Latest

Navanethem Pillay, right, the top United Nations human rights official, has called for ensuring the protection of Afghan civilians, as new figures show an almost 40 per cent increase in conflict-related deaths in the first eight months of 2008 compared to the same period last year (22-SEP-08).
 

-We know that human rights are essential to peace, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, right, said in his message to mark the International Day of Peace, which is observed every year on 21 September. This year´s celebrations held special meaning since 2008 also marks the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (21-SEP-08)
 

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Chinese authorities to release Dhondup Wangchen, who made a documentary about Tibet, and Jigme Gyatso, his friend and camera assistant. They have been unjustly detained since March 2008 for filming interviews with Tibetans, above all in the Amdo region of Tibet. (18-SEP-08)
 

In an attempt to satisfy the People´s Republic of China, Nepal has announced its intentions to deport the 6.000 Tibetan refugees who have entered Nepal illegally or have never been granted a refugee certificate. The figure equals 30% of the 20.000 Tibetan refugees living in four camps in Pokhara, Nepal, right. (17-Sep-08)
 

Amnesty International is concerned about more than 50 imprisoned members of Iran’s Kurdish minority who are currently on hunger strike in prison in protest against continuing torture, executions and other gross abuses of human rights. There are growing concerns for their safety as a result of their hunger strike. (12-SEP-08)
 

Organisations within the Human Rights House Network have signed letters to the Ministries of Justice and the Interior in Kyrgyz Republic expressing concern about the trial today against Ivar Dale, right, the Bishkek based Central Asia representative of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC). Dale is accused of working for a non-registered organisation, which according to Kyrgyzstani law is illegal. Read the letters to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior. (05-SEP-08)
 

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) today welcomed with great relief the ruling by the Tehran Supreme Court overturning a death sentence against Kurdish journalist Adnan Hassanpour, right, because of a procedural error. The court decided that the journalist, who had been convicted of “subversive activities against national security”, could not be considered as a “mohareb” (an enemy of God) and sent his case back to the lower court in Sanandaj, in Iranian Kurdistan. RSF calls for his release and dismissal of the case. (04-SEP-08)
 

Ivar Dale, right, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) regional representative to Central Asia will be tried in a local court in Bishkek on Thursday 4 September. Dale has been accused of illegal work in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. The trial is the next step in a series of attacks by Kyrgyz authorities against the NHC office in Kyrgyz Republic, which started in June 2008 when the office was raided. (02-SEP-08)
 

In collaboration with the Georgian organizations Caucasia and Georgian Human Rights Center and the Austrian Helsinki Committee,the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) is planning to document war crimes and other violations that might have taken place in connection with the armed conflict between Georgia and the Russian Federation. NHC’s Aage Borchgrevinck, right, wants to travel to Georgia in the beginning of September to start collecting data. (01-SEP-2008)