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The Colombian lawyer and human rights defender Alirio Uribe Muñ¯º¼STRONG>  (right) from el Colectivo de Abogados ?Jose Alvear Restrepo? visits Norway 20-23 November to ask for assistance to protect and support human rights defenders and victims of the 40-year armed conflict. (20-NOV-05) Norwegian language version
 

Baku: Crushed by the disastrous election results on 6 November, the Azeri opposition is slowly regaining its strength. Following protests and requests to organize new elections, it has reorganized itself into a new coalition, the Democratic Front. More than 20 000 joined the rally on Saturday the 19th of October in Baku (20-NOV-2005).
 

The Day of Political Prisoners is not a free holiday. But several thousand people gathered on 30 October to remember the millions of people who had suffered from the “Red Terror” for their thoughts and views during the soviet period. In Yekaterinburg, Nakhodka, Penza Rostov, Ryazan, Syktyvkar and Moscow people lit a candle and, in memory of the victims, stood for a minute of silence. (20-NOV-2005)

The latest OSCE status report recognizes this capacity increase as a result of the ongoing political reforms and a demonstration of the Government?s renewed commitment to fulfil its international obligations. As a consequence of the reforms, the progress in the development of political institutions in the Republic of Croatia, especially the police and the judiciary, as well as media has been noted. (19-NOV-05)

A court in Banja Luka has sentenced Dragan Radakovic, Drasko Krndija and Radoslav Knezevic, three former members of the Bosnian Serb police, to prison time ranging from 15 to 20 years for war crimes, i.e. murders of six Bosnian Muslim civilians during the war. This is the first verdict for war crimes at a court in Republika Srpska since the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended ten years ago. (18-NOV-05)

The Human Rights Monitoring Manual by Marek Nowicki and Zuzanna Fialova was translated to and published in Spanish. The publication was the result of the cooperation between Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR) and Inter-American Institute of Human Rights, Costa Rica. (18-NOV-05)

Norwegian journalists protest against total state clamp down on Belarusian private media. -The decision of the state-owned newspaper distribution company, Belposhta, to cease distribution of privately owned papers during the Presidential election year, is another serious blow to freedom of expression in the Republic of Belarus says Ann-Magrit Austenaa, right, president of the Norwegian Union of Journalists. Read the letter below (20-NOV-05).
 

The British human rights expert Prof. Bill Bowring was sceduled to monitor the trial of Russian-Chechen Friendship Society (RCFS) leader Stanislav Dimitrievskii in Nizhny Novgorod, but was refused entry to the Russian Federation without any explanation. Amnesty International is calling for the charges of Dimitrievskii to be dropped. The trial is postponed to the 25th of November. (18-NOV-05).
 

The International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia acquitted Wednesday in The Hague former commander of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 53-year-old Sefer Halilovic (right), of charges of responsibility for murders of Croat civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993. (17-NOV-05)