Latest

In March 2013, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on the protection of human rights defenders. It establishes principles and standards for States to create an enabling environment for human rights defenders. One year after its adoption, the Human Rights House Network calls upon States to implement this resolution.

In many parts of the Balkans, Caucasus and Eastern Europe human rights defenders face threats and violence, slander and intimidations, and are the targets of new laws restricting their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and simply to work to defend human rights.

On Human Rights Day, 10 December, Human Rights House Network participates in launching the European campaign “Stand 4 Human Rights” with a short film called “What should the EU do for Human Rights?”.

Index on Censorship is partnering with the Editors Guild of India and the India International Centre for a debate on the subject, ‘Is freedom of expression under threat in the digital age?’

In the wake of Ian Cobain’s recent book Cruel Britannia exposing Britain’s role in the development and use of torture, English PEN brings writers and campaigners together to ask how and to what extent they challenge the official line that the UK does not ‘participate in, solicit, encourage or condone’ torture.

The director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, issued on 19 December the interim guidelines on how prosecutors should deal with comments made using social media. The guidelines are welcomed by free speech organizations but practical application remains to be seen.

Since 4 December 2012 courts in Kazakhstan have banned news website Stan.tv, the opposition television channel K-Plus and two newspapers Golos Respubliki and Vzglyad, their affiliated newspapers and online content. In November this year an Almaty court ordered the unregistered opposition group Alga! to suspend its activities immediately.

On 6 December Kazbek Gekkiyev, a journalist on the local TV station, was murdered in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria on his way home. His death coincided with the launch of the Speak Justice Campaign. Its aim is to break the terrible cycle of murder and impunity currently experienced by journalists around the world.

English PEN encourages its members and supporters to send seasonal greetings to imprisoned writers and their families.