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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.

Is Russian policy changing? Are there traces in President Dmitry Medvedev’s rhetoric to this effect? And if so, are these traces indicators of real change, or is it just that; rhetorics? These were the questions discussed by human rights activists and researchers from the Russian Federation at a seminar hosted by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in Oslo on 22 September.

In a statement published on 15 September, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee expresses concerns regarding the severe threats against Natalia Radzina, Svetlana Kalinkina and Nicolai Khalezin. According to NHC, after the tragic death of Aleh Byabenin on 3 September 2010, pressure has mounted against journalists and friends of Byabenin, who have questioned the authorities’ hastened conclusion that he committed suicide.

Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Moscow – among them partners of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee such as Moscow Helsinki Group, Memorial, Golos, Human Rights Watch, and Centre for Human Rights and Democracy – received letters from the Prosecutor’s Office late on September 13. They were requested to present all documents detailing their activities early the next day.

The Fritt Ord Foundation invites the public to a screening of the documentary film Burma’s Nuclear Ambitions and a debate in the run-up to the general elections in Burma this coming November. The screening will be held at Uranienborgveien 2 in Oslo on Tuesday, 21 September 2010, from 5-7 p.m.

For the second time in two weeks, a justice of the peace for Tverskoi District Court of Moscow sentenced Lev Ponomarev, a leading Russian human rights defender, to four days of administrative detention for his involvement in a peaceful assembly. On 7 September 2010 the court found Ponomarev guilty of “disobeying police orders.”

With just two months to go to the general elections that the military government plans to hold on 7 November, there are still no grounds for thinking that the Burmese and foreign media will be able to cover the campaign and polling freely. Prior censorship remains in effect and that rules out any possibility of a democratic election. Without press freedom, the election will just be a sham.