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From January 1st 2004, Norway has ratified a new law concerning the treatment of drug abusers. The new law entitles drug abusers to ordinary patients´ rights, equal to those of any other patients. Egil Rafto House Foundation will focus upon the treatment of drug abusers from a human rights perspective. (28-Dec-03)

The Human Rights Network Group and its website Human Rights Online has initiated a public action for the Chechen Republic and a commemoration of the victims of the war there. The war, now in its tenth year, is still ongoing. (12-DEC-03)
 

The Serbian Civil Council / Movement for Equality in Bosnia and Hercegovina protects citizens of all nations in Bosnia and Hercegovina. These days, the organisation is making a special effort to fund and in other ways help Serbian families repair their homes. (17-DEC-03)
 

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)
      

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)