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With ´The day I will never forget,´ ducumenting the widespread practice of female circumcision in the Somali community in Nairobi, Republic of Kenya, Kim Longinotto further reconciled her position as one of Europe´s finest documentarist. At the ´Human Rights in Film´ festival, she received what may have been her greatest honour to date; the prize for outstanding commitment to human rights in film. (15-DEC-03)
  

The ten-year-old Homar Rza, an Azerbaijani who has spent only two years in Norway, took the opportunity at the Human Rights House Foundation´s Republic of Azerbaijan conference in Oslo before Christmas to present her own poem called ‘Peace,’ but dealing also with, war, friendship and freedom. Homar presented her poem in Norwegian. Read it, and an English translation too, below. (13-DEC-03)
 

Yesterday, on the 10th of December, the Human Rights House in Bosnia and Hercegovina opened its doors and hosted a well attended round table to mark the 56th International Human Rights Day. The event generated lots of attention, not only to the human rights cause, but also to the ideas and initiatives, aims and activities carried out by the six organisations in the house. (11-DEC-03)
 

The Human Rights House in Sarajevo opened its doors yesterday for a round table to mark the 56th International Human Rights Day. The event generated lots of attention, not only to the human rights cause, but also to the aims and activities carried out by the six organisations in the house. (11-DEC-03)
 

For the third time, the Warsaw Human Rights House hosts the ´Human Rights in Film´ festival. This year, with more than 60 films, ranging from cinematic portraits, to feature length documentaries approaching their subject matter in an almost fictional narrative style, the festival is bigger and better than ever. (10-DEC-03)
    

HRH has received many more pictures to document the violent way with which the police broke up the post-election demonstrations in the Republic of Azerbaijan mid October. The pictures add evidence to the testimonies of the unacceptable behaviour of both parties, but with the police the better armed and thus capable of causing the more serious damage. (09-DEC-03)
      

While in Oslo this week to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, Shirin Ebadi will launch her book ´Democracy, Human Rights and Islam in Modern Islamic Republic of Iran. Psychological, Social and Cultural Perspectives´. The book, a critical analysis of contemporary Islamic Republic of Iran focussing on family issues, education and the economy, has been written and edited in co-operation with the Rafto Foundation, one of the organisations at the Human Rights House in Bergen. (8-DEC-03)
     

The Dec 7 Russian parliamentary elections dramatically demonstrated the failure of the smaller, non-centrist and opposition parties to make an impression on its country´s politics. According to a preliminary report, the leading ´Edinstvo´ party, advertising itself as ´acting together with the President´ took 36,8% of the votes. Only three other parties (no Rights-wings among them) surpassed the 5% level required to enter the new parliament. The analysts say the Duma is likely to be not just pro-presidential, but purely ´presidential´. (08-DEC-03)
 

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has adopted the concluding remarks of the 4th periodic report of the Russian Federation on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Having welcomed dialogue between NGOs and the official delegation, the Committee identified 27 ´negative´ and only 5 ´positive´ areas in the field of social and economic rights in the Russian Federation. (06-DEC-03)
 

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has recognized the poor living conditions in the Chechen Republic as its biggest concern in all of the Russian Federation. In its concluding remarks on Russia´s 4th periodic report on the implementation of the Committee´s International Covenant, the Russian State is urged to allocate sufficient funds to reinstate basic services, including health and educational infrastructure, in the Chechen Republic. (06-DEC-03)
 

HRH has received fresh photographic evidence that participants in the demonstrations following the rigged mid-October elections in Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy handed police treatment. The three pictures show wounds from what looks like severe beatings to the victims´ head, back and legs. To view the photographs, click the headline above. (8-DEC-03)
  

The programme for the Republic of Azerbaijan seminar (see the 4th of December article below), to take place in Oslo this coming Friday, is ready and can be viewed in English below. Keynote speakers include the Norwegian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Traavik, the Azerbaijani human rights activists Leyla Yunus and Mehman Aliyev and Senior Researcher at ECON Leiv Lunde. (8-DEC-03)