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From both Frontline, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and International PEN, www.humanrightshouse.org has received the following urgent action appeal regarding the case of lawyer and human rights defender Mohammed Maherzi Abou. Please write Tunisian authorities on addresses provided below, requesting Abou’s immediate and unconditional release. (21-SEP-05)
  

A UN special reporter was banned entry to the country because his mission is to collect information about the human rights in the Republic of Belarus. Instead, he will visit the Baltic states where he is going to meet representatives of the government and other governmental and nongovernmental organizations. (19-SEP-05)
 

New chair of the Pinsk ideology department forces heads of organizations and enterprises to subscribe to Sovetskaya Belorussiya, a pro-governmental newspaper. Simultaneously, Miastsovy Chas weekly, the only independent newspaper is banned. (19-SEP-05)
 

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)