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The Ministry of Justice speaks about the overpopulation in prison facilities. According to the information provided, as of 7 September 2011 44,300 court rulings concerning 37,113 individuals were pending enforcement. This included 33,399 cases of violations of a prison committal warrant. In total, in the first half of 2011, there were 68,126 defendants with prison sentences who had not been committed to prisons.

On 20 September, the International Federation for Human Rights and the Human Rights House Foundation held a side event in Geneva on the prosecution of vice-president of the Federation and Chairman of the Human Rights Centre “Viasna” Ales Bialiatski, arrested on 4 August 2011.

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee regrets the decision of the National Security Council of the Serbian Parliament to ban Belgrade Pride 2011. The statement made by the Serbian president Boris Tadić that “This way the citizens and members of the LGBT population are protected” is a clear indicator that the rights of sexual and gender minorities are still not being taken seriously by Serbian authorities.

20 верасня ў Жэневе Міжнародная Федэрацыя за правы чалавека і Фундацыя дамоў правоў чалавека правялі паралельнае мерапрыемства на тэму крымінальнага пераследу віцэ-прэзідэнта Федэрацыі і старшыні Праваабарончага цэнтру “Вясна” Алеся Бяляцкага, арыштаванага 4 жніўня 2011 г.

Frank Mugisha-Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) will be awarded Rafto prize on November 6th

A delegation of the Human Rights House Foundation and Human Rights House Network´s members from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are taking part at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The delegation will have meetings with the country rapporteurs, the Commissioner for Human Rights and the rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in the Council of Europe.

FRITT ORD FOUNDATION and BORGEN PRODUCTION AS
Invite the public to a seminar at Saga Kino (Saga Cinema), Oslo
Thursday, 6 October 2011, 10.00–12.30

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed concern over the Deutsche Bank issue of Belarusian government bonds after the post-election crackdown in which seven of the nine presidential candidates and 600 opposition activists were jailed. She promised to contact the bank directly over the issue.

The 2011 Rafto Prize is awarded to Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). Frank Mugisha, Executive Director of SMUG, will receive the award on behalf of the organisation. The Prize is awarded to SMUG for its work to make fundamental human rights apply to everyone, and to eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights issued an open letter on 28 September, expressing their hope that the problem of the lack of respect for democracy principles and the necessity to introduce human rights protection guarantees in the Easter Partnership member states becomes a priority of the upcoming Warsaw Summit.

President of Poland signed the amendment to the Access to Public Information Act. Last week non-governmental organisations, including the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Polish Chamber of Press Publishers, the Stefan Batory Foundation, the E-state Foundation and Article 61 Association urged the President to veto the amendment or launch its constitutional review.

The Human Rights House Foundation, together with partner organisations from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and the Russian Federation, took part at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation meeting in Warsaw on 25-29 September 2011. It made several interventions, addressing human rights issues in the countries, co-organised side events on Belarus and protection of human rights defenders and organised a protest campaign against the arrest of Ales Bialiatski. Maria Dahle, the Executive Director of HRHF, opened the 3rd working session on freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association, national HR institutions and HR education.