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For nearly two years the European Commission has been demanding for Republic of Poland to amend the contents of regulations concerning equal treatment implemented in the labor code. This relates to European regulations included in EU Directive 2000/78, which establishes general framework conditions for equal treatment in employment and labor. The European Commission has commenced penal proceedings against Republic of Poland due to this unjustified delay. (30-JUNE-08)
 

On 4 June the Prosecutor of Moscow found infringements of the law in activities of the capital government´s desicion to forbid the “March of Dissent” on 6 May. The Ombudsman for Human Rights of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Lukin, supported the organizers of the march and emphasized the activity operated completely within the law’s limits. (30-JUNE-08)

On 25 June the International Human Rights Organization Human Rights Watch presented a report on the fight against terrorism and infringements of human rights in Ingushetia. The report’s author is the well-known human rights defender Tatyana Lokshina. (29-JUN-08)
 

The International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is celebrated on 26 June. This date, proclaimed in 1997 by the United Nations, was directed towards the full eradication of torture and guaranteeing the effectiveness of the “Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment”. (29-JUN-08)
 

On 25 June the International Human Rights Organization Human Rights Watch presented the report ‘As If They Fell From The Sky’ Counterinsurgency, Rights Violations and Impunity in Ingushetia that documents cruel infringements of human rights by members of power structures. The report’s author is the well-known human rights defender Tatyana Lokshina, right. (29-JUNE-08)
  

On 17 June, four employees of the Human Rights Center “Memorial” were detained while photographing a building in the Chechen Republic where, according to human rights defenders, kidnapped people were illegally. The Human Rights Center “Memorial” intends to address this incident to the Prosecutor and the Court. (28-JUN-08)
 

Disputes quite regularly break out in the Republic of Poland over the issue of abortion. The Polish society recently carried on a heated discussion after the media publicized the case concerning the refusal to perform an abortion for a fourteen-year-old, who was impregnated as a result of a crime. In such a case Polish law permits an abortion to be performed during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. As usual Poles were divided over this issue. (27-JUN-08)        

The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) expresses its protest in relation to the adoption of a new Law «On Mass Media» after the 2nd reading by the Chamber of Representatives at the National Assembly of Republic of Belarus on 25 June. The Bill will considerably limit the rights of independent mass media and for the websites, which for the first time will be covered by a media law in the Republic of Belarus (25-JUN-08).
 

Human rights defenders in many countries have expressed their appreciation over Euskal / Basque PEN´s selection of Mr. Hiwa Buimar and Mr. Adnan Hassanpour, right, for the Idazluma award for their efforts for freedom of speech in Islamic Republic of Iran and the “oppressed Kurdish language and culture”. (27-JUNE-08)

War crimes prosecutors detailed Friday a grim case of mass murder and sexual enslavement against two Congolese militia leaders accused of seeking to wipe out an entire village in 2003. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui “deliberately planned, orchestrated and ordered their respective troops to execute their plan to attack, wipe out or erase the village of Bogoro,” deputy prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, right, told the International Criminal Court in The Hague. (27-JUNE-08)
 

International human rights and freedom of expression organisations have joined their voices in protest against the Belarusian Draft Law on Mass Media, which imposes further restrictions on an already severe regulatory regime for Belarusian mass media. They have called for an immediate withdrawal of the law. (27-JUNE-08)
 

The draft Law on Mass Media, which would impose restrictions on freedom of expression beyond what is permitted by international law, causes grave.