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Azerbaijan’s Mehman Huseynov has reached hundreds of thousands of people through self-publishing, with his trademark humour and refusal to be silenced in the face of a media crackdown. The millions of views that he has achieved have come amidst a hostile environment for independent media, and reprisals against him and his organisation.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic puts fundamental democratic rights to the test in several European countries. Now, Norway should use the rest of its Security Council campaign to fight for respect for human rights.

Human Rights House Foundation is observing with increasing concern the wave of arrests and disappearances of human rights defenders and journalists across Belarus. Against the backdrop of worrying increases in COVID-19 infections and the August 2020 Presidential elections, the actions by Belarusian authorities to intimidate human rights defenders and limit the spread of information by independent journalists are alarming.

On 29 April 2020, representatives of several Human Rights Houses discussed the human rights challenges posed by the impact of Covid-19 with Clément Voule, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of association and assembly as he took part in an HRHF-organised online consultation. The consultation aimed to identify solutions to these challenges, and to ensure that human rights are upheld during and after the crisis.

The network of Human Rights Houses is concerned by recent actions on the part of state authorities across western and eastern Europe, the western Balkans, and the Caucasus in response to the escalating COVID-19 crisis. These actions, taken to combat the rising number of infections and deaths associated with COVID-19, raise questions about states’ commitments to civic freedoms and human rights.

Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) remains very concerned with a number of recent actions taken by the Azerbaijani authorities in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Human Rights House Foundation welcomes the appointment of Mary Lawlor as the new United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders. The appointment was made during the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council.

On 4 March 2020, Human Rights House Foundation delivered a statement at the Human Rights Council on Human Rights Defenders.

On Friday 17 January 2020, the “Portraits of Strength” jury unanimously chose Georgian photographer Salome Sagaradze’s photograph of Baia Pataraia of Human Rights House Tbilisi as the competition’s winner.