Latest

Russian NGOs do not agree with the president Putin´s decision to stop the “hysteria about YUKOS”, the oil giant. Its former leader Mikhail Khodorkovsky is still in prison and accused in several crimes. Human rights activists deeply concerned with the Russian state power turning back to repressive methods of ruling the country. Some even call Khodorkovsky´s arrest the “start of the fight with civil society” in the Russian Federation. (03-DEC-03)
 

Samira Trad, a visitor of the Human Rights House in Oslo early September, has asked Amnesty International to call off its Holiday Card campaign on her behalf. Trad, Director of the Beirut based Frontiers Centre, has been in the minds of human rights defenders all over the world since her September arrest. (3-DEC-03)
    

The leading Muslim religious freedom activist, Imam Ilgar Ibragimoglu, Chief Coordinator of the Center for Freedom of Conscience and Religion (DEVAMM) and General Secretary of the Azarbaijani branch of the International Religious Liberty Association, was detained last night and is being held incommunicado for further investigation. (2-DEC-03)
 

HRH has received pictures from the 16 October post-election clashes between demonstrators and police at the so-called Freedom Square in the capital Baku. The pictures leave little doubt about the use of violence by both sides. Approximately 600 demonstrators were arrested. More than a hunded of those have yet to be released. Reports of torture of detainees have been confirmed by CoE and OSCE. To see the pictures, click the headline above. (1-DEC-03)
    

From November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to December 10, the International Human Rights´ Day, Zena Zenama organises a number of different activities against male violence. This problem is bigger than people think, says Jadranka Milisevic of Zena Zenama.(27-NOV-03)
 

The Norwegian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Traavik has agreed to speak at HRH´s seminar on the deteriorating human rights situation in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The seminar comes as HRH´s response to the protests, mass arrests and Azerbaijani authorities´ use of torture after the mid-October elections. (24-NOV-03)
  

The majority of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina´s has received a massive boost to its hope of joining the EU after it was announced that Bruxelles accepts the positive conclusions of the feasibility study, assessing BiH´s suitability for membership. (20-NOV-03)
 

The Ossietzsky prize, named after the Nobel laureate of 1936, the German pacifist and journalist Carl von Ossietzky, murdered by the Hitler regime in 1938, was awarded at the Human Rights House in Oslo today to the municipality of Stavanger, Norway. (19-NOV-03) 
  

Under the leadership of the Helsinki Commitee for Human Rights, the Human Rights House in Sarajevo has realised the pilot project “For Equal Possibilities – Realisation of the Human Rights of People with Special Needs” in the Canton of Tuzla in BiH and in the municipality of Bijeljina in the Republic of Srpska. (18-NOV-03)

Today, on the 18th of November, the President of the European Commission Romano Prodi is hosting a meeting to discuss the possible inclusion of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union. Joining the union will affect the country´s political make-up, its constitution and all bureaucratic institutions (18-NOV-03)
 

To accellerate the process towards opening a human rights house in Kampala, an interim board of more than ten central human rights NGOs covering all key areas of human rights violations in the Republic of Uganda was established late October. The board has already met several times and is about to launch a joint project. (18-NOV-03)
    

Bjørn Engesland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, expresses relief over the Norwegian State Attorney´s decision this week to charge with involuntary manslaughter the 28-year-old police officer involved in the fracas that lead to Tomasz Wacko´s death. Wacko, left, died on the 5th of June from prolonged lack of oxygen. (15-NOV-03)