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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

At least 14 people have been killed and 86 people wounded in clashes between police and demonstrators in the Mangistau region in Western Kazakhstan. The unrest follows seven months of conflicts between striking oil workers and authorities, and reportedly started in Zhanozen on 16 December, when people attacked a stage set up for the Independence Day event. – It is of paramount importance that investigations into the clashes and the resulting deaths are conducted in an independent and transparent way, said Bjørn Engesland, Secretary General of NHC

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) has worked closely with Georgian and international human rights groups in order to document crimes committed during and after the 2008 war between the Russian Federation and Georgia, and monitor domestic investigations of these crimes. Three Georgian human rights groups have contributed with information to this report, namely Article 42 of the Constitution, the Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (GYLA) and The Georgian Human Rights centre (HRC). However, responsibility for the analyses and conclusions rests with the NHC

The democracy- and human rights activist, Vaclav Havel, died on 11 December. -With Vaclav Havel’s death, Europe has lost one of their great leading stars for democracy, a champion of humanism and human rights in Europe, says Bjørn Engesland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.