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Aggressive attacks on press freedom in Nepal
The government of Nepal is sanctioning the use of threats, violence, detention and censorship against the media community. In a letter sent today, the Norwegian Journalists Association and the Norwegian PEN asked King Gyanendra to reinstate press freedom in Nepal. (29-AUG-05)
HRH receives ED of Northern Ugandan child care organisation
Last week, HRH met Mrs Winnie Okidi, Executive Director of the Gulu based organisation War Affected Children Rehabilitation Organisation (WACRO). Okidi was in Norway on a combined information and fundraising visit and had met with a number of other Norwegian NGOs working in Norway as well, and also with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (26-AUG-05)
Human rights training of our prison staff is needed, says Kurdish Deputy PM
-Our prison staff could do well with some basic human rights training, said Imad Ahmad (right), Deputy Prime Minister of the PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) Administration of one of the two self-determined Kurdish regions within Iraq. Mr. Ahmad visited the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurdish People (RKR), one of the organisations in the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo last week. (23-AUG-05)
Free Western Sahara, demonstrators in Oslo demand
Last Friday, more than 50 exiled Saharawis of Western Sahara, currently settled in Norway, demonstrated outside the Moroccan Embassy in Oslo, demanding the release of imprisoned Saharawian human rights activists and the end to the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. The Moroccan Embassy refused to talk to the demonstrators. (15-AUG-05)
-We are prisoners of our own country
As part of the marking of Aung San Suu Kyi’s 60th birthday outside the Norwegian Parliament last Sunday, Kaythi, a Burmese human rights activist presented the following appeal. -Please use your liberty to promote ours, begged Kaythi, on behalf not only of the 1400 known political prisoners in Burma (Republic of the Union of Myanmar), but rather for the entire population. (21-JUNE-05)
Here’s how a Human Rights House works
During his recent visit to the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo, Dalai Lama (right) willingly signed one of the thousands of post cards these days being sent to Aung San Suu Kyi, on the occasion of her 60th birthday 19 June. If the Norwegian Tibet Committe and the Norwegian Burma Committe had not been in the same house, Dalai Lama´s spontaneous, but hugely important act of solidarity most probably wouldn´t have happened, says HRH´s Niels Jacob Harbitz. (21-JUNE-05)
19 June is Aung San Suu Kyi’s 60th birthday
On 19 June, the charismatic Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from 1991 Aung San Suu Kyi turns 60. The Burmese human rights defender and democracy campaigner is under house arrest for the third time, and will on her birthday have served an accumulated nine years and 238 days since she was first refused to leave her home in 1989. For the last two years, she has been unable to communicate with the outside world. (18-JUNE-05)
Seminar: The situation for Kurdistan’s women
On Tuesday 28 June, the Women’s Issues Group within the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurdish People, one of the organisations in the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo, will host a seminar on the women’s situation in Kurdistan. The seminar, which begins at 17.00 hrs., is open to the public. (17-JUNE-05)
Election? What election, say Iranian Kurds
All Kurds share the joy that Iraq has had a Kurdish President and that Barzani is elected to be President in three Kurdish provinces in Northern Iraq. However, liberation in some parts of Kurdistan does not grant that basic human rights are observed for all Kurds, says Mr. Abdurrahman Heci, leader of the Iranian Kurdish party PJAK. Mr. Abdurrahman visited the Norwegian Human Rights House on Thursday 16 June. (17-JUNE-05)