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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.

Sama Bahmani, a member of the Coalition of Human Rights Advocates in Islamic Republic of Iran, was detained on July 23, along with three teachers and civil rights activists in the Kurd part of Islamic Republic of Iran. All four were charged with efforts to prepare a report on human rights violations in the region. Right, Sanandaj, the city where they were held and allegedly mistreated and kept in solitary confinement.

The Norwegian Tibet Committee invites anyone interested to its traditional joint Christmas meeting with the Norway-Nepal Association.

The Georgian Human Right Centre has handed over documentation detailing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity during and after the armed conflict between Georgia and the Russian Federation to Mr. Matthew Brubacher, a representative of the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court. Right, Brubacher together with Simon Papuashvili, far right, of the Georgian Human Rights Centre.

Even though we have had differences with South-Ossetia for a long time, we had reached a stage were our peoples did not have much differences any more. We interacted; we traded and crossed the borders back and forth. However, the differences were never solved on a political level, and for the authorities, only war was the solution, the Georgian Ombudsman Sozar Subari said at yesterday’s seminar held by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, where some 40 participants were present discussing the situation in Georgia after the war.