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In the wake of Ian Cobain’s recent book Cruel Britannia exposing Britain’s role in the development and use of torture, English PEN brings writers and campaigners together to ask how and to what extent they challenge the official line that the UK does not ‘participate in, solicit, encourage or condone’ torture.

Parliament of Georgia elected new ombudsman Ucha Nanuashvili on December 7th by 82 votes against 18. Ucha Nanuashvili has been heading a local NGO Human Rights Center for years. Recently he has been chosen as a chairman of board of the Human Rights House Tbilisi. HRHT interviewed Ucha Nanuashvili.

Journalist Anuna Bukia, an IDP from Sokhumi, Abkhazia, thinks it is difficult to be an IDP in Georgia not only because of social-economic factors but because of negative approach of the Georgian society towards internally displaced people.

“Anton’s Right Here”, the film début of the famous Russian film critic Lyubov Arkus has received the first prize of the 12th International Film Festival WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film. Apart from the prize for the Arkus’ documentary, the jury has awarded a special commendation to Ilan Metev’s “Sofia’s Last Ambulance”. The audience award went to ”Call Me Kuchu”.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Association for Legal Intervention called on Brig. Gen. Dominik Tracz, Chief Commissioner of the Border Guards, to change a practice of his agency that infringes the right to court exercisable by foreigners applying for the refugee status in Poland.

The director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, issued on 19 December the interim guidelines on how prosecutors should deal with comments made using social media. The guidelines are welcomed by free speech organizations but practical application remains to be seen.

Two years have passed since the presidential elections on 19 December 2010 in Belarus, which were remarkable for mass arrests and detentions of politicians and activists, some of whom are still imprisoned. On this occasion, human rights defenders presented their research, which indicated some details of those trials.

Amnesty International, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Association for Legal Intervention warn that the draft Foreigners Act fails to provide remedies against detaining immigrant children in prison-like guarded facilities. The coalition of the NGOs has been campaigning for several months seeking to ban the detention of foreign migrants’ children.

Shortly before 16:00 local time (13:00 CET time) on Wednesday 19 December 2012 police officers and investigation officers entered the premises of the Human Rights House Voronezh to conduct a search in all its offices. The Human Rights House Network calls upon Russian authorities to return all confiscated materials and stop harassing and intimidating human rights defenders.

Два гады прайшло з прэзідэнцкіх выбараў 19 снежня 2010 у Беларусі, якія былі адзначаныя масавымі арыштамі і затрыманнямі палітыкаў і грамадскіх актывістаў, некаторыя з іх дагэтуль знаходзяцца за кратамі. З гэтай нагоды праваабаронцы прадставілі свае даследаванні, у якіх пазначаныя дэталі тых судовых працэсаў.

NHC together with partner organisations Civil Society Institute and The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) call upon Armenian authorities to eliminate violations in the administration of justice and ensure the establishment of an independent judiciary and the rule of law. These steps are fundamental to the further democratic development of Armenia, and should be a prerequisite for any further engagement with the EU.

Three front line environmental rights activists-Bill McKibben, Nnimmo Bassey and Pablo Solon – have addressed an open letter to governments and their negotiators, stressing that to really address climate change, UNFCCC-COP18 should decide to leave under the soil more two-third of the fossil reserves, writes Allvoices