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The Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) condemn the excessive use of force by the police against peaceful anti-government protest in Tbilisi on the night of 26 May 2011.

What are the main challenges for the Ombudsman in Kazakhstan today, in a country that balances stability and economic development with the protection of international human rights?

Last week Kazakhstan deported to China an ethnic Uyghur wanted by Beijing for speaking up on torture and death in Chinese jails, placing his life in jeopardy. Ershidin Israil, 38, had sought sanctuary in Kazakhstan after fleeing his home in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as he was pursued by Chinese authorities who accuse him of “terrorism.”

With the emergence of economic problems such as lack of foreign currency, rising prices and shortage of goods, pressure put on Belarusian journalists has significantly increased, as government blames them for “creating buying fever.” Human rights defenders and journalists in Belarus and from abroad consider it a sign that the propaganda machine of the official Minsk “does not work anymore.”

The intermediate reports on the implementation of European Neighborhood Policy in 2010 were published on 26 May in Brussels. 12 country reports evaluate the progress made in the implementation of ENP Action Plan.

The author of the AntyKomor-pl website posted critical and satirical remarks regarding the incumbent Polish President Bronisław Komorowski. In the early morning of 17 May 2011, officers of the Internal Security Agency (Agencja Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego, ABW) searched the apartment of the website creator as part of an investigation into the allegation of a potential insult to the head of state.

On the evening of 4 June 2011, mayor of Warsaw-Ursynów district Piotr Guział hung a rainbow banner on the pole in front of the city hall. This event officially started the Diversity Week organized by this district. This rainbow flag is symbolic; it was put there by a local administration official and not by an NGO leader as a sign of civic disobedience. Its significance, however, is much broader.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has announced its annual Impunity Index. CPJ research shows that deadly, unpunished violence against journalists often leads to vast self-censorship in the rest of the press corps. From Somalia to Mexico, CPJ has found that journalists avoid sensitive topics, leave the profession, or flee their homeland to escape violent retribution.

International human rights and freedom of expression organisation Article 19 calls on the East African Community (EAC) to hold a special session on Uganda to discuss the country’s ongoing grave human right violations, including frequent attacks on freedom of expression.

As a result of the dispersal of the 26 May demonstration in Tblisi, 4 persons died (1 policeman and 3 civilians), tens of civilians were injured and, according to the Young Lawyers’ Association, 48 people are considered to have disappeared.

On 30-31 May the Russian Research Center for Human Rights in cooperation with Conference of International NGOs of the Council of Europe held a conference ‘Respect for Human Rights in Closed Establishments of Russia’ in Yekaterinburg.
Representatives of Council of Europe, member organizations of the Center, as well as other regional NGOs, members of Public Supervising Committees and media representatives discussed the results of the monitoring of human rights violations in closed establishments and the work of Public Supervising Committees.

Са з’яўленнем эканамічных праблем, недахопу замежнай валюты, росту цэн і дэфіцыту тавараў у Беларусі значна ўзмацніўся ціск на журналістаў, якіх улады абвінавацілі ў “стварэнні ажыятажу”. Праваабаронцы і журналісты ў Беларусі ды па-за яе межамі лічаць гэта знакам, што прапагандысцкая машына афіцыйнага Мінска “ўжо не спрацоўвае”.