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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)
 

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)

– It is with great shock, deep sorrow and almost with a feeling that “this cannot be possible”, that we are witnessing the Tsunami tragedy, said Secretary General Nora Sveaass of the International Society of Health and Human Rights (ISHHR) about the horrific tragedy in South Asia. (30-DEC-04) 
 

Thousands of Russian women are killed or injured every year in domestic violence, a United Nations expert has said in an appeal urging the Russian government to prioritize women´s rights. (29-DEC-04)
 

On December 9, in the building of the Swedish parliaent the cermony of rewarding the premium for the “Rights Livelihood Award” 2004 has passed. There were three members of the International Society “Memorial” among the winners. (23-DEC-04)

West-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko took an landslide victory on Monday in Ukraine´s re-run presidential election. With about 97 percent of Sunday´s ballot counted, election officials said Yushchenko had a statistically unbeatable lead, with almost 53 percent against just under 44 percent for Moscow-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, whose campaign manager said there had been three million illicit votes and did not rule out legal challenges that could delay a final official result for days, reports HRH project coordinator Vugar Gojayev from Donetsk.  (27-DEC-2004)
 

Human Rights Center “Against Violence” (AVHRC) has monitored the pre-election, Election Day and post- Election situation on municipalities in the Republic of Azerbaijan and reports about more irregularities (23-DEC-04).