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Polish authorities and nongovernmental organizations are speaking up for the Belarusian oppositionist Alexander Kazulin, who has remained in prison since March 2006. At the end of 2006, wishing to draw the attention of the international public opinion, Alexander Kazulin began a hunger strike that lasted 54 days and left him extremely exhausted. Belarusian authorities are not allowing doctors from the International Red Cross to see him. (23-FEB-07)

In connection with the case of the cardiologist from the hospital of the Ministry of Interior and Administration in Warsaw, the Helsinki Committee in Poland calls on state officials, as well as journalists and commentators, to preserve the elementary principles guaranteeing the binding force of presumption of innocence for suspects and the accused. (16-FEB-07)

On 7 February, after familiarizing itself with the positions of the government and
non-governmental organizations, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women issued concluding comments, in which it made reference to the government’s policy and presented its recommendations. (14-FEB-07)
 

´The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Warsaw, Poland) strongly objects to the detention of the human rights defender Ms. Umida Niyazova. This is an example of the inadmissible practice carried out for some time now by Uzbek authorities, which consists in prosecuting individuals benefiting from the Helsinki Foundation’s educational programs´. (12-FEB-07)

On 16 January, the Polish government presented a report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women from the execution of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). A few days earlier (on 12 January) the members of the Committee met with the representatives of Polish women’s organizations and familiarized themselves with the shadow report that they prepared. (25- JAN-07)

On 12 January of this year, attorney Marek Antoni Nowicki, the president of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, was appointed by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Kosovo Joachim Rucker, upon the proposal by the President of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, as a member of the Human Rights Advisory Panel. (22-JAN-07)

Mrs. Kesang Takla, the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for Northern and Central Europe, paid a visit to Republic of Poland on 10 – 12 January 2007. Mrs. Takla arrived in the Republic of Poland at the invitation of the parliamentary Polish-Tibetan Team and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. (16-JAN-06)

‘On Saturday before dawn, we regressed to an era of barbarianism. From the outset, it was obvious the conscious decision to eschew an international court meant Saddam Hussein would be quickly hung. With premeditation, he was turned over to a tribunal consisting of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites, thus sealing his fate.’ writes Marek Antoni Nowicki, the President of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and former UN international ombudsman for Kosovo. (03-JAN-07)

On 8-17 December 2006, Warsaw hosted, already for the sixth time, the International Film Festival WATCH DOCS. Human Rights in Film organized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art and the Social Institute of Film. This year a new formula was developed for the festival – film competitions. (18-DEC-06)