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The United Nations’ (UN) International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is annually observed on June 26 to remind people that human torture is not only unacceptable – it is also a crime. On June 26, 1987, the Convention against Torture came into force. It was an important step in the process of globalizing human rights and acknowledging that torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment should be universally illegal.

Women’s activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981. This date came from the brutal assassination in 1960, of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).

The annual observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, 3 December, aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to increase awareness of gains to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life. The theme of the Day is based on the goal of full and equal enjoyment of human rights and participation in society by persons with disabilities, established by the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons, adopted by General Assembly in 1982. The official title of the Day was changed from International Day of Disabled Persons to International Day of Persons with Disabilities by General Assembly resolution 62/127 on 18 December 2007.

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is outraged, disgusted, and deeply saddened by Cambodia’s illegal, inhumane, and egregious forcible return to the People´s Republic of China of twenty Uyghurs who had sought refuge and protection in Cambodia. ‘They have no immigration papers, no visa’, explained the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, though refugees trying to save their lives are never supposed to have ones.

Human Rights House of Sarajevo calls NGO sector in B&H, particularly the Informal NGO Coalition for UPR, to react on proposal of ”zippered lists” for the Election Law of B&H, that represents threat to the democracy in B&H.

United Nations human rights teams are warning of increased weapon trafficking in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as armed villagers form units in response to killings, rapes and kidnappings carried out by the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Woman and Society Center recently conducted a study where they have analyzed the presence of women in political and public life, during the general election year 2010 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Yesterday, 31 December, the imprisoned Editor-in-chief of Gundelik Republic of Azerbaijan and Realniy Republic of Azerbaijan newspapers, Eynulla Fatullayev was sentenced to two months pre-trial detention.

For the Belarusian third sector 2009 was rich on events. Opposite in its ideological directions, authoritarian tendencies went hand in hand with a liberal thaw. Which one of these directions was most noticeable and influential on a general socio-economic field of the country?

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today called for more action from governments and the United Nations to protect media as it announced a grim total of 137 journalists and media personnel killed during 2009. The number of targeted killings at 113 is one of the highest ever recorded says the IFJ

2009 has been a year of darkness, death, displacement, detention and violence against journalists and the entire media fraternity in the Republic of Somalia, according to the annual report unveiled today by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ).

Two appalling events marked 2009: one was the largest ever massacre of journalists in a single day – a total of 30 killed –by the private militia of a governor in the southern Philippines and the other was an unprecedented wave of arrests and convictions of journalists and bloggers in Islamic Republic of Iran following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed reelection.