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On 12-13 November Belarusian HRH hosted the first meeting of the Belarusian human rights defenders with Miklós Haraszti, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus.

Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights received the Honorary Leader of Trust title awarded by the Law & Partners Foundation. The Leader of Trust recognition is the first designation in Poland presented to professional entities offering legal services and media sources and organisations operating on the market of dedicated legal services which are awarded from the perspective of clients, recipients and society.

12 – 13 лістапада ў Беларускім ДПЧ прайшла першая сустрэча беларускіх праваабаронцаў са спецыяльным дакладчыкам ААН па сітуацыі з правамі чалавека ў Беларусі Міклашам Харашці.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has addressed the Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data on the issue of entering personal data in case lists displayed in courts. The HFHR requests the IGPPD to consider bringing this problem to the attention of the Minister of Justice.

Last week Baku hosted the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) – a global UN-initiated forum debating the future of internet freedom. At the time there were nine journalists and three human rights defenders held in jail in Azerbaijan. Five of these cases are linked to online criticism of authorities.

On 30 October Mazyr circuit court ruled to transfer the leader of the Young Front Zmitser Dashkevich (right) from Mazyr colony to the supermax jail. Since then and up to 8 November, the whereabouts of Zmitser remained unknown.

Coming from a country where an equivalent of one Exxon Valdez volume of crude oil is spewed into our environment yearly, it is inescapably clear that the petroleum sector is a very polluting one. It is obvious that there cannot be this level of ecological impunity without human rights being considerably trampled on, said the 2012 Rafto Prize laureate Nnimmo Bassey in his keynote address at the Rafto Conference on 3 November.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has issued recommendations to the Togo state urging it to ensure that land contracts with foreign companies do not result in forced eviction, internal displacement, or the increased food insecurity of women and girls.

Norwegian Helsinki Committee is concerned with the reports that a conference aiming at discussing freedom of the internet allows restrictions on contributions from civil society – input that would contribute to a more open and relevant discussion, says Bjørn Engesland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

On 2 April 1997, while covering a protest against the proposed reunification of Belarus with Russia, a Belarusian journalist Iryna Khalip witnessed her father, a documentary filmmaker, get beaten unconscious. She herself was clubbed by riot police. That incident only galvanized her to continue to expose corruption in Belarus, especially as a journalist for the Minsk bureau of the investigative paper Novaya Gazeta (the paper of slain reporter Anna Politkovskaya).

The Open Society Justice Initiative has submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Sergei Magnitsky’s mother. Mr Magnitsky was a Russian attorney who died in prison arrested in the wake of unveiling a corruption scandal allegedly implicating high-ranking Russian officials.

According to press reports, in March 2012 the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent about 30 income tax returns to Belarusian opposition activists. The documents, mailed to Belarus, disclosed income from per diems paid during a conference in Warsaw. The reports were commented by Danuta Przywara, President of the HFHR: