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Lidia Yusupova (right), Rafto Laureate of 2005, gave strong characteristics to the way the Russian Federation have dealt with the Chechen Republic during the last decade. At the award ceremony on November 6th in Bergen, she challenged the democracies of Western Europe to take a different approach towards the Russian Federation regarding the countries politics in the Chechen Republic. (07-NOV-05)
 

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Human Rights House Foundation, Human Rights Center Viasna and Human Rights Center of Republic of Azerbaijan deeply regret to note that Azerbaijani elections once again appear to have been grossly manipulated. (07-NOV-05)
 

Lidia Yusupova, right, Rafto Laureate of 2005, gave strong characteristics to the way the Russian Federation have dealt with the Chechen Republic during the last decade. At the award ceremony on November 6th in Bergen, she challenged the democracies of Western Europe to take a different approach towards the Russian Federation regarding the countries politics in the Chechen Republic. (07-NOV-05)
 

The Professor Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize for 2005 was yesterday awarded to the Chechnyan lawyer and human rights advocate Ms Lida Yusupova (right), in recognition of her brave and unrelenting efforts to document human rights violations and act as a spokeswoman for the forgotten victims of the war in the Chechen Republic. (07-NOV-05)
 

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Human Rights House Foundation, Human Rights Center Viasna and Human Rights Center of Republic of Azerbaijan deeply regret to note that Azerbaijani elections once again appear to have been grossly manipulated. (07-NOV-05)
 

Republic of Azerbaijan is now on the center of attention of international community for the Parliamentary Elections to be held on 6 November. The country authority has received the abundance of recommendations and statements from the international community, encouraging the government to exercise the conditions for the conduct of free and democratic elections in the country. However, despite of certain steps for improvement of the situation, the Azerbaijani reality on the democratic elections leaves much to be desired (05-NOV-2005). 

November 6 is the day of Parliamentary elections in Republic of Azerbaijan. On the day prior to elections, 1544 candidates fight for 125 deputy mandates. For November 5 the number of candidates for parliament which left pre-election marathon reached 519, including 472 men and 47 women. According to independent press-center in the CEC, 476 candidates withdrew their candidatures. Registration of 39 candidates was eliminated by the Court of Appeal, 2 candidates by CEC; 2 candidates died (05-NOV-2005)

The pressure against the independent media in the Republic of Belarus increases before the presidential elections due to take place in six months. – We are rudely pushed out of the legal information space into underground and “non-traditional” forms of mass-media activity, says Zhanna Litvina from the Belarusian Association of Journalists. (05-NOV-05)
 

An alliance of human rights groups and community activists, including Index on Censorship and English PEN, are joining forces to mark the forthcoming tenth anniversary of the executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight colleagues. A shortlist of five proposals selected by a panel will be exhibited in the run-up to the anniversary on 10 November 2005. (04-NOV-05)

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Human Rights House Foundation (Norway) and Human Rights Centre Viasna (Belarus) are deeply concerned by several recent arrests and human rights violations during the run-up to the Azerbaijani elections scheduled for November 6th.  There are strong indications that the violations are politically motivated. (04-NOV-05)

Svetlana Gannushkina, the chairwoman of the committee “Civil Assistance” had worked out an application to the mayor of Moscow Mr. Luzhkov to not allow a demonstration by radical-nationalist organizations on the 4th of November holiday which was signed by almost all Russian NGOs. Russian NGOs asked Mr. Luzhkov not to dishonor Moscow with this racist march, which could entail disorder and racist trouble on the streets of Moscow. (04-NOV-05)

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Human Rights House Foundation (Norway) and Human Rights Centre Viasna (Belarus) are deeply concerned by several recent arrests and human rights violations during the run-up to the Azerbaijani elections scheduled for November 6th.  There are strong indications that the violations are politically motivated. (04-NOV-05)