Latest

When it comes to the Internet, have some publications given up on all their ethical and editorial responsibility?

A torchlight procession for peace in Gaza is organised in solidarity with the victims of the war in the Middle East. Everyone who wishes a peacefull solution for this conflict is invited to take part in this non-political peace demonstration, in which many civil society organisations take part.
Demonstrations will also be held in Bergen, Trondheim, Tromsø, Stavanger and many other places in Norway.
For more information: check http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=72561090184.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of ACAT, FIDH, OMCT, Global Witness and Frontline, strongly condemn the closing by Iranian authorities of the offices of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, led by Iran’s Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi yesterday.

Mohammad Sadiq Kabudvand, right, founder of the Human Rights Organization of Kurdistan, allegedly suffered a heart attack on 17 December. Amnesty International believes Kabudvand is not receiving adequate medical care for his serious health condition in the Iranian Evin Prison.

Farzad Kamangar, right, was arrested by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence officials along with two other members of the Kurdish minority, Ali Heydariyan and Farhad Vakili, in Tehran around July 2006. The three men were sentenced to death on 25 February 2008 after being convicted of “moharebeh” (enmity towards God), a charge leveled against those accused of taking up arms against the state, in connection with their alleged membership of the armed group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Zarganar and Nay Phone Latt, two Burmese bloggers, have been chosen as joint winners in the “Cyber-dissident” category of the Reporters Without Borders awards. Dubbed the “Burmese Charlie Chaplin,” comedian Zarganar defended human rights and denounced the military government’s abuses in sketches and entries in the blog he had been keeping since August 2007.

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has filed a complaint to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights regarding actions taken by the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) in Kyrgyz Republic against the NHC Regional Representative, Ivar Dale.

“Norway does not provide human rights defenders the protection they need, and thus the government violates its own stated mission to support and protect human rights defenders in practice, as Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has stated in a speech in connection with today’s 60-year anniversary of the World Declaration on Human Rights,” says Norwegian Helsinki Committee’s adviser Aage Borchgrevink.

On Saturday, 6 December, General Secretary Bjørn Engesland and Enver Djuliman, Director of Human Rights Education, were fined for having violated Russian visa regulations. While the Russian authorities stated that this was a routine visa control, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee fears the action appends to the pattern of authorities’ ongoing efforts to prevent human rights groups from working in the Russian Federation.