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For some 20 years, Aung San Suu Kyi has been denied her rights, held by force behind the walls of her home, and punished for her faith in democracy, human rights and in the rights of the people of Burma to live free from fear. Yesterday Aung San Suu Kyi was freed. International organisations call on the government of Burma to immediately release all of the prisoners of conscience in the country.

Award-winning Iranian author Mansour Koushan receives the Ossietzky award for 2010. A key novelist, playwright, poet, theatre and film director and literary critic in his home country, Koushan took part in the establishment of an independent Iranian writer’s association. In exile, he remains an outspoken critic of Iran’s repressive regime.

A complaint concerning the unfair trial and subsequent degrading treatment of Yevgeniy Zhovtis, one of Kazakhstan’s leading human rights defenders, was filed to the UN Human Rights Committee this week. Zhovtis received the 2010 Norwegian Helsinki Committee’s Sakharov Freedom Award.

On 7 November, the first general election in nearly two decades will take place in Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar). The media is restricted from reporting on opposition campaigns and people are denied the right to freedom of expression. Human rights organisations are gravely concerned that the upcoming elections will not be free, fair and inclusive and do not believe that it will be a meaningful step towards the promotion of human rights and democracy in Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar).

Eight Norwegian nongovernmental human rights organisations, including Amnesty International Norway, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and Human Rights House Foundation, showed their support to a pro-democracy civil Russian movement “Strategy 31“ by organising a demonstration in Oslo.

Norwegian Mission to the East invites to an open seminar in Burma: Aftermath of the Burmese elections and the road map to democracy: What role for the ethnic nationalities?

Recent violations against human rights defenders in Ukraine raise concerns about their safety. Two cases of assaults against activists Dmytro Groysman and Andrei Fedosov, right, point to a worsening climate for human rights in the country and for those who seek to defend them.

Burma goes to vote on 7 November, twenty years after the previous election was rejected by the regime.

On 31 October eight Norwegian organizations will show their solidarity with Russian pro-democracy NGOs by gathering in front of parliament and claiming democracy in Russia.