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-Our prison staff could do well with some basic human rights training, said Imad Ahmad, Deputy Prime Minister of the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) Administration of one of the two self-determined Kurdish regions within Iraq. Mr. Ahmad visited the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurdish People (RKR), one of the organisations in the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo last week. (23-AUG-05)
 

Political animations that feature a person who resembles Aliaxadr Lukashenka caused the authorities to launch criminal proceedings. KGB accuses the authors of insulting the President (which is against the law). (22-AUG-05)
 

Anatol Liabedzka, UCP, and Ludmila Hraznova, a Belarusian Human Rights group, claim their web sites have been attacked by  unidentified hackers. They believe the attack has been masterminded by Belarusian KGB. This is not the first case when opposition web sites have fallen victim to hacker attacks.

Last week, the head of the Campaign Against Homophobia was fined by the court for his statement, which, according to the court, was aimed at offending Catholics. Lawyers have doubts as to the course chosen for making the verdict and the qualification of the offence itself. (12-AUG-05)
 

The Rafto Foundation has organized a fundraising campaign to get medical treatment for 20 year old Sidi Elfakraoui. Elfakraoui was thrown out of a window from the 4th floor by Moroccan police, and consequently broke his back, arm and both his legs. (16-AUG-2005)
 

Mr. Arne Lynngard, Chairman of the Rafto Foundation has organized a fundraising campaign to get medical treatment for 20 year old Sidi Elfakraoui. The young man was thrown out of a window in the 4th floor of a building by Moroccan police, and consequently broke his back, arm and both his legs. The police started to follow him for no obvious reason, and Mr. Elfakraoui ran from them, fearing what they might do to him. (16-AUG-2005)

Last Friday, more than 50 exiled Saharawis of Western Sahara, currently settled in Norway, demonstrated outside the Moroccan Embassy in Oslo, demanding the release of imprisoned Saharawian human rights activists and the end to the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. The Moroccan Embassy refused to talk to the demonstrators. (15-AUG-05)
    

For the second time the Rafto Foundation, in collaboration with Kurdish Human Rights Project (UK), medico international (Germany) and Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, will arrange a two-day conference, September 19 – 20, 2005, debating the Turkish accession process to the EU. The conference in Brussels will focus on the human rights situation in the Republic of Turkey, especially focusing on the conditions for the Kurdish people. (15-AUG-2005)

The British government is proposing powerful new controls on freedom of expression as part of its current strategy to ward off fresh terror attacks on the country — including charging the worst offenders with treason and rewriting British human rights laws to make it all possible. Index on Censorship’s Rohan Jayasekera reports. (09-AUG-05)
 

Last week, the head of the Campaign Against Homophobia – a Polish gay and lesbian organization – was fined by the court for his statement, which, according to the court, was aimed at offending Catholics. Lawyers have doubts as to the course chosen for making the verdict and the qualification of the offence itself. (12-AUG-05)

The adoption of this law completes the creation of the new Russian electoral legislation system that, according to human rights and politician activists, represents a rolling-back of democracy. (12-AUG-05)
 

On the 31st of July a meeting between Russian human rights activists and Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles, the commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe, took place. They discussed Gil-Robles’ report about human rights in the Russian Federation. (11-AUG-05)