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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev signed a new decree pardoning 54 prisoners on 30 December, as the country prepared to celebrate the Day of Solidarity of Azeris around the world on New Year’s Eve. It was the fifth amnesty decree signed by Aliev since his election to the presidency in October 2003. (4-DEC-2005)

West-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko took a landslide victory on Monday in Ukraine´s presidential re-election.  The leading Eastern town of Donetsk remained quiet so far reports the HRH project coordinator Vugar Gojayev from Donetsk.  (27-DEC-2004)
 

On 26 December about three thousand Polish observers, sent by the OSCE and ENEMO, the student organisation Free Ukraine, the political parties Law and Justice and the Freedom Union, monitored the repeat second round of the presidential election in the Ukraine. (30-DEC-04)
 

4 403 871 Croatian citizens with the right to vote chose new Croatian president on January 2nd 2005. Apart from few exceptions, the elections were conducted according to the national  election law and international standards. Appropriate organization by the State Election Commission and Polling Station Commissions also contributed to the overall calm atmosphere. (03-JAN-05)
 

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev signed a new decree granting amnesty to 54 prisoners on 30 December, as the country prepared to celebrate the Day of Solidarity of Azeris around the world on New Year’s Eve. It was the fifth amnesty decree signed by Aliev since his election to the presidency in October 2003. (4-DEC-2005)

On the elections held on January 2nd 2005 4 403 871 croatian citizens with the rigth to vote chosed new Croatian president. Appart from few exceptions, the elections were conducted according to the electional law and international standards. Appropriate organization of the elections by the State Election Commission and Polling Station Commissions also contributed to the overall calm atmosphere. (03-JAN-05)
 

The OSCE has set up a fact-finding mission to monitor the Azerbaijani lands occupied by Republic of Armenia. The mission includes the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and representatives from Germany, Italy, Finland, Sweden as well as the OSCE Secretariat, a diplomatic source told AssA-Irada. The mission is scheduled to arrive in Baku late in January-early in February 2005 to further visit Upper Garabagh and monitor the occupied lands. A report will be prepared after the monitoring is over. Republic of Azerbaijan has lost control over Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s after a bloody conflict with Republic of Armenia. (3-JAN-2005)

A new series of seminars on freedom of expression will be held in the Rafto House in 2005, organized by the Department of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of Bergen and the Rafto Foundation. Three topics are to be viewed from different perspectives: Freedom of expression in a global perspective, the framework for freedom of expression in Norway, and the overall ?fitness? of the Norwegian public generally. (31-DEC-2004)
 

The third volume in the Rafto Human Rights Series has recently been published. The title of the book is “Prospects for Peace, Security and Human Rights in Africa?s Horn”. This volume deals with the prospects for peaceful change, human rights and state-building in the Horn of Africa.  (30-DEC-2004)