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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)
  

Tonight, in relation to this year´s Newroz celebrations, the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurds (RKR) hosts a meeting with the formerly imprisoned Kurdish opposition politician Selim Sadak, right, of the DTP party. Like Leyla Zana, Sadak was an elected MP in the Republic of Turkey in 1994, when he was imprisoned on political grounds for ten years. (26-MAR-07)
 

Aminatou Haidar, right, has been imprisoned and tortured because of her struggle for Africa’s last colony. “When I was freed, I was reduced to a shadow of my real self. A ghost, a young girl emerging from a nameless hell”, she says about the day she was released from prison, June 19, 1991. She now appeals for Norwegian recognition of Western Sahara as an independent state. (21-MAR-07)
 

For the first time, high level experts will discuss how human rights education can contribute to a positive development both within and between the neighbouring states of Norway and the Russian Federation. (20-MAR-07)
 

Chinese authorities have resolved to “strike hard” against voices of opposition in East Turkestan. The Rafto Foundation and Human Rights House Foundation have signed an appeal by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) to the EU.(15-MAR-07)
   

The Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) decided today to add its name to the list of human rights organisations sponsoring a global petition in support of the system of independent experts of the UN Human Rights Council, known as the Special Procedures. HRHF also encourages the entire Human Rights House Network to do the same. With the introduction of the new HR Council, several governments are trying to cripple the ability of all the Special Procedures to fulfil their mandates effectively. (14-MAR-07)
   

On 16 March, and in cooperation with the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurds (RKR) and Oslo Documentary Cinema, The Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Oslo will host a full-day conference on the previous Iraqi regime´s use of chemically produced poisonous gas in the war against its own Kurdish minority. For a full programme, click here (13-MAR-07)