Latest

As he prepared to leave for Myanmar today, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, right, said he will do all he can to reinforce the immediate relief effort in the cyclone-devastated country and will also draw attention to the need for long-term reconstruction and development. (20-MAY-08)
 

Kaveh Aziz-pour, a Kurdish political prisoner, died on Friday, 16 May 16, from a brain stroke, reports Islamic Republic of Iran News Agency (INA) (16 May). Aziz-poir, who came from Mahabad, was only 25 years old. The Department of Intelligence in Islamic Republic of Iran arrested and imprisoned Aziz-pour two years ago for having connections with Kurdish opposition groups. He was hospitalized in Urumieh after suffering the stroke and underwent surgery twice in this regard. After 20 days of coma, he passed away in the morning of 16 May. (20-MAY-08)
 

A group of international and Congolese human rights organizations are greatly concerned that international fair-trial standards have been violated in the trial and appeal of four men convicted in the murder of Congolese journalist Serge Maheshe, right. The military court trial and the appeals process have been marred by inadequate protection of the defendants´ most basic rights, said Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Action by Christians Against Torture (France), and a coalition of 18 Congolese rights groups in a joint statement today. (20-MAY-08)
 

Northern Republic of Uganda leaders returned empty handed last week from South Republic of the Sudan after waiting in vain for days to meet Joseph Kony, right, the elusive commander of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA. Kony’s no-show was the second time in two months that he has snubbed peace negotiators and appears to have killed what hope remained that a peace deal, 22 months in the making, will be signed. (20-MAY-08)
 

The Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurds (RKR) condemns all attempts to limit freedom of expression in Kurdistan Iraq as reported by The US-located Committee to Protect Journalists in its special report entitled ‘The Other Iraq’. -Civil and political human rights should be respected for all citizens, including individuals or opposing political factions within the Kurdish region, says Per Thorsdalen, right, Information Officer at RKR´s office at the HR House in Oslo. (20-MAY-08)
 

Denmark’s Ambassador to Republic of Uganda was away when his wife looked out the window and saw a young man fall from the sky and land on her garden. She made a frantic call to her husband, Stig Barlyng, right, who immediately sped home to his residence in a posh suburb in Kampala. But by the time Barlyng arrived home, the guards from the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) headquarters next door had already overpowered Barlyng´s guard and recaptured their escapee. (17-MAY-08)
 

Sarwa Abdul Wahab Al Darwish was a 36-year-old Iraqi journalist from Mosul. On 4 May, Sarwa was in a taxi, returning from the market with her mother. The car was stopped and she was dragged out by two men attempting to kidnap her. Sarwa screamed and struggled against her would-be abductors. They shot her twice in the head and drove away. Her death is shocking for us who knew her. Tragically, this kind of thing happens to women all over Iraq on a daily basis. (16-MAY-08)
 

Every 16th day of the month, the Solidarity Day action takes place in the Republic of Belarus.  This action is ’dedicated’ to the prisoners of conscience and missing politicians in the Republic of Belarus. People light candles in their windows to demonstrate their solidarity or go out on the streets to remind Belarusians about the problem of political prisoners. (16-MAY-08)
 

To the problem of corruption in Polish football was recently added the issue of racism. There is news of racist outbursts after nearly every round of league play. Clubs, whose arenas stage these excesses, remain unpunished. On 9 of May 2008, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights sent a letter to the Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in which it voiced serious concern about recent racist incidents. (16-MAY-08)

Today, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) presents a report documenting that the situation in the Russian parts of Northern Caucasus remains the worst human rights crisis in Europe. A Regional System of Torture, Forced Confessions and Fabricated Trials shows how Russian authorities abuse the court system in their ongoing anti-terror operation. (14-MAY-08)
 

Sarwa Abdul Wahab Al Darwish was a 36-year-old Iraqi journalist from Mosul. On 4 May, Sarwa was in a taxi, returning from the market with her mother. The car was stopped and she was dragged out by two men attempting to kidnap her. Sarwa screamed and struggled against her would-be abductors. They shot her twice in the head and drove away. Her death is shocking for us who knew her. Tragically, this kind of thing happens to women all over Iraq on a daily basis. (16-MAY-08) 
 

To the problem of corruption in Polish football was recently added the issue of racism. There is news of racist outbursts after nearly every round of league play. Clubs, whose arenas stage these excesses, remain unpunished. On 9 of May 2008, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights sent a letter to the Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in which it voiced serious concern about recent racist incidents. (16-MAY-08)