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Today, on UN’s International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, there will be far too many voices we won’t hear, namely the voices of those who are being tortured and continue to be imprisoned. Amnesty International’s latest annual report teaches us that torture is practiced in more than 100 countries. Nora Sveaass, member of UN´s Committee against Torture, analyses the difficulties in the fight against torture and today´s rays of hope. (26-JUN-06)
 

Nansen Dialogue Network (NDN) is recruiting students for another class of Applied Conflict Transformation Studies (ACTS). The two-year part-time course, which results in a Master´s degree, is a cooperation project between the University of Novi Sad, NDN and Responding to Conflict (UK). Below is further information, also on how to apply. (24-JUNE-06)
  

Earlier today, Niels Jacob Harbitz, right, HRH´s project manager for Africa, spoke at a seminar in Oslo arranged by Landsforeningen for lesbisk og homofil frigjøring (LHH) and Skeiv Solidaritet (Queer Solidarity), on how to support gays and lesbians in East Africa.  Below is an edited extract of Harbitz’s contribution. (20-JUNE-06)
    

Today, 19 June, is Aung San Suu Kyi´s 61st birthday. The Norwegian Burma Committee congratulates, but will not celebrate. The leader of Burma´s opposition is still under house arrest. Since 1989, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1991 has been imprisoned for more than ten years. The human rights situation in Burma is deteriorating, Åse Sand, right, of the NBC reminds us. (19-JUNE-06)
 

A delegation of the Russian civil society, including Stanislav Dmitrievskij, is visiting Norway to raise the Norwegian authorities’ awareness about the human rights situation in the Chechen Republic and to discuss possible strategies with their Norwegian human rights counterparts. Simultaneously Oleg Orlov, right, of the human rights organisation Memorial revealed pictures and footage of a secret prison in the centre of Grozny. (13-JUN-06)
 

Yesterday, the Convenor of the NGO Coalition for an International Criminal Court (the Coalition), William Pace, right, visited the Human Rights House in Oslo, on the invitation of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. During a seminar  Mr. Pace set out the International Criminal Court´s (ICC) main challenges for the near future. He was, however, based on the many achievement in the last century in the field of human rights, optimistic. (08-JUN-06)
 

Saturday 13 May the Uzbek exile population in Norway, organised a memorial service in remembrance of the massacre in Andijan, which took place exactly one year before and claimed hundreds of lives. Representatives of the Uzbek civil society, Uzbek political emigrants and refugees, together with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee once again articulated the seriousness of the human rights situation in the Central Asian republic. (15-MAY-06)
 

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee recently launched the textbook “Human Rights – an introduction” in the Uzbek language. In addition to enabling the reader getting familiarized with the international tools that exist in relation to human rights, the book gives a description of the critical human rights situation in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The document may be downloaded here. (08-MAY-2006)
 
 

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee strongly condemns the arrests of Belarusian oppositional leaders and demands their immediate release. Aleksander Milinkevich, leader of the coalition of opposition and presidential candidate during the elections of March 19, right, was today sentenced to 15 days in prison for ´organising an unsanctioned rally´ during the 20-year anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophy yesterday. (28-APR-06)