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The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) today called on the Burmese regime to immediately allow international relief agencies unrestricted access to Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar), to deal with the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the cyclone that hit the country on 2 and 3 May 2008. (07-MAY-08)

-Burma’s May 10 referendum on a new constitution is a sham process aimed at entrenching the military, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report released today. -So far all independent reports tell the same story. HRW’s report is just one more reason why the people of Burma should tell the regime ‘NO’ in the upcoming referendum, says Marte Graff Jenssen, information officer in The Norwegian Burma Committee (NBC). (01-MAY-08)
 

The International Contact Group (ICG), a loose network of countries trying to affect the situation in the Republic of Somalia meets in Oslo tomorrow to discuss the political process, the security situation and the humanitarian conditions in the country. To address ICG´s disputable role, representatives of many of the different Somali organisations in Norway will demonstrate outside the meeting. (29-APR-08)
 

Remzi Kartal , right, Vice President of Kongra-Gel, the Kurdish National Congress, visited the Human Rights House in Oslo on Friday, and painted a bleak picture of the situation in Kurdistan. Kartal, who lives in exile in Belgium, has spent time in prison and cannot go back to Republic of Turkey. Like his fellow political representative Leyla Zana, he once presented his oath to the Turkish parliament in Kurdish. (28-APR-08)
 

Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association are outraged by the methods being used by the military government to prevent the media from freely covering the views and activities of the supporters of a No vote in a 10 May referendum on a new constitution. -Let the press and the public discuss the draft constitution, says Marte Graff Jenssen, right, of the Norwegian Burma Committee. (24-APR-08)
 

Reporters Without Borders called yesterday for the foreign news media to be allowed back immediately into Tibet and nearby provinces with a Tibetan population, where the Chinese authorities have maintained a news blackout and have been conducting a massive propaganda campaign for the past six weeks. (24-APR-08)
 

This was the question left hanging in the air by Kesang Takla, right, Tibet’s Minister for International Relations, in her press conference at the Human Rights House in Oslo today. Takla further emphasized that the official Tibetan position is not that the Olympics should not have been held in the People´s Republic of China, or that the rest of the world ought to boycott the forthcoming Summer Games, but that each participating individual and nation should listen to their conscience and act accordingly. (16-APR-08)
 

The Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi says that she has received numerous death threats recently. The threats have been presented in the form of notes on the door to the building where she has her office. One of the notes simply states that she will soon die. -The threats against me and my family have become more serious, warns Ebadi. (15-APR-08)
 

Per-Yngve Monsen, formerly employed by the Norwegian branch of the German multinational company Siemens, has been rewarded for his courage and stamina in reporting on his employer´s corrupt conduct and systematic over-charging in contracts with the public sector and government in Norway. On Freedom of Expression Foundation´s website, Monsen receives praise for his brave use of his ight to freedom of expression. (08-APR-08)