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The Human Rights House Foundation and the Swedish Helsinki Committee have urged the Nakhchivanian authorities in a letter to recall all charges against the secretary of the election commission, Nushabe Gafarly. Gafarly, arrested after refusing to sign protocols on the parliamentary elections, which were marked by numerous irregularities. After being pressured she eventually did sign the protocols. In spite of this she is being prosecuted now. Read the protest letter here. (16-DEC-05)
 

On the 6-th of December there was created the Public Research Commission by the initiative of human rights defenders and lawyers. The Commission is to investigate the cases of violence, occurred on the 26 November protest action. The final output of the Commission will be the public opinion report on the basis of the data, collected during the research. On the 13-th of December at the first reporting meeting of the Commission there were outlined the preliminary results of the work. (14-DEC-2005)

On the 10-th of December – the International Human Rights Day, human rights activists all over the world are organizing the events. One of the global actions, taking place in numerous world countries is the 24h Letter Writing Marathon, initially organized by the Amnesty International. For the second time Republic of Azerbaijan took part in this campaign and raised the voice in defence of dozens of people, whose rights had been violated (13-DEC-2005).

Marking the 10th anniversary of the work of the Nansen Dialogue project, one of the in-house organisations of the Human Rights House in Oslo, the network that has emerged throughout the last decade hosted a seminar yesterday entitled ‘Dialogue – more than words’. The seminar also saw the official launch of a book, bearing the same title as the seminar, about the network’s history and activities. (14-DEC-05)
 

Since  10 December 1948  the International Day of Human Rights is celebrated around the world.“The situation of human rights in the Republic of Belarus is extremely tense”, — stated a doctor of juridical science,- “it is hard to find any political rights stated in the Declaration that are not violated in the Republic of Belarus.That’s why, pitifully enough, we meet this day with pity instead of joy”, — he concluded.” The pitiful situation of human rights is confirmed with the commentaries of Stsiapan Sukharenka, chair of the Belarusian KGB, concerning the amendments to the Criminal Code that will be enforced on 20 December (the Day KGB worker). (13-DEC-05)

The British government should publish the minutes of a meeting where George Bush said he wanted to bomb the Arab satellite station al-Jazeera, regardless of the consequences, a tabloid journalist at the heart of the story has said. Index on Censorship’s Andrew Walker reports (08-DEC-05).

Marking the December 10 as an International Day of Human Rights the CHC warned public about the increase of human rights violations in Republic of Croatia. For the first time since 1996 the human right situation in the Republic of Croatia deteriorated seriously, said Zarko Puhovski, Chairman of the CHC. (12-DEC-05)
 

On the occasion of 10 December, the International Day of Human Rights, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina wishes to draw attention of all levels of government and of the public to the unacceptably poor status of the Roma minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (10-DEC-05)
 
 

The Human Rights House Foundation and Norwegian P.E.N. as well as  the Norwegian Helsinki Committee have requested minister of foreign affairs to protest against the bill to tighten control on Russia’s civil society. The law would dramatically restrain Russia’s civil society. They fear the law is aimed at human rights NGOs that are criticizing the government policy in the Chechen Republic.The international support is very important for the civil society, the director of Russian Research Center, Liubov Vinogradova says. (20-DEC-05)