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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.

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.

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 Norwegian Helsinki Committee invites you to the seminar: Five years after Anna Politkovskaya’s death- The legacy of Anna

Over the last year, the human rights defenders in the Russian Federation, South Caucasus and Central Asia have faced increased and more sophisticated pressure from the authorities. In this panel, representatives from human rights organizations in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kirghizstan and the Russian Federation will give examples about the challenges they and their colleagues are facing in their daily work for the defense of human rights.

A number of human rights organizations prepared and sent a letter of concern on inadmissibility of death penalty to international institutions by reason of the trials of Uladzislau Kavaliou and Dzmitry Kanavalau, accused of organizing terrorist attacks in Belarus. Belarusian HRH joined the statement.

The Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) voiced its concerns about the human rights situation in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kenya at the UN Human Rights Council session.

Шэраг праваабарончых і грамадскіх арганізацый падрыхтавалі і накіравалі да міжнародных структур зварот аб недапушчальнасці смяротнага пакарання з нагоды суду над Уладзіславам Кавалёвым і Дзмітрыем Канавалавым, якіх абвінавачваюць у арганізацыі тэрактаў у Беларусі.

On July 5, 2011 the Georgian parliament amended the Civil Code in an expedited way, within 5 working days, allowing religious organizations in Georgia to be registered as legal entities of public law. Some experts consider that the Georgian Parliament approved the amendment through violations of the bylaws. They also deem that amendment allows large interpretation of the norm, thus it requests better formulation.

September 21 is an International Day of Peace. The Human Rights House Tbilisi dedicated the Peace Week to this day. Within a week, the HRHT organized several different events during a week, starting from September 21 to 23.

As world leaders gathering in New York for United Nations General Assembly, one of the most controversial political figures, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, once again attracted attention by his populist statements in the General Assembly. However the president said nothing about continuing violations of human rights by his own regime. Iran remains to be one of the worst places in the Middle East with regard to women’s, rights, freedom of expression and other fundamental human rights set in the Universal Human Rights Declaration