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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.

In the Indian city Dharamshala his Holiness the Dalai Lama addressed on 30 August 2010 the delegates of the first National General Meeting, underlining the need for unity and a robust democratic administration in exile to keep alive the hopes and aspirations of Tibetans living inside Tibet.

Sonam Rinchen and Sonam Dhondup, two students who helped to edit the Tibetan student magazine “Namchak”, have been sentenced to two years in jail. Two other editors of the magazine, who were arrested at the same time as them in March, are still awaiting trial.

Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Bjørn Engesland, presented on 27 August 2010 the award to Evgeniy Zhovtis, right, in the prison in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Republic of Kazakhstan, where Mr. Zhovtis is currently being held. Together with his organization, the Republic of Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, Evgeny Zhovtis has been one of the most significant human rights defenders in the Republic of Kazakhstan for two decades.