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The application for the 2011 session of the annual Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) at Columbia University is now available.

The new Head of the Friends of the Rafto Foundation is Else Kathrine Nesmoen (41). Ms Nesmoen is an Advisor at the Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education in Bergen and holds a Masters degree in Political Science from the American University of Cairo. Ms Nesmoen says her main goal is to increase the number of Rafto Foundation’s supporting members significantly.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists and the International Federation for Human Rights delivered a nine-point list for a debate on illegal detention which was held on 2-3 June 2010 in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. List contains measures that states must implement promptly to put an end to illegal detention and to ensure accountability by those responsible. Not all countries are positive to the recommendations of human rights organisations.

Amnesty International launched “Report 2010: State of the World’s Human Rights”, which documents abuses in 159 countries. The organization said that powerful governments are blocking advances in international justice by standing above the law on human rights, shielding allies from criticism and acting only when politically convenient.

The new chairperson of the Rafto Foundation’s Board of Directors is Anne Kloster Holst (43). She is an adviser at the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education (SIU) in Bergen. The new chairperson expressed a strong desire to to help the Rafto Foundation continue its positive development.

The Moroccan-EFTA free trade agreement does not cover Western Sahara, according to Norwegian and Swiss authorities. This will have multi-million euro consequences for a Norwegian firm that systematically mislabeled Western Sahara imports as Moroccan, and illustrates how the European Commission is on collision course with rest of the international community. This case follows Western Sahara phosphate export scandals in last two years.

Tibetan writer Tagyal (pen-name Shogdung) was arrested on 23 April 2010 in the People´s Republic of China after criticising the authorities in an open letter. Tagyal may be held solely for peacefully exercising his right to free expression which is protected under Article 19 of the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which the People´s Republic of China is a signatory.

An early February morning in 2003, the apartment of the family Al-Arian stormed by the FBI. Shocked family members, as father, Sami, being led away in handcuffs by armed U.S. law enforcement. In 12 hours crawled the tens of FBI agents, the family’s apartmen. Private papers, diaries, letters, books, photo albums, CDs and video tapes were seized. That evening news programs showed the whole world a news conference from Washington, where former Attorney General John Ashcroft said that they had arrested one of the main men behind a global terrorist cell in Tampa, Florida.

The Left Party of Sweden (Vänsterpartiet) has recalled its decision to recognise the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), during its 38th Congress, if it wins the September 19 elections together with the Social democratic Party and Green Party, in what is now known as the ‘Red-Green Coalition,’ according to a statement of the Polisario Representation in Sweden.