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The Amnesty prize for 2009 goes to psychologist Nora Sveaas, right, for her strong engagement towards refugees’ and asylum seekers’ rights, and for her several years’ long work to secure adequate health care for people fleeing torture and mistreatment. Through her efforts, Sveaass has contributed to bringing a well-hidden problem into the public domain.

A new report shows that conditions in Eastern Burma are now comparable to those of the war-torn Darfur region in Western Republic of the Sudan. As a result of the systematic violations of human rights by the Burmese Military Junta, at least 75.000 people became refugees and more than half a million were internally displaced in the last year.

Norwegian PEN, the Human Rights House Foundation and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee are alarmed by the information that representatives of Special Operative Department (SOD) of Adjara region within the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia have attempted to exert pressure and blackmail Tedo Jorbenadze, head of the investigative reporting team of the “Batumelebi” Newspaper. We call upon the Georgian authorities to promptly investigate both this and previous incidents of pressure on “Batumelebi” and to take all appropriate measures to ensure a safe and enabling environment for all journalists in Georgia.

50% increase in complaints of forced labour and more than half involving children and young people enrolled in the army. The military junta has inserted a provision in the Constitution that authorizes the use of civilians in the construction of roads, infrastructure, such as porters or minesweepers.

The Norwegian Centre for Human Rights hosts the screening of the United Nations’ review of Norway under the Universal periodic review mechanism. Following breakfast and a brief introduction by Kristin Høgdahl of the NCHR on what the UPR mechanism is, the actual review session in Geneva will be screened live on widescreen. After the review, from 12:00 to 12:30, there will be a brief concluding discussion.

On the night of 18 November, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee announced via Twitter the dramatic news from HR Center Memorial that one of their employees, Russian citizen Bakhrom Khamroev, had been arrested by the Kyrgyz security services, and later that he had been deported to Moscow.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi in a meeting where Burma’s Prime Minister Thein Sein attended. Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 14 years under house arrest since 1989, has recently become a hero of a book for children, written by former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.

The conference, which was last held in Edinburgh in 2005, will be opened by Dalai Lama. The central theme of the conference: how parliamentarians around the world can contribute to a solution to the Tibet conflict.

Omer has reported for numerous international media outlets, including the Washington Report, Inter Press Service, Ny Tid and Morgenbladet, and worked for Norwegian People’s Aid in Gaza; he also founded the Rafah Today blog. The prize by Norwegian PEN was awarded on 16 November at House of Literature, Oslo.