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Asylum seekers without documents – what do they risk when they are expressing themselves freely?

Two weeks before Presidential election in Russia, board of directors of the independent radio station Ekho Moskvy was changed. This week the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office announced that the online television station Dozhd TV was under investigation to determine who financed the channel’s broadcasts of anti-Kremlin demonstrations. French journalist and author Anne Nivat expelled from the country for interviewing opposition.

Rafto Laureate 2011 Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) by Frank Mugisha gravely opposes the Parliament’s re-tabling of Hon. David Bahati’s notorious “Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2009 on 7 February 2012 at the opening of the 9th Parliament.

In January 2012 Minsk Court upheld the custodial sentence of four and a half years in a penal colony for Ales Belyatsky, the head of Human Rights Centre Vesna. Mr Belyatsky’s wife has paid $90,000 to an account of the court, the sum the activist was ordered to pay by the first-instance as alleged tax arrears. The money had been collected through voluntary donations made during a fund raising campaign launched by Belarusian human rights defenders.

There are a number of worrying signs that indicate that the focus on greater modernization and investment can easily derail the human rights achievements, says UN expert Maina Kiai.

Віцебскі актывтіст Сяргей Каваленка (на фота) быў затрыманы 19 снежня і дагэтуль трымае галадоўку на знак пратэсту супраць свайго затрымання і прадстаўленых абвінавачанняў. Гэта дрэнна ўплывае на яго здароўе і непакоіць грамадскую супольнасць. Еўрапейскія і беларускія палітыкі і праваабаронцы заклікаюць Сяргея спыніць галадаванне.

An activist from Vitsebsk Siarhei Kavalenka (right) was arrested on 19 December and since than has been keeping hunger strike protesting against his detention and the charges brought against him. It is dangerous for his health and the civic society is worried about the situation. European and Belarusian politicians and human rights defender called upon Siarhei to stop the hunger strike.

The authoritarian Central Asian state’s leader, who assumed power in 2006 after the death of eccentric President Saparmurat Niyazov, faces seven loyal members of the elite on the ballot, none of whom dared to criticise him during the campaign. In turn Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is predicted to win vote with critics branding rival candidates as token challengers

The relatives of Uladzislau Kavaliou, who was convicted of the death penalty, have sent complaint on the right to life violation to the UN Committee on Human Rights however the Belarusian side considered the complaint invalid as not all national remedies had been used. At the same time it is simply impossible to exhaust all national remedies – the convicted person learns that he was refused a pardon just a few minutes before death.

Russian authorities ordered to block the website of a public health organization, the Andrey Rylkov Foundation, for discussing the addiction medicine methadone. “Now, even our speaking about it seems to be banned”, says president of the foundation. Human rights organizations, including Article 19, interpret the move as an assault on freedom of expression.

Блізкія Уладзіслава Кавалёва, асуджанага на смяротнае пакаранне, накіравалі ў Камітэт правоў чалавека ААН скаргу аб парушэнні права на жыццё, аднак беларускі бок палічыў скаргу непрымальнай праз нявычарпанасць ўсіх нацыянальных сродкаў абароны. Пры гэтым вычарпаць усе нацыянальныя сродкі абароны проста немагчыма – асуджаны даведваецца пра тое, што яму адмоўлена ў памілаванні за некалькі хвілінаў да смерці.

Katarzyna Barszczewska, a woman suffering from cerebral palsy, and her partner came last year to a local Register Office to arrange for their marriage ceremony. The registrar refused to solemnize the couple’s marriage and referred the case to the court. In January 2012 the court consented to the marriage between Katarzyna Barszczewska and her partner.