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On Monday 20 June, HRH’s Project Manager for East Africa Niels Jacob Harbitz will participate at a seminar focussing on the continued need for political change in the Republic of Kenya. The seminar is co-hosted by the Norwegian Council for Africa, HRH’s partner in our recent seminar on Northern Republic of Uganda, and FORUM for Environment and Development. Keynote speakers are Apollo Njonjo and Halle Jørn Hanssen. (16-JUNE-05)
  

On Tuesday 14 June, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dalai Lama visited the Norwegian Human Rights House and gave a press conference in the conference room here. -The wish for democracy among the Chinese people has grown so strong that it can no longer be silenced, said the Buddhist monk, who himself is the best example of just that. (15-JUNE-05)
 

On Friday 17 June, the International Society for Health and Human Rights, one of the organisations based in the Human Rights House in Oslo, will host a workshop on ‘Truth, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation’. With human rights activists visiting from Peru, the main focus will be on the relevance of such processes there. Speakers from both Peru and the Human Rights House in Oslo will contribute. (14-JUNE-05)
 

On 22 June, Amnesty International, Norwegian chapter’s expert group on Lesbian, Gay, Bi- and Transsexual rights will host a seminar at the Norwegian Human Rights House on how to empower the rights of gays and lesbians in Eastern Europe. Experts and activists from the region will blend with some of the key Norwegian spokespersons on these issues for what promises to be a thoughtprovoking and very timely seminar. (13-JUNE-05)
  

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is backing a legal challenge to charges brought against a US shopkeeper who accidently allowed a child to be given a copy of a comic book featuring images of artist Pablo Picasso in the nude. (13-JUNE-05)
 

On 25 May, David Mendes, Director of the independent human rights organisation Maos Livres in Angola, visited the Norwegian Human Rights House and spoke to an open lunch meeting about the human rights situation in his home country Angola. Access to justice is a major problem, and leads to gross miscarriages of justice.
 

The political situation in the Republic of Belarus is getting harder and harder. Now it reminds of the second half of 1920-ies, the beginning of repressions against Belarusian intellectuals in the Soviet Union. Now the state persecutes everyone who can’t be controlled or doesn’t prove to be loyal.(11-JUN-2005)

Recently the education boards of regional executive committees and heads of secondary and higher educational establishments have received the letter of the Ministry of Education #03-24/28, restricted publication “About non-admission of the attempts of involvement of pupils and students in lawless activity of political kind”, signed by the minister Aliaksandr Radzkou. This document confirmed the practice of political persecution of students that has existed for several years already.(11-JUN-2205)

The justice boards of local administrations continue liquidating branches of political parties and NGOs. The formal reason for it is that the juridical addresses of these branches are situated in residential premises. At the same time, the law on political parties and NGOs doesn’t demand from them to have juridical addresses. The authorities, in their turn, don’t provide the branches any possibility to register new juridical addresses, putting various obstacles to it. (11-JUN-2005)

Persecution of believers in the Republic of Belarus started long ago. The real reason for it is concurrence of other religious movements and directions to Russian Orthodox Church, which top-level Belarusian officials consider as a means that can serve promotion of their pro-Russian ideology. Most often religious persecution concerned representatives of non-traditional confessions, which were treated as sects. Now it also touches one of the oldest confessions in the Republic of Belarus, Catholics. (11-JUN-2005)

For the second consecutive year Warsaw authorities have refused to provide consent for the Equality Parade, meaning a peaceful demonstration of gays and lesbians, which was supposed to take place in Warsaw. Warsaw is buzzing with discussion about the legitimacy of this decision. The organizers announce that the demonstration will be held anyhow, as an expression of civil disobedience towards the authorities’ discriminating decision. (11-JUNE-05)

The number of homeless children and orphans in the Russian Federation reached 700 thousand by the end of 2002 (according to Russian Children’s Fund). This number is comparable to the number of orphans following the Second World War. (11-JUNE-05)