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The Polish Sejm rejected the draft of the new Abortion Law prepared by the social democrats. The members of the parliament, exhorted by the right-wind parties and bishops to block the act, refused to even hold a debate on this topic and removed the work on the draft from the agenda. (23-FEB-05)

– I hope the European standards will become a basis for lawmaking in my country, Zhanna Litvina, Chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists said last week in Minsk at a conference co-hosted by HRH, on European human rights standards. The situation for independent media in the Republic of Belarus has worsened since 2001. (22-FEBR-05).
 
 

On 9 March, at 11 am, Catharina Vogt (right), a board member of Amnesty International, co-located with the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo, will premiere her film ‘Innocent’ at the house, and with key politicians present. The shooting for the film is as fresh as January 2005, and Margaret Laker, the mother of the child portrayed in the film, will attend the premiere. (23-FEB-05)
  

-Seen from a human rights perspective, there is hardly a place on earth worse than North Korea. At the same time, depressingly little attention is paid to the problems suffered by substantial parts of the population. In that sense, the regime?s closure of the country?s borders has been a success. In every other sense, the country must be deemed a failure, says HRH?s Niels Jacob Harbitz (picture), just back from an international conference in Seoul, South Korea, focussing on the human rights situation north of the border. (23-FEB-05)
    

Yesterday, on 21 February, in the Independent press-centre has passed the conference devoted to the 15-anniversary of “Mother’s Right” Foundation, member-organization of the Russian research center for human rights. (22-FEB-05)
 

15.02.05 About 20 people handcuffed themselves to the gates of the Justice Ministry in Moscow in protest at the treatment of HIV-infected prisoners in the Russian Federation. The protest came in response to the growing number of suicides in Russian prisons by HIV-infected inmates. Some of the protestors held up placards with the slogan “Treatment is a right — not a privilege”. (22-FEB-05)
 

20-year-old Algait Maharramov, sentenced to three years for participation in post-election disturbances of October 2003, has died in the colony No 17. ?The situation in the prisons of Republic of Azerbaijan is the absolute mirror of all the events taking place in our country right now ? strange, unexplained, uncommented and absurd. The tragic death of Maharramov in prison has coincided with the period, when there started a series of protest actions in a number of penal colonies of Republic of Azerbaijan. The protests are for reforms and changes in the custodies, against the beatings, torture, malnutrition and injustice by the prison administration? says local human rights activist Shahla Ismayilova (picture). (22-FEB-2005)

Yesterday, the Britain-based Burma Campaign UK launched a campaign to drive the world’s fourth largest oil company, the French giant Total, out of Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar). Total openly cooperates with the military regime in Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar), particularly on a gas project in Yadana in the south of the country. Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has condemned the French company. From the outset, the campaign is supported by 41 organisations, among them Norwegian Church Aid; The Future in our Hands; and the Norwegian Burma Committee, a member organisation of the Oslo Human Rights House.

About 3,000 conscripts die each year while doing their mandatory service in the  Russian army, according to Veronika Marchenko (picture) at the Mother’s Right Foundation. The most dangerous places to serve are in the Moscow region and the North Caucasus region surrounding the Chechen Republic. (22-FEB-05)
 

Republic of Azerbaijan Republic since becoming a member of Council of Europe has taken obligation concerning the implementation of anti-corruption measures in the country, where is gravely lurching in corruption. ?Corruption is one of the most unsurmountable, poignant and delicate problems of our country. Republic of Azerbaijan, as one of the countries in transition, where democracy and rule of law have not been fully established, suffers from corruption, which impedes its economic development and intensifies social inequality? says Nadir Adilov, the chairman of the Republic of Azerbaijan Young Lawyers Union (AYLU). (22-FEB-2005)
 

Yesterday, the Burma Campaign UK launched a campaign to drive the French oil giant Total out of Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar). Total openly co-operates with the military regime in Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar), and has been condemned by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The campaign is supported by 41 organisations, among them the Norwegian Burma Committee, a member organisation of the Norwegian Human Rights House. (22-FEB-05)

20-year-old Algait Maharramov, who was sentenced to three years for participation in post-election disturbances of October 2003, has died in the colony No 17. – The situation in the prisons of Republic of Azerbaijan is the absolute mirror of all the events taking place in our country right now: strange, unexplained, uncommented and absurd. The tragic death of Maharramov in prison has coincided with a series of protest actions in a number of penal colonies of Republic of Azerbaijan, says local human rights activist Shahla Ismayilova (picture). (22-FEB-2005)