Latest

It is four years since the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead as she was entering the lift to her apartment in Moscow. Since then, more journalists and human rights defenders have been killed in the Russian Federation. Others have faced threats. No media outlet has lost more staff members than Novaya Gazeta – Politkovskaya’s employer. Neither the murderers nor any possible assassins’ paymasters have been convicted.

Norwegian NGOs criticize Norway for being a brake in the UN human rights work, and require Norwegian authorities to sign UN agreement UN agreement on an international appeals body for economic, social and cultural rights. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural rights comes into force if at least 10 countries ratify it.

José Raúl Vera López (65), the Catholic bishop of Saltillo, Northern Mexico, is awarded the Rafto Prize 2010 for his struggle for human rights and social justice. He is an uncompromising critic of power abuse and a fearless defender of migrants, indigenous peoples, and other groups at risk in Mexican society.

Alim Abdiriyim, son of Uyghur activist Rebiya Kadeer, is being tortured and otherwise ill-treated in detention, according to his family. They believe his life is at risk. He has been in prison in Urumqi, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of the People´s Republic of China since 2006 on tax evasion charges. Amnesty International Norway urges Chinese government to ensure that Alim Abdiriyim is not subjected to torture in prison and calls to write an appeal.

The recipient of the Rafto Human Rights Prize for 2010 will be announced on 23 September 2010 at the Rafto Human Rights House in Bergen. The announcement of the recipient will be webcasted on the Rafto website. The Prize laureate will be honoured at a ceremony on 7 November 2010, at the National Venue of Theatre in Bergen, Norway.

Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have imposed travel restrictions on the region’s ethnic minorities since the regional capital Urumqi was rocked by deadly ethnic rioting last year, local residents and travel industry sources said.

Ali Salem Tamek, Brahim Dahane (right), and Ahmed Naciri (below) are well-known Sahrawi activists held since October 8, 2009, on charges of “harming state security,” without trial. They were among seven activists arrested upon their return from visiting Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. Their case was referred from civil to military court because of “undermining external state security.” They are held in the prison without trial.

Rebiya Kadeer, the most well-known spokesperson for China’s ethnic Uyghur minority and the 2004 Rafto Prize laureate, has used her five years of freedom since her release from the Chinese prison in 2005 to raise the issue of the repression Uyghurs face and their struggle for human rights. She was recently banned from entering Taiwan for three years.

Veteran radio journalist Barkhat Awale, right, was killed by crossfire on 24 August in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, according to local journalists and news reports. He is the second journalist killed on duty in the Republic of Somalia this year. The security situation worsens in Mogadishu as a result of a major offensive launched on 23 August by the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab.