NEWSLETTER FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS HOUSE NETWORK

1 Nepalese Government shuts down the Dalai Lama's office
The Nepalese government has shut down the office of the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Nepal and the Tibetan Refugee Welfare office in Kathmandu, the Country's capital. - The international community should take immediate action and demand of the Nepalese government to reverse its decision and re-open the two offices, says Chungdak Koren of the Norwegian Tibet Committee.

2 Croatia: No Gotovina, no negotiations
If the Croatian authorities fail to turn in general Gotovina until the beginning of March 17 to the Hague Tribunal, the European Commission will postpone the negotiations for joining the EU – warned Oli Rehn, commissioner to the European Commission for Enlargement.

3 British legislation threatens free speech
English PEN has launched a campaign to stop the British Government introducing legislation that could make it illegal to express provocative views on people’s religion.

4 - No peace in Nagorno Karabakh without democracy
-Only a democratic development in Azerbaijan and Armenia will garanty a peaceful solution of the conflict, the chairman of the Azerbaijan Popular Front party, Ali Kerimli, said in a meeting with the Norwegian Helsinki Committe, Human Rights House Foundation and Amnesty International in Oslo yesterday. The decision to set up a OSCE fact-finding mission was made after Azerbaijan put the issue of Armenians´ settlement in the occupied lands on the agenda of the UN General Assembly session.

5 Belarus: Access to information restricted
Although the parliamentary election and the referendum are already over, the struggle of officials against "undesirable" information doesn't stop. In January, a great number of lawless limitations of the right to receive and distribute information were registered.

6 Security Council claims Uganda is violating arms embargo of DR Congo
A United Nations Security Council panel has said Uganda continues to funnel weapons and military support into eastern DR Congo despite a current arms embargo. In a new report, the UN claims that the mineral-rich eastern DRC continues to be the pawn of Congo's two neighbours, as well as renegade army troops, militia leaders and shadowy businessmen.

7 Poland: Employees against supermarkets
Violation of employees’ rights by stores and supermarkets seems to be an increasing trend in Poland. Assisted by the Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, employees now demand compensation.

8 U.S. To Press for Release of Rafto Laureate Rebiya Kadeer
The United States will press Beijing to free jailed Uyghur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, a U.S. senior official said Jan. 26 at a ceremony at Capitol Hill in which Kadeer was honored in absentia with Norway's Rafto Prize for Human Rights. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Randall Schriver said that Washington's concerns over Kadeer, 58 and a prominent member of China's Uighur ethnic group in the largely Muslim Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, would be raised with the Chinese government.

9 Recommendations to the Norwegian government on human rights in UN in 2005
Seventeen organizations from the “Norwegian NGO Forum” have made recommendations on human rights issues which the Norwegian Government should focus on in this year´s meeting in the UN Human Rights Commission. It covers six countries - Colombia, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Russia including the Republic of Chechnya, Sudan, Tunisia, and Uganda - and five topics: Counter- terrorism and human rights, impunity, indigenous peoples rights, integrated missions, and UN human rights norms for business.

10 Head of the Human Rights House of Sarajevo "made Bosnia better"
The Sarajevo DANI magazine has selected 10 individuals who "made Bosnia and Herzegovina better". One of them is Srdjan Dizdarevic, the founder and President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, President of the Managing Board of the Human Rights House of Sarajevo and Vice President of the International Helsinki Federation.

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