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Republic of Croatia will not be cleared of mines until 2010, the deadline defined by the Ottawa Convention and prescribed by the National Program For Counter-Mine Effect. Solution of one of the most important humanitarian problems in the Republic of Croatia is postponed once again. (NOV-8-04)

On 4th of November the Polish Sejm passed the Act on National Minorities, which had been in the making for 11 years. The act contains a catalogue of the rights of the people belonging to minorities, which are already guaranteed by other Polish legal acts. The right to use a minority language as a auxiliary language at offices of administration, which has been the aim of the exertions of minority circle members in the Republic of Poland, was not included in the act. (08-11-04)

The Balkan Regional Conference on Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding was held from 4th to 6th November in Igalo, Montenegro. It was organised by the Nansen Dialogue Network in the Balkans in cooperation with the Bulgarian School of Politics and Albanian Peace and Education Project. (08-NOV-04)
 

Murdered filmaker Theo van Gogh was both an outspoken proponent and exponent of free expression who consciously courted controversy. Index on Censorship reports (04-NOV-04)
 

On 1 November Belarusian Association of Journalists addressed Information Minister Uladzimir Rusakevich with an open letter, requesting to cancel the order about suspension of the “Mestnaya Gazeta” newspaper. By that day the editor-in-chief of this independent newspaper had been on hunger strike for already 13 days. (4-NOV-2004)

62 filled referendum ballots were found in a garbage can in the city of Barysaw. The activist of the United Civil Party, former candidate to deputies in Barysaw village circuit Viktar Harbachow says that a member of his initiative group found them in the garbage can near secondary school #24 of Barysaw, where polling station #42 was situated. (4-NOV-2004)

On 28 September KGB decided to leave Mikhail Marynich in custody for 30 more days “for the interests of investigation. This will be the sixths month of jail for the ex-minister, who has been kept there since 26 April. (4-NOV-2004)

Murdered filmaker Theo van Gogh was both an outspoken proponent and exponent of free expression who consciously courted controversy. Index on Censorship reports (04-NOV-04)
 

The Rafto Foundation together with Amnesty International has made a post card of appeal which can be sent to the Chinese government. The post card was introduced on Monday the 25th of October when Monica Mæland (Chief Comissioner of the City Government in Bergen) and Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen (the leader of the opposition in Bergen) signed a post card each.Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen said that it was an honour to sign the post card and by this act contributing to the campaign to free Rebiya Kadeer. Both politicians agreed that this was a political case they easily supported. (04-NOV-2004)

The “North Korean Holocaust Exhibition” will be held from November 8th through November 10, 2004, at the National Assembly Members Building in Yeoido, Seoul, Korea. This will be a powerfully dramatic depiction of the suffering of the North Korean people!  The exhibition will include hundreds of photos, letters, diaries, models, and artifacts by and from the refugees and NK people, which Mr. Moon from Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human rights and others risked their lives to collect over the past ten years.  (01-NOV-2004)

The Rafto Prize Ceremony 2004, honouring this years laureate, Rebiya Kadeer , will be held on 7 Nov. at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen. Kadeers husband, Sidik Haji Rouzi, will receive the prize on behalf of his wife. Rouzi fled the People´s Republic of China in 1996 and was granted asylum in the USA. Distinguished Norwegian and international artists will participate at the Rafto Award Ceremony. The Rafto Symposium 2004 is named “Human Rights and Minorities in China: The Case of Xinjiang” and will be held on 5 Nov. at Clarion Hotel Admiral, Bergen. (01-NOV-2004)

In a letter to the president Mr. Ilham Aliyev the 29th of October the Human Rights House Foundation  and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) expressed serious concern about the Court of Grave Crime´s decisions. (29-OCT-04).