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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.

Police in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on 17 August responded with lethal force to a group of Tibetans protesting the expansion of a gold mining operation they say is harming the environment, according to Tibetan sources. At least four Tibetans may have been killed in a standoff with police.

Junta-ruled Burma has suspended visas on arrival for tourists from September ahead of its first elections in two decades, officials said on 23 August 2010, potentially restricting access to the country for foreign observers. Meanwhile Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy announced on 20 August an official boycott of the election.

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) is deeply concerned with continued reports of violence and ill-treatment during government operations in southern Kyrgyz Republic. According to NHC, some government structures are still mistreating local inhabitants under the guise of weapons searches and ongoing operations following the deeply tragic June events.

As the Burmese authorities have announced the date of the national election for 7 November, the opposition has started its activity. The main aim of one of the opposition groups, young activists called Generation Wave (GW), is to urge the people of Burma to boycott the elections, given the undemocratic nature of the 2008 Constitution. They spread posters with a text “You have the right to not vote” and with a picture of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the background.

European Union member states should publicly support the establishment of an international Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in September, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to EU foreign ministers on 11 August 2010.

Footage of Runggye Adak, a Tibetan nomad now serving an eight-year prison sentence for peacefully denouncing Chinese policies in Tibet and calling for the return of the Dalai Lama, was released on 1 August 2010 as Tibetans and their supporters intensify the global campaign for his release. Four Tibetan activists were imprisoned on 30 July for pasting leaflets containing demands for Tibetan freedom and return of the Dalai Lama.