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Myanmar’s government must halt its repression of ethnic minority activists before forthcoming national and local elections, Amnesty International warned in a major report released on 16 February 2010.

In a letter to the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre on February 18, the NGO forum for human rights has sent its recommendations for cases in need of particular attention during this years’ sessions in the UN Human Rights Council, in the general Assembly and in Norway’s bilateral consultations.

In Almaty, the city court yesterday lifted the ban put on opposition newspapers earlier this month by the same court on statements criticizing president Nazarbayev’s son in law Kulibayev. The court also rejected libel complaints filed by Mr.Kulibayev.

-What you see now in Islamic Republic of Iran is a government in fear of its own people, says Shirin Ebadi, right, Iranian lawyer and human rights activist. -The Tehran hardliners’ position is weakening by the day. But as the people’s loyalty is diminishing, the violence is escalating fast, added the 2003 Nobel Peace Price laureate when she visited the Human Rights House in Oslo yesterday.

On February 05, 2010 the trial of Arshaluys Hakobyan, monitor and human rights
defender continued at the Court of First Instance of Kentron and Nork-Marash districts of Yerevan. The prosecutor declined the charge brought against Hakobyan on the ground of lack of evidence. According to it the Court found the defendant innocent of crime and acquitted him.

The newspaper “Svoboda Slova” (Freedom of Speech) was confiscated by the authorities of Almaty because of its coverage of corruption claims against President Nazarbayev’s son in law. – The confiscation is in clear breach of OSCE commitments on free press and the rule of law, says Bjørn Engesland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

5 February marks the 13th anniversary of the Ghulya massacre, where more than 30 Uighur Uighurs were shot dead by Chinese police forces during a peaceul demonstration in East Turkestan.

On 5 February, Thailand started deportation of about 3000 refugees from the country back to Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar). The Norwegian Burma Committee urges Norway to protest. “In Burma they will risk the slave labor and forced recruitment into the military,” said Inger Lise Husøy, general manager of the Norwegian Burma Committee.

In only two weeks, the appeal ‘Gjør som FN sier, Jens’ (‘Do what the UN says, Jens’), got the support of more than 20 organisations, and gathered more than 12.000 individuals’ signatures. The appeal, asking the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, right, to follow the UN’s recommendations in refugee issues, was initiated by the Norwegian section of Amnesty International, Norwegian People’s Aid and Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers.