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The Norwegian government´s decision not to abide by UNHCR guidelines regarding return to unsafe areas is among many areas that seven Norwegian NGOs criticize in a supplementary report submitted to the UN Human Rights Committee last week. The report is an independent examination of Norway’s 5th Periodic Report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. (19-SEP-05)
Download PDF version of the Shadow Report
 

The Rafto Human Rights House is very pleased to be able to present a special human rights programme at the Nordic Panorama 2005 (23 – 28 September), in close co-operation with two of the leading international film festivals dedicated to human rights documentaries: One World in Prague, and Human Rights in Film in Warsaw.  (18-SEP-2005)

ARTICLE 19, the Global Campaign for Free Expression, is inviting appplications for a one¨Cweek intensive training course on theoretical and practical aspects of promoting freedom of expression and freedom of information in the South Caucasus. The course, developed in conjunction with journalists, freedom of information centers, and human rights organisations from the region, will take place in Kyiv from 22 to 27 November 2005. (16-SEPT-05)
 

On 14 September, the ICTY issued a decision referring the case against Rahim Ademi andMirko Norac to the Republic of Croatia. Apart from being the first case in which persons already indicted by the Tribunal have been referred to the Republic of Croatia, it is also the only case that the Tribunal’s Prosecution was requesting to be transferred to the Republic of Croatia. (16-SEP-05)
 

On the 7th of September, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers selected three candidates for the post of Commissioner for Human Rights. One of them is Marek Antoni Nowicki, president of the Helsinki foundation for Human Rights since November 2003. (16-SEP-05)

The international NGO International Crisis Group (ICG) has released its long-expected report on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. One major conclusion of ‘Nagorno-Karabakh: Viewing the conflict from the ground’ is that all sides to the conflict will have to educate, commit and prepare themselves far better for peace for the seeds of the high-level negotiations to bear fruit. (16-SEP-05)
 
  

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) has today published a set of sixteen interventions to the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which will be held from 19 to 30 September 2005 in Warsaw. (15-SEP-05)
 

-The human rights situation in general, and the freedom of expression situation in particular, is seriously worsened, says international observers. Carl Morten Iversen and Elisabeth Eide; Norwegian PEN’s representatives in the Tunisian Monitoring Group (TMG) have just returned from a five-days’ observation and documentation mission to the North African country. (14-SEP-05) 
  

17 May 1995, the then 6-year old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, also known as Panchen Lama (right), was taken from his home in Tibet by Chinese authorities’ and put into “protective custody”. Panchen Lama has not been seen since. On 19 September, the International Campaign for Tibet confrints the People´s Republic of China, right ahead of the oppressor’s meeting with the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child (CRC) (14-SEP-05)
 

-We are deeply impressed with the standard of Norwegian elections, said the 28 election observers from Central Asia and Caucasus at a press conference at the Norwegian Human Rights House yesterday. -The voting took place in a calm and orderly manner, demonstrating that all actors wanted the procedure to be carried out the best way possible. We have seen no attemps of abusing the system. (14-SEP-05)
 

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina has, on a number of occasions, appealed against the devastating separation of school-age children based on ethnicity. Despite all activities and appeals, the problem has escalated at the beginning of this school year, to the extent that we now have a practice of open segregation and apartheid in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (13-SEP-05)
 

For the whole of 2006, and with a possibility of extending this contract, a full-time post as Project Manager is available at the Human Rights House Foundation’s Secretariat, located at the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo.  (13-SEP-05)