Latest

Gennady Grushevoy (Henadz Hrushavy in Belarusian) and the Rafto foundation organised a festival, where young Belarusians met to discuss environmental issues, in Minsk, Republic of Belarus, October 2009. Henadz Hrushavy received the 1999 Rafto prize in recognition of his work for democracy and human rights in the Republic of Belarus.

Macedonian Women’s Rights Center – MWRC attended a seminar in the end of December, on topic ”Strategic Planning for Institutions/Organizations”. The seminar was organized by Sweden foundation Kvinna Till Kvinna in collaboration with CIRa (Center for Institutional Development).

Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, right, was attacked at his home outside Aarhus in the evening 1 January by a man of Somali origin. “This episode shows once again how fragile freedom of speech has become in our society and how important it is that we are stuck on the defense of the right to freely assert their voices”, says Norwegian PEN’s leader, Anders Heger.

On 25 December 2009 President Ilham Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan signed a decree to pardon 99 prisoners on the occasion of the 31 December – Solidarity Day of World Azerbaijanis and New Year.

Human Rights House Foundation has been co-operating with the human rights defenders and organizations in the Republic of Azerbaijan since 2003. During this period various projects were implemented in collaboration with partner organizations in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Seeing the effectiveness of this collaboration, as well as the need for the House, Human Rights House Foundation officially established its Branch in the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2007. The House was officially launched on 25 April 2009, though. Below is the summary of the activities of the House since its launch.

English PEN is calling on all members to take action on behalf of Liu Xiaobo and others detained in the People´s Republic of China. Liu Xiaobo, former President and Board member of Independent Chinese PEN Centre, was sentenced to eleven years in prison on 25 December 2009.

On this date, in 1986, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights entered into force. As of December 1998, all 53 members of the African Union had ratified the Charter.

The principle of non-violence — also known as non-violent resistance — rejects the use of physical violence in order to achieve social or political change. International Day of Non-Violence is annually held on October 2 to coincide with renowned Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday.

On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid “pass laws”. Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.

The day was officially declared in 1990 in Serock, Poland, the site of the fourth World Romani Congress of the International Romani Union (IRU), in honour of the first major international meeting of Romani representatives, 7-12 of April, 1971 in Chelsfieldnear London.

The United Nations General Assembly declared 3 May to be World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991.

May 17 was chosen as the day of the event because homosexuality was removed from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 17, 1992.