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Kariane Westrheim, right, Associate Professor at the University of Bergen, was detained by the police at the airport in Istanbul on 24 April. Westrheim is a former member of the Rafto Foundation’s Board and the Rafto Prize Committee.

Spring campaign is all about security and human rights, with particular emphasis on the illegal arrests and disappearances. Come to our stand outside of Silver Mountain in Stavanger on Thursday at the 29 April 15.00, and sign our petition, you too! We also need person to keep the stand!

Amnesty International has condemned as ‘absurd’ a legal hearing aiming to revoke the legal licences of two Chinese human rights lawyers for having, among other things, in the framework of their professional duties, defended migrants, Falun Gong practitioners, dispossessed peasants, HIV victims and the parents of children contaminated by tampered milk.

The President of Western Sahara, Mohammed Abdelaziz, in a strongly worded letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon complains about his poor leadership and unwillingness to fulfil the UN’s mandate in the Moroccan-occupied territory. Mr Abdelaziz demands changes to the UN peacekeeping mission.

Kurdish Leyla Zana, the 1994 Rafto Prize laureate, was sentenced to three years imprisonment by Diyarbakir Court in the Republic of Turkey on 8 April, reports the EU Republic of Turkey Civic Commission.

European countries must reject once and for all the dangerous practice of relying on “no torture” promises from governments with proven records of torture, Amnesty International said in a new report released on 12 March 2010.

The Polisario Front’s Negotiator at the United Nations and Coordinator with The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), M’hamed Kheddad, said on 6 April 2010 in Brussels that the Sahrawi government had called the United Nations to supervise Human rights in the liberated territories and refugee camps.

Amnesty International Norway calls on those exercising authority in Kyrgyz Republic to respect and protect human rights while restoring public order after three days of violent unrest reportedly left scores dead and hundreds injured.

According to Amnesty International’s annual death penalty overview, never have so few countries applied the death penalty than in 2009. For the first time since organization started keeping records, not a single execution was carried out in all of Europe including former Soviet Union.