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In a letter to Vietnam´s President Nguyen Minh Triet, the Rafto Foundation´s Executive Director Therese Jebsen and the Chairman of the Board of the Prize Committee Arne Liljedahl Lynngård convey their concern regarding the ongoing detentions of Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, right, Mr. Somsak Khunmi and Mr. Nguyen The Vu. The three are charged with terrorism, although all they did was to promotoe peaceful democratic change in Vietnam. (06-MAY-08)
 

On 13 May, Nguyen The Vu, Nguyen Quoc Quan and Somsak Kunmi will stand trial in Vietnam, charged with terrorism. Together with three others, they were arrested 17 November last year. ´Free them now ´ is an international campaign to prevent these three and others from being sentenced, potentially with heavy prison terms. (05-MAY-08)
 

Amnesty International  deplores today´s expulsion by the Moroccan authorities of a delegation of Action by Christians against Torture (Action des chrétiens pour l´abolition de la torture, ACAT) as another setback against human rights defenders working on Western Sahara. The organization was in the country to investigate the human rights situation in Western Sahara. (25-APR-08)
 

Leyla Zana, a well know political spokesperson for the Kurds in the Republic of Turkey and the 1994 Rafto Prize Laureate has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by a Turkish Court in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. The court´s judgment said she violated the Anti-Terrorism Law after a speech she held at a Kurdish Newroz Festival in 2007. (12-APR-08) 

The Rafto Foundation and the European Law Student Association in Bergen invites to the international seminar “Focus: the People´s Republic of China, Human Rights and 2008 Beijing Olympics” on Friday, April 11 from 10:15-15:15. Rebiya Kadeer, right, the 2004 Rafto Prize laureate, is one of the speakers. (07-APR-08)
 

In the new issue of Norwegian Refugee Council´s Thematic Reports, the focus is on the conflict in Western Sahara, Africa´s last colony. While the Sahrawis, the original population of the country, suffer oppression and displacement, the international community has chosen to look the other way. (28-MAR-08)
 

February 5, 2007 marks the 11th anniversary of a brutal crackdown on a peaceful demonstration in the city of Ghulja in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People´s Republic of China. Remembering the massacre, the Rafto Foundation invites to a ceremony at the Human Rights Plaza in Bergen on 5 February at 16:00. (30-JAN-08)
 

The conflict between Western Sahara´s independence movement Polisario and Morocco has reached its most critical point since the ceasefire in 1991, writes Tom Varghese (right), former leader of the Rafto Foundation´s student group. Rising tensions, a deteriorating humanitarian situation and a diplomatic deadlock are nurturing a steadily growing fraction within Polisario, pressuring the current leadership to return to arms (14-JAN-08).

For 17 years the people of Western Sahara have waited for a solution to the territorial conflict with Morocco. The promise to give the Sahrawies a possibility to decide over their future through a referendum has not been kept. Polisario, Western Sahara´s independence movement, is considering leaving the negotiation table and returning to war (14-JAN-08).