Latest

Media rights watchdogs have long criticised the conditions under which journalists in Zimbabwe operate. Since the start of the year, however, the circumstances of the country’s media have become bleaker still. Earlier this month, President Robert Mugabe signed into law amendments to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

Thousands of Burmese migrant workers lived and worked in the coastal provinces struck by the tsunami. At least 2500 Burmese are expected killed in only one of the provinces. Another 4000 are missing, according to Burmese NGOs in Thailand. (21-JAN-05)
 

Frustrated by government?s insistence to enact the new constitution in 2008, civil society groups and some opposition political parties in Zambia have resorted to demonstrations and honking as a way of pressurising President Levy Mwanawasa to change his constitutional road map. (21-JAN-05)
 

As African women celebrate the rising number of nations ratifying the African Charter on Women?s Rights in Africa (the minimum required to bring it into force is fifteen, Nigeria being the most recent signatory), it is getting increasingly important to explain and simplify the obligations and potential benefits of its provisions to the member states. Linkages must also be drawn between this Protocol and other national and international instruments of policy or law. (21-JAN-05)
 

The Human Rights House is deeply concerned about the fate of Zelimkhan Murdalov, who dissapeared after he left his home in Grozny on 2 January 2001. After three years with suspensions the case will reopen in Grozny the 25 th of January(21-JAN-05).
 

Slowly, but surely, public opinion is turning against the death penalty also in Africa. Fifteen years ago, only one of the continent´s countries, the island of Cape Verde off Africa´s West Coast, had abolished it. Now, ten countries have outlawed the death penalty. Another ten no longer practice it, even if they have yet to deny themselves of the possibility by way of deleting it from their laws. (19-JAN-05)
  

US and Russian presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin will discuss the Upper Garabagh conflict in Bratislava, Slovakia in February, along with other issues, says US Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Elizabeth Jones. The two presidents will call for stepping up activity in resolving conflicts in the former Soviet Union countries, including the Garabagh problem, she said. (19-JAN-2005)

On January 20 it will be 15 years since a horrible tragedy that went down in Azerbaijan´s history as one of the remarkable stages in the national liberation movement.  In the early morning hours on January 20, 1990, atrocities were committed by 26,000 Soviet troops against civilians in Baku. They acted pursuant to a state of emergency declared by then Soviet leader Gorbachev and disclosed to the Azerbaijani people only after hundreds of peaceful residents laid wounded or dead in the streets of Baku. (19-JAN-2005)
 

The organisations in the emerging Human Rights House will organise a seminar in Minsk 18-19 of February 2005. The object is to familiarize Belarusian journalists, lawyers and judges with European standards of human rights. A delegation from the Norwegian PEN and the Huma Rights House Foundation will attend the seminar in Minsk. (20-JAN-05)