Latest

On December 15 2009 the office of the Inclusive Foundation, a well known Georgian LGBT organisation, was raided by the police. They did not wear police uniforms, did not provide a search warrant, did not inform about their identity or agency they represented and did not explain the purpose of their intrusion.

The letter by international human rights NGOs is aiming to press the Belarusian authorities to provide official registration to the party of Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD) and stop the persecution of its members. The HR defenders also urge to abolish the repressive Article 193.1 of Belarusian Criminal Code.
Find the text of the letter below.

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the release of the three lawyers Ms. Butheina Omar Al Sadiq, Ms. Randa Yousif and Ms. Nafisa Al-Nur Hajar. According to the information received, on December 8, 2009, at 6:30 pm, Ms. Butheina Omar Al Sadiq, Ms. Randa Yousif and Ms. Nafisa Al-Nur Hajar were released from custody by the National Intelligence Security Service of Republic of the Sudan (NISS).

Зварот-заклік, прыняты міжнароднымі праваабарончымі арганізацыямі, мае на мэце аказанне ціску на беларускія ўлады ў справе рэгістрацыі партыі “Беларуская хрысціянская дэмакратыя” (БХД), а таксама спынення пераследу яе сябраў. Праваабаронцы апелююць і да скасавання артыкула 193.1 Крымінальнага Кодэкса Беларусі. Ніжэй прыводзіцца тэкст зварота.

Ahmad Zeid-Abadi, an Iranian journalist and political analyst who was
imprisoned following Iran’s disputed presidential election in June, has
been awarded the 2010 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize
of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

Civilians attacked, bombed, and cut off from aid in Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Republic of Somalia, Yemen, Sri Lanka, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and the DR of Congo, along with stagnant funding for treating HIV/AIDS and ongoing neglect of other diseases, were among the worst emergencies in 2009, the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported in its annual list of the “Top Ten” humanitarian crises.

The people of Burma are used to suffering. Yet the regime is not without money. It siphons billions of dollars earned from natural energy resources into offshore accounts while its citizens are forced to seek health care in neighbouring countries. Investigative story by Phil Thornton.

A new report released Monday by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and MONUC (the UN Mission in DR Congo) outlines a rolling series of attacks carried out over a ten-month period by the renegade armed group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), during which they killed at least 1,200 people, abducted 1,400 – including some 600 children and 400 women – and displaced a total of around 230,000 people. Right, LRA child soldiers in South Republic of the Sudan.

December in the Republic of Belarus was marred by a new wave of ideological coercion. In particular, a campaign of forced subscription to state-owned publications has begun. It is linked to a country wide subscription for 2010.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, delivered today the Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Sejdic and Finci versus Bosnia and Herzegovina, accusing B&H of discrimination towards national minorities. Sejdic and Finci complained of their ineligibility to stand for election to the House of Peoples and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the ground of their Roma and Jewish origin.

In 2009 the government, courts and the police have connived in the suppression of investigative journalism and scientific research. But campaigns for free expression are gaining ground. A summary of the year is suggested by John Kampfner, chief executive of Index on Censorship, for Guardian.

Today, 21 December, IRFS correspondent in Nakhchivan Elman Abbasov was invited to the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Internal Affairs Ministry to make a statement as a witness regarding the harassment against the employees of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Democracy and NGO Development Resource Centre Ilgar Nasibov and Vafadar Eyvazov on 15 December 2009.