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RRCHR in cooperation with Council of Europe will hold conference ‘Respect for Human Rights in Closed Establishments of Russia’. The participants will focus on such issues as progress and difficulties in work of Public Supervising Committees, analysis of the situation in colonies for juveniles and psychiatric hospitals and best practices of civil society’s monitoring of closed establishments, national and international experience.

According to the recent media reports the police officers were ordered to remove banners with ‘anti-government slogans’ held up by football fans protesting against the government’s decision to close certain stadiums. The HFHR is convinced that the presence of ‘anti-government slogans’ written on banners does not, on its own, authorise the law enforcement agencies to intervene in the protest.

Prosecutor Jerzy Mierzewski has been removed from investigating secret CIA prisons in Poland – currently, one of the most important case in Poland that may affect the political elites. The decision was unexpected and now serious concerns appear about the future of the investigation. The decision of removing Jerzy Mierzewski was very unexpected and surprising.

Two unjust epochs; two stories of the high price paid for a commitment to human rights. In The House of Exile – a story of love, loss and war, which won the Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award – Evelyn Juers recounts the life of Heinrich Mann, activist and writer, forced into exile after his books were burned in Nazi Germany.

On May 23, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) publishes a new report on Georgia with the title, Unable or Unwilling? Georgia’s faulty investigation of crimes committed during the Russo-Georgian war of August 2008. Based on interviews with a large sample of witnesses to and victims of alleged crimes, the NHC concludes that Georgian authorities are at least both partly unable and partly unwilling to conduct an effective investigation into crimes falling within the jurisdiction of International Criminal Court (ICC) allegedly committed during and after the August 2008 war.

English PEN welcomes the conviction and sentencing of two people in connection to the 2009 double murder of freelance journalist Anastasiya Baburova and human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, in a trial described by the Committee to Protect Journalists as ‘a landmark victory in the fight against impunity in press killings in Russia’.

Freedom House downgraded Ukraine from Free to Partly Free in its “Freedom in the World 2011 rankings”. Until that point, Ukraine had been the only non-Baltic former Soviet state ranked in the Free category. International experts remark that new president’s government reveals authoritarian tendencies in the country. The negative effects have included a more restrictive environment for the media, selective prosecution of opposition figures, etc.

Chairwoman of European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights Heidi Hautala sent on 18 April a letter to Minister of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan concerning reports over human rights violations in the country. She urged the authorities to halt the violent repression of demonstrators and tackle the prevailing impunity for attacks against journalists. Read full letter below.

The Human Rights House Foundation, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Rafto Foundation have appealed to the Crown Prince of Norway not to participate at the Caspian Oil and Gas Exhibition in Baku 6-7 June. The three organizations fear that the visit can be misused by the Azerbaijani authorities. Read the full letter, in Norwegian, below.

Bosnia is going through its worst political crisis since the war ended in 1995. “This is no short term negative trend, but a long development,” said UN’s High Representative for Bosnia, Valentin Inzko, in the UN Security Council 9 May. The authorities of Republika Srbska, the Serb dominated half of the country, continues to work for a dissolution of the state and is putting the state institutions under pressure.

Why did the African Union (AU) fail to obtain unified support for the UN mandated humanitarian intervention in Libya? What does this tell us about the AU position on humanitarian intervention and protection of civilians in these conflicts?

Фундацыя Дамоў правоў чалавека і Беларускі Дом правоў чалавека прадпрымаюць рашучыя дзеянні для таго, каб на чэрвеньскай сэсіі Рады па правах чалавека ААН была прынятая рэзалюцыя па сітуацыі ў Беларусі і прызначаны Спецдакладчык па сітуацыі з правамі чалавека ў краіне.