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During a conference on Strengthening Human Rights in the Russian Federation organized by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in cooperation with Amnesty International Norway in Oslo last month, a resolution on establishing the Natalia Estemirova Documentation Center was adopted by a group of nine leading Russian and international human rights organizations.

Foodfirst Information and Action Network – FIAN – is co-hosting two seminars today, both as part of the annual Blue October campaign, bringing together some 20 Norwegian NGOs all concerned with the right to water and sanitation.

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.

Awarding the Nobel peace Prize to the brave Chinese human rights defender Liu Xiaobo will strengthen focus on human rights in the People´s Republic of China. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) hopes that the Nobel Peace prize to Liu Xiaobo will contribute to improving the situation for him and other human rights defenders in the People´s Republic of China. Liu is well known as an unwavering and unorthodox fighter for fundamental human rights in the People´s Republic of China.

Burmese exiled media groups are calling for international support in ending cyber attacks that have crippled two news websites over the past week. The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and The Irrawaddy magazine, which provide independent coverage of current affairs in Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar), have been the target of intense attacks which it is believed originate from the Burmese government.

Human Rights House Foundation and members of the South Caucasus Network of Human Rights Defenders are concerned about the restrictions on the freedom of assembly and association in the South Caucasus and call upon the Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) and its Member States to give priority to strengthen mechanism, ensuring that the right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly are respected.

October 3 was the day for all the Tibetans in exile all over the world to exercise their right to vote. All the Tibetans in exile went to cast their ballots to nominate candidates for the post of Tibetan Prime Minister and the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile.

The Human Dimension Session of the 2010 OSCE Review conference takes place in Warsaw from 30 September – 8 October 2010. The conference gives an opportunity for non-governmental organizations to raise issues of democracy and human rights in plenary sessions of the representatives of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) participating states. Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) will actively use this possibility.

A Tibetan student leader who was detained in March for leading a protest against the Chinese government on the second anniversary of the 2008 nation-wide uprising has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on 24 September.