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Amnesty International together with some 270 other non governmental organizations across Europe, among them the Human Rights House Foundation, has signed a petition opposing the imposition of fees on applicants seeking justice in the European Court of Human Rights. After an inter-governmental conference examining proposed reforms to the Court. European Amnesty International said leaders must protect the independence and integrity of the Court.

26 April 2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Gennady Grushevoy, the 1999 Rafto Prize laureate from Belarus, and the organisation ”Children of Chernobyl” mark the event with a peace tour from Belarus to Geneva and candle action.

A judgment handed down on 15 April 2011 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicting two Croatian generals of responsibility for crimes against humanity is a strong victory for Croatia’s war victims and shows that even the most high-level perpetrators of crimes under international law cannot evade justice.

More than 100 activists detained, three well-known critics of authorities arrested in last month in China. Famous China’s artist Ai Weiwe and prominent blogger Yang Hengjun were detained in the airports. Prominent pro-democracy activist Liu Xianbin was jailed for 10 years for writing articles critical of the government. Is this a new wave of crackdown on dissidents, a new kind of internet dissidents called ‘netizens’?

Bishop Raúl Vera, the 2010 Rafto Prize laureate, proposed on 10 March in Mexico that a temporary visa for migrants who travel through the country be established, as part of the revision of state’s migration law. The purpose of such a visa should be to make the several hundred thousand migrants passing through the country each year less vulnerable to assault.

The Ethiopian opposition reports that over 250 of its central members have been arrested during the week. The arrests are seen in connection with a planned mass protest. Opposition leaders recently assured they would not take a leading role in any possible mass protests.

On 3 March a hearing in the trial of Oleg Orlov took place in Russia. The head of the Russian NGO Human Rights Centre Memorial is charged with slander for saying that Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov was responsible for the death of his colleague, human rights defender Natalia Estemirova, who was abducted and murdered in 2009.

To be a journalist in Uganda means to be a representative of a dangerous profession. In February 2011 one journalist was shot by soldiers and six were attacked by mob. All of them suffered while covering elections in the country. Violence is being investigated.

English PEN is calling on our members to join a worldwide reading campaign for our Honorary Member imprisoned writer and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo. The aim of the campaign, organised by the Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin, is to encourage as many of Liu’s supporters around the world to stage a reading of Liu Xiaobo’s poem ‘You Wait for me with Dust’ on 20 March 2011.