Latest

Concern is mounting that moves by the United Nations aimed at curbing xenophobia in the media could be used to attack the freedom of the press in some countries. The United Nations’ willingness to use the word ‘defamation’ in conjunction with religion gives cover to countries that want to use blasphemy laws to target the independent media. In light of the jailing of journalists following the publication of cartoons which depicted the prophet Mohammed, free press campaigners are warning that the casual deployment of the phrase may mortally wound objective media outlets in some countries. (27-OCT-06)
 

Political aggravation of the Russian-Georgian relationship turned into mass violations of   human rights. People, who have nothing to do with politics suffer from ethnic discrimination and humiliating check-ups. Police detains all Georgians regardless of their citizenship, age and social status. (26-OCT-06)
 

-In recent years, the People´s Republic of China has gone from bad to worse, growing ever more indifferent or even arrogant to whatever messages the country gets, be it directly from various trading partners around the world, or in international fora, including the UN. What is taking place, is something close to ethnic cleansing, Rebiya Kadeer stressed during the meeting at the Oslo Human Rights House yesterday. (31-OCT-06)
 

Just over a year since she was last here, the Human Rights House in Oslo yesterday received Rebiya Kadeer, the leading Uyghur minority human rights and democracy defender. Seemingly recovered from the car ramming outside her home in Washington DC in January, her message was unmistakeably clear: If the world doesn´t put pressure on the People´s Republic of China to change its policies towards its minorities, within twenty years, they will all be threatened with eradication. (31-OCT-06)
 

24 october, the day the world observes the official establishment of United Nations, marks a sad anniversary for Burma’s Nobel Peace prize laureate and defender of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, right. Today, she has been kept under house arrest for an accumulated eleven years since 1989. (24-OCT-06)
 

New countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies in the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, issued today. The index shows that while the most repressive countries are still the same ones, the United States and Japan slip further; the Russian Federation remains just out of the bottom 20, below countries like Republic of Somalia. Uganda´s 36-places-drop to 116th is also remarkable. (24-OCT-06)
 

Yesterday afternoon, members of the Tibetan diaspora were joined by Norwegian human rights activists and other sympathizers in a peaceful demonstration in front of the Norwegian Parliament drawing attention to the 30 September shooting of Tibetan refugees by Chinese border guards as they tried to cross over to Nepal. See the pictures from the demonstration and read Amnesty International´s urgent action appeal below. (24-OCT-06)
 

Two years ago famous Belarusian journalist Veranika Charkasava was atrociously killed at her own apartment. The circumstances of an offence are still unknown. The killer is not searched out. The authorities insist on the domestic crime version. In a view of the subjects Veranika worked on and the Belarusian authorities’ attitude towards independent journalists’ professional activity, we may assume this crime will not be solved at the time of current regime existing.  (20-OCT-06)
 

On 4 October 2006, Viridarium – the action group against anti-Semitism and xenophobia – began a new series of meetings intended to recognize diversity, reinforce dialogue and consolidate remembrance and knowledge about others. (20-OCT-06)

“The Human Rights House Foundation submits this letter to you in order to express our deep concern for the five human rights defenders who were brutally attacked before the planned picket in Nazran, organized in memory of Anna Politkovskaya 16 October 2006”. Thus begins HRH-F’s protest letter to President Murat Magomedovich Zyazikov, the President of Ingushetia, right, after the 16 October attack in the capital Nazran. (20-OCT-06)
  

A new set of images received by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) depicts a group of Chinese police at the scene of the shooting of the young Tibetan nun on the Nangpa Pass near the border of Nepal on September 30. The images depict police and possibly officials gathered around the body the day after the nun, 17-year old Kelsang Namtso, was shot dead by People´s Armed Police while she was crossing the pass into exile in Nepal with a large group of Tibetans including children, other nuns and monks. (20-OCT-06)
 

When her nemesis Vladimir Putin’s face fades, and is forgotten, the legacy of Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (1958-2006) will remain. Aage Borchgrevink, right, adviser in the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, also mourns Politkovskaya. (19-OCT-06)