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The Belarusian university in exile in Lithuania is inviting everybody to contribute to the Human Rights Day by donating blood and signing a manifesto for visa-free movement.

The embassy will be handed over tens of thousands of signatures on the protest letter to Liu Xiaobo, collected in Norway and internationally.

The banners for the demonstration will call “Free Liu Xiaobo!” and “Free all Prisoners of conscience in China”.

The procession will start with speeches at Youngstorget and end in front of the Grand Hotel, where a picture of Liu Xiaobo will be projected throughout the hotel front in the absence of the Nobel Peace Prize winner on the balcony.

There will also be held torchlight processions in Trondheim and Kristiansand.

The gap between international standards and the national law is a significant issue for human rights defenders in the Republic of Belarus. The International Law in Advocacy program is directed at tackling this problem. On 26-30 November the training session “Bring International Standards Home” within the program framework was organised for human rights defenders and lawyers in Vilnius.

On the surface we have been seeing a different kind of Lukashenko the last few months, with less tension, repressions and sense of intimidation, both Tatiana Reviaka and Pavel Sheremet noted during the seminar organized by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee on 3 December 2010 at the House of Literature in Oslo. Despite that both experts do not expect these elections to be democratic.

Зазор паміж міжнароднымі стандартамі і нацыянальным правам – істотная праблема для праваабаронцаў Беларусі. На яе вырашэнне накіраваная праграма “International Law in Advocacy”, у межах якой у Вільні 26-28 лістапада прайшла навучальная сэсія для праваабаронцаў, а 29-30 – семінар праекту “Фактычнае выкананне міжнародных абавязанняў у судовай практыцы Беларусі”.

On November 30 2010, FRA presented a report entitled “Homophobia, transphobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity – 2010 Update” to the members of the European Parliament. According to the report in some of the Member States the level of protection has improved – due to both legal developments and the changes in practice, while there are still countries where the rights of LGBT persons are limited or neglected.

Three decades ago the People´s Republic of China changed it policy: opened itself to the international trade and invited world community to cooperate. Since then its economy is growing impressively. Unfortunately there has been not much progress in political reforms. The question is: can the recent situation continue?

The new Norwegian Helsinki Committee’s report shows that over the past several years, six members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have developed a common system, where individuals who are denied entry to one of the six member states automatically are denied entry to the others. This means an attempt of the states to limit contact between human rights activists at home with their colleagues abroad.

Deeply entrenched political interests, lack of political cohesion, weak institutional structures and elite groups keen to maintain status quo are some of the challenges facing implementation of Kenya’s new constitution. president Mwai Kibaki, right, is keen to leave a legacy. But what legacy it will be – reformist or reactionary – remains an open question.

2 декабря сотрудники Независимой психиатрической ассоциации России Ю.С.Савенко (врач-психиатр), Л.Н.Виноградова (медицинский психолог) и Н.В.Спиридонова (врач-психиатр) совместно с представителями Аппарата Уполномоченного по правам человека г. Москвы посетили Московскую психиатрическую больницу № 5 в связи с большим количеством жалоб, поступающих от пациентов больницы и их родственников.

On the 2nd of December, 2010 representatives of Independent Psychiatric of the Russian Federation (IPA) psychiatrists Yuri Savenko and Natalia Spiridonova and Liubov Vinogradova, medical psychologist, in cooperation with representatives of Federal Ombudsman’s Administration visited Moscow Metal Health Facility №5 in connection of large number complaints from the patients of hospital and their relatives.