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The root causes of the unrest in Zhanaozen are not isolated to this particular region, similar social challenges can be found all over Kazakhstan, Essenbek Ukteshbayev and Ainur Kurmanov, two independent trade union activists from Kazakhstan said during a seminar hosted by NHC in Oslo on 2 February.

The credibility of the upcoming Presidential Elections in Russia is waning after Central Elections Commission’s refusal to register the liberal opposition leader, Grigory Yavlinsky for the Presidential race.

Turkey is on the way back where the country was 20 years ago: The country ranks among the world’s worst when it comes to imprisonment of writers and journalists. Sara Whyatt – Program Director, Freedom of Expression, at PEN International made it clear that the development has been going the wrong way under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Member organisations of the International Partnership Group for Azerbaijan (IPGA) are deeply concerned by the continued politically motivated imprisonment of persons in Azerbaijan for exercising their right to freedom of expression. The IPGA calls on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to take immediate action to ensure the release of these persons and to hold Azerbaijan accountable for its obligations as a Member State.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi confirmed that she will run for a seat in parliament, her party said Tuesday, a move that will infuse April by-elections with legitimacy, star power and historic significance. Suu Kyi said last year that she would run for parliament but had appeared to backtrack since then. A victory would give the Nobel Peace Prize winner and longtime political prisoner a voice in parliament for the first time in her decades-long role as the country’s opposition leader.

On Sunday 15 January, Kazakhstan held early Parliamentary elections after President Nazarbayev expressed that more than one party now should be represented in Parliament and law amendments were made to provide for this. However, despite promises of democratization and the recent period as chair of the OSCE, several violations took place and did not allow for a fair and democratic competition for the seats in Parliament.

The Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of PEN International is appalled by the killing of Raúl Régulo Garza Quirino, reporter for the weekly newspaper La Ultima Palabra. The journalist was gunned down on 6 January 2012 by a gang in Cadereyta, state of Nuevo León, and is the first journalist in Mexico to be murdered in 2012. The WiPC calls on the Mexican authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into Garza’s killing and to bring to an end Mexico’s climate of impunity in which attacks such as these take place

In October 2011, a number of writers and human rights activists were arrested in Turkey, including the famous and award-winning publisher, writer and activist Ragip Zarakolu.

The absence of information following several violent clashes on 16 December between police and demonstrators in Zhanaozen exemplifies Kazakhstan’s lack of progress in protecting and promoting the right to freedom of expression. Recently everal international NGOs including article 19, outlined necessary reforms that the Kazakh government must make to demonstrate its genuine commitment to democracy and uphold the rights to freedom of expression and information