Latest

Colombian paramilitaries are to lay down their arms by January. – Demobilized paramilitaries are recycled into the conflict, the Colombian human rights lawyer Alirio Uribe Muñoz warned when he visited the Norwegian Human Rights House recently. Along with the UN and international human rights organisations he said that the rights of victims are not sufficiently respected in the demobilization process. (01-DEC-05)
 

World Aids Day provides an annual landing place to review what has been achieved, and what still needs to be done, in confronting what is the preeminent threat facing world security. We have, inevitably, a mix of the positive and the negative. In the negative scale is the fact that this year saw an estimated 5-million new infections world-wide. Half the new infections last year affected young people, posing a threat to the future of entire nations. (01-DEC-05)
 

Oslo: The Human Rights House Foundation and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee ask Azerbaijani authorities to initiate an immediate and impartial investigation of the violent outcome of the demonstration Saturday the 26th of November. In a letter sent to the Azerbaijani President today the organisations strongly condemn the brutal use of police violence against demonstrators. (1-DEC-05)
 
 

-Condoms are embarrassing to buy, they spoil sex, and if your partner insists on using one then they obviously don’t trust you. It’s a familiar refrain the world over, but in Angola, where hammering home the safer sex message is vital if the country is to avert a widespread HIV/AIDS pandemic, making condoms widely available and ‘cool’ to use is paramount. On the eve of HRH’s first visit to Angola, www.humanrightshouse.org marks World Aids day with an article from a country remarkably spared by the deadly virus. (01-DEC-05)
 

On 12 November an All-Russian protest took place to promote the repealing of the draft and against the repealing of deferrals. The protest was organized by the Union of the Soldiers Mothers Committees of the Russian Federation and the Republican Party and supported by the liberal parties SPS (Union of Right Forces) and “Yabloko”, students, and several human rights organizations including the representatives of the Russian Research Center for Human Rights. (30-NOV-2005)
 

The Freemuse Conference on Freedom of Expression in Music in Beirut, 6–8 October 2005 was the first regional forum of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa, producing some fascinating revelations about man’s love and fear of the art of music. Trevor Mostyn reports on the Freemuse conference. (30-NOV-05)
 

Along with dozens of other free speech groups, Index on Censorship and Article 19 had long questioned the suitability of Tunisia to host last week´s United Nations World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS). Following days of mayhem, rights abuses and attacks on freedom of expression, Tunisia proved that concerns were justified. Index on Censorship reports from Tunis. (25-NOV-05)

The human rights activists of Republic of Belarus are against the introduction of the political articles in the criminal legislation.  On November 25, 2005 the chamber of representatives of the Belarusian Parliament adopted in the first reading a bill brought by Mr. Lukashenka before the parliament as an emergency measure. Many human rights activists share the opinion that this bill is quasi-legal and shows that the dictatorship is becoming increasingly scared to lose power.(30-NOV-05)
 

The violence, conducted by the law-enforcement representatives toward peaceful demonstrators in Baku on the 26-th of November caused lots of negative reaction both in Azerbaijani society and in international community. The preparation of the Azerbaijani authorities to disperse the peaceful  demonstration – dozens of trucks with soldiers of the internal troops, columns of police, 2 water dispersing cars, specially trained dogs, tear gas balloons – shocked the people (30-NOV-2005).

-The Norwegian Tibet Committee is seriously concerned about the curfew imposed on the Drepung Monastery in Lhasa, says Chungdak Koren, right, Secretary general of the Norwegian Tibet Committee. The curfew was declared by the Public Security Bureau (PSB) and the People’s Armed Police (PAP) of the government of the “Tibet Autononomous Region” in the aftermath of the protest from the monks of the monastery on 25 November 2005. (30-NOV-05)
 

Today, Amnesty International Norway protested against United States, where one will soon reach the 1,000th execution since 1976, with 42 executions so far this year. Right, Secretary General Petter Eide in front of some of the thousand crosses. See the pictures from the demonstration at the Univeristy square in the centre of Oslo below. (30-NOV-05)
 

On the 26-th of November the united radical opposition of Republic of Azerbaijan held a protest action against the stolen elections. Though the rally was sanctioned, there took place a brutal violence of police and internal troops at the squire against the peaceful demonstrators. The brutality over women and children, dozens of arrested and missed people, hundreds of injured – the figures are shocking (29-NOV-2005).