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Baku Court on Grave Crimes finished discussion of the case against Khadija Ismaylova, Azerbaijani journalist, on September 1, 2015. Judge Ramen Alakhvediev sentenced the journalist to imprisonment for 7.5 years. Ismaylova and her lawyers state the charges brought against her were fabricated and they would appeal the verdict at the Appeal Court. Appeal trial into the case scheduled on October 29, 2015 was postponed; on the one hand it was lawful but also vague decision.

In September 2015 a unique book was published: from the experience of the Belarusian human rights defenders it shows that international legal standards in the field of human rights can “work” even in a country such as Belarus.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka has begun his fifth five-year term. The final statistics of voting, announced by the Central Election Commission (83.5% for Lukashenka), were not surprising.
In contrast to the large-scale protests that took place in Belarus following the 2010 elections, these results were met with an apprehensive trickle of discontent consisting of a mere few hundred people who walked through the streets of Minsk and finished their protest with a prayer. Experts predict the end of the short-term thaw and the return to the pre-election regime of repressions and economic stagnation.

HRHN fears PACE’s election observation mission to Azerbaijan risks government control and unduly legitimising an illegitimate election.

On the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations, the UN General Assembly must take this opportunity to strongly reaffirm its support for human rights defenders.

У верасні 2015 года выйшла ў свет унікальная кніга, якая паказвае на вопыце беларускіх праваабаронцаў, што міжнародна-прававыя стандарты ў сферы абароны правоў чалавека могуць «працаваць» нават у такой краіне, як Беларусь.

Belarus for the first time since 1997 will provide the UN Human Rights Committee a report on the implementation of its international obligations. The list of issues reported on by the country to the Committee also includes the ones that have been recommended by the Belarusian human rights defenders.

Беларусь впервые с 1997 года предоставит в Комитет ООН по правам человека отчет о выполнении своих международных обязательств. В перечень вопросов, подготовленных для страны Комитетом, вошли и те, что были рекомендованы белорусскими правозащитниками.

On 15 October, the UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR) has confirmed the registration of the communication, submitted by the coordinator of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders Against the Death Penalty in Belarus” Andrei Paluda, on behalf of Siarhei Ivanou, who was sentenced to death.

15 кастрычніка Камітэт ААН па правах чалавека (КПЧ) пацвердзіў рэгістрацыю звароту каардынатара кампаніі “Праваабаронцы супраць смяротнага пакарання ў Беларусі” Андрэя Палуды, які з’яўляецца давераннай асобай асуджанага да смяротнага пакарання Сяргея Іванова.

On October 7, Board Chair of Human Rights House Tbilisi Nino Elbakidze presented the report on the state of human rights in Georgia at the presentation of the Universal Periodic Report (UPR) in the UN Human Rights Council. Two of HRHT member organizations – Article 42 of the Constitution and Georgian Center for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (GCRT) prepared the report for the UPR with the support of the Geneva Office of the Human Rights House Foundation.

FUTURE DOCS is a new European project of the WATCH DOCS IFF for documentarians and human rights defenders.