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The decision to set up the OSCE fact-finding mission was made after Republic of Azerbaijan put the issue of Armenians? settlement in the occupied lands on the agenda of the UN General Assembly session. -Only a democratic development in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Republic of Armenia will garanty a peaceful solution of the conflict, the chairman of the Republic of Azerbaijan Popular Front party, Ali Kerimli, said in a meeting with the Norwegian Helsinki Committe, Human Rights House Foundation and Amnesty International  when he visited Oslo yesterday (2-FEB-2005)
 

Executive Director Maria Dahle and Project Manager Niels Jacob Harbitz will attend the sixth international conference on the human rights and refugees’ situation in North Korea, to take place in Seoul, South Korea, 14 – 16 February. -Our presence at the conference is to be seen as part of our preparations to co-host next years’ conference with the Egil Rafto Human Rights House in Bergen, says Dahle. (1-FEB-05)
   

On January 21, the Nepalese government shut down the office of the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Nepal and the Tibetan Refugee Welfare office in Kathmandu, the country?s capital.  The Office of Dalai Lama?s Representative had been operating in Nepal since 1959 when a number of Tibetans fled Tibet due to the Chinese Army occupation. (1-FEB-05)
 

Zimbabwe is rapidly becoming an ever hotter issue in South Africa. Yesterday, ANC came out in support of the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ plans to visit Zimbabwe, while the SA government has criticised the trade federation’s plans. -A weakening of the international support Mugabe has enjoyed is exactly what the opposition has been hoping for, comments Niels Jacob Harbitz, HRH’s Project Manager for East Africa. (1-FEB-05)
 

The editorial board of the DANI magazine has selected 10 individuals who “made this country better”. One of them is Srdjan Dizdarevic, the founder and President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, President of the Managing Board of the Human Rights House of Sarajevo and Vice President of the International Helsinki Federation. (31-JAN-05)
 

Work is being carried out on the draft of a new Act on counteracting drug addiction. The current Act on counteracting drug addiction, which has been in force for 4 years, has not turned out to be useful. (28-JAN-05)

The Council of Europe passed a resolution on Tuesday questioning the legitimacy of the arrest and prosecution by Russian authorities of  Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other managers of the disintegrating Russian oil giant  Yukos. The resolution questions the fairness, impartiality, and objectivity of the authorities, who, it said, appeared to have acted excessively, disregarding fundamental rights of defense. (28-JAN-05)
 
 

A group of deputies from the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, has retracted a demand, sent earlier to the Prosecutor Genera´s Office, to ban all Jewish organizations in the Russian Federation. (28-JAN-05)
 

In a joint operation with their Azerbaijani colleagues, Russian police have apprehended at an undisclosed location Arif Huseinov, the brother of former Prime Minister Suret Huseinov on 26 January. Arif Huseinov is wanted on charges of involvement in the alleged coup d’etat against then President Heydar Aliyev masterminded by Suret Huseinov. (28-JAN-2005)

Seventeen organizations from the Norwegian NGO Forum have made recommendations on human rights issues which the Norwegian Government should focus on in this year´s meeting in the UN Human Rights Commission. It covers six countries – Colombia, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation including the Republic of the Chechen Republic, Republic of the Sudan, Tunisia, and  Uganda – as well as five topics:  Counter-terrorism and human rights, Impunity, Indigenous peoples rights, Integrated missions, and UN human rights norms for business. (28-JAN-05)
 

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) delegation of lawyers is expected today to asses Zimbabwe´s compliance with the Mauritius Protocol on the staging of elections in a democracy as the regional grouping races against time to ensure Harare´s March parliamentary elections are free and fair. (28-JAN-05)
 

In a joint operation with their Azerbaijani colleagues, Russian police have apprehended at an undisclosed location Arif Huseinov, the brother of former Prime Minister Suret Huseinov on 26 January.  The human rights activist Eldar Zeynalov hopes that the international organizations should display “adequate reaction” to Sadai Nazarov`s arrest. (28-JAN-2005)