it directly from various trading partners around the world, or in international fora, including the UN. What is taking place, is something close to ethnic cleansing, Rebiya Kadeer stressed during the meeting at the Oslo Human Rights House yesterday. (31-OCT-06)
 

Just over a year since she was last here, the Human Rights House in Oslo yesterday received Rebiya Kadeer, the leading Uyghur minority human rights and democracy defender. Seemingly recovered from the car ramming outside her home in Washington DC in January, her message was unmistakeably clear: If the world doesn´t put pressure on the People´s Republic of China to change its policies towards its minorities, within twenty years, they will all be threatened with eradication. (31-OCT-06)
 

24 october, the day the world observes the official establishment of United Nations, marks a sad anniversary for Burma’s Nobel Peace prize laureate and defender of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, right. Today, she has been kept under house arrest for an accumulated eleven years since 1989. (24-OCT-06)
 

New countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies in the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, issued today. The index shows that while the most repressive countries are still the same ones, the United States and Japan slip further; the Russian Federation remains just out of the bottom 20, below countries like Republic of Somalia. Uganda´s 36-places-drop to 116th is also remarkable. (24-OCT-06)
 

Yesterday afternoon, members of the Tibetan diaspora were joined by Norwegian human rights activists and other sympathizers in a peaceful demonstration in front of the Norwegian Parliament drawing attention to the 30 September shooting of Tibetan refugees by Chinese border guards as they tried to cross over to Nepal. See the pictures from the demonstration and read Amnesty International´s urgent action appeal below. (24-OCT-06)
 

Two years ago famous Belarusian journalist Veranika Charkasava was atrociously killed at her own apartment. The circumstances of an offence are still unknown. The killer is not searched out. The authorities insist on the domestic crime version. In a view of the subjects Veranika worked on and the Belarusian authorities’ attitude towards independent journalists’ professional activity, we may assume this crime will not be solved at the time of current regime existing.  (20-OCT-06)