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A the People´s Republic of China based foreign correspondent has just confirmed what the Norwegian Tibet Committee knew from numerous previous inquiries and complaints; that access to the organisation’s website is blocked from within the People´s Republic of China. The website provides information in Norwegian and English on developments of the political and human rights situation in Tibet. (10-APR-07)
 

During his five day long official visit to Morocco, the president of the Norwegian parliament, Mr. Thorbjorn Jagland, right, will raise the human rights situation in Western Sahara with the Moroccan authorities. Jagland will exert pressure on the Moroccan authorities to allow a Nordic delegation into the occupied area, and he believes the controversial Royal Council for Saharan affairs is to be considered a part of Morocco´s occupation policy.  (03-APR-07)
 

Morocco believes it has the diplomatic clout to settle Africa´s oldest territorial dispute on its terms, confident it can rely on the goodwill it has earned overseas for its pro-democracy reforms at home. But the kingdom has no easy task in pursuing its plan to grant autonomy to Western Sahara, a mineral-rich land it annexed in 1975 and where Rabat´s control is contested by independence movement Polisario. (29-MAR-07)
 

The Norwegian Council for the rights of the Kurds (RKR) has issued a statement to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs within the Norwegian Parliament, expressing deep concern about the health of Kurd leader Abdullah Öcalan, right. Hair samples smuggled out of prison show dramatically high levels of chromium and strontium. (29-MAR-07)
 

The first issue this year of Tema Kurdistan, the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurds (RKR) is out, entitled ´Al Anfal – a forgotten genocide?´ Per Thorsdalen, right, has taken over from Liv Kjølseth as editor and explains that this issue is RKR´s contribution to a more wide-reaching debate on the Al Anfal campaigns and the legal dispute as to whether or not this qualifies as genocide. To read the whole issue, click here . (28-MAR-07)
 

The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF), a federation of 46 independent human rights organizations, today released its “Annual Report” on human rights developments in the participating states of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in the year 2006. The report is entitled Human Rights in the OSCE Region: Europe, Central Asia and North America, Report 2007 (Events of 2006). (27-MAR-07)
 

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee’s annual board meeting requests of Norwegian authorities to increase the emphasis on democracy and human rights in the Russian part of the Barents region. The region is going through a phase of rapid economic development related to the extraction of its natural resources, including fish, oil, gas and various metals. At the same time, on the Russian side, the human rights problems remain very severe. (27-MAR-07)
 

As part of his tour of Australia, the US and Europe, Professor Nguyen Chinh Ket, right, paid a visit to both HRHF and the Oslo Human Rights House and the Rafto Human Rights House in Bergen earlier this month. This article tells the story of his life as a democracy and human rights defender. After leaving his homeland, an arrest order has been issued on Chinh Ket. (27-MAR-07)
 

Coinciding with the release today of the Women´s League of Chinland´s report Unsafe State. State-Sanctioned Sexual Violence Against Chin Women, the first to document systematic use of rape as a weapon in the Chin state of Western Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar), the Norwegian Burma Committee once again addresses the Norwegian state pension fund´s 200 million Norwegian kroner investment in the south Korean company Daewoo, who openly cooperates with the Burmese junta. (27-MAR-07)