NEWSLETTER FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS HOUSE NETWORK

1) UN Commission on Human Rights concludes its annual session
The UN Commission on Human Rights concluded its annual session for 2005 on Friday in Geneva. The Human Rights House Foundation (HRH) followed debates in Geneva on impunity , North Korea , Uganda , Colombia , Sudan , Belarus, and human rights defenders.

2) Turkey: Human rights defenders threatened with death
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of FIDH and OMCT, expresses its deepest concern about recent death threats against four executives of the Human Rights Association in Turkey, one of the NGOs involved in the Human Rights House project in Istanbul.

3) Freedom for Guantanamo detainees?
The six citizens known as the “Algerian Group”, who were extradited by the Bosnian authorities to the United States of America, have been detained in the Guantanamo base for over three years. Although they were arrested and extradited under suspicion of planning terrorist activities, no terrorism investigation has been conducted against them.

4) Rights and wrongs of censoring the far right
Human rights groups and free speech campaigners reacted differently to a call to cut or censor far-right British National Party (BNP) election broadcasts scheduled for 21 April, one calling for straight censorship “in the interests of the viewer,” another urging close review of the broadcast, while Index on Censorship expressed outright opposition.

5) Russia: Increasing violations against conscripts
In Russia, violations against conscrips´ rights increased in 2004, despite measures undertaken by the Ministry of Defence. This is the conclusion from a report from Russian human rights organizations, including the NGO Coalition “For a democratic alternative civil service” and the Union of Soldiers Mothers Committees of Russia.

6) Campaigners say imans' attacks incite murder
Human rights activists were shocked to discover that imans at some of Cairo’s leading mosques were preaching against two of their most prominent colleagues – and that the driving force behind these organised sermons of hate appeared to be an Egyptian government ministry.

7) Kenya: Keeping torture under wraps
A survey commissioned by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) to ascertain public awareness of human rights has revealed a widespread reluctance to report incidents of alleged torture to officials. The study, carried out by the Steadman Group - a Nairobi-based research organisation - surveyed 2,466 people. It confirms that Kenya still has long to go until the combined cultures of torture and impunity are eradicated.

8) Privatization of coal mine that may contain mass graves
The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina is deeply concerned about the decision to privatize the Ljubija/Omarska Coal Mine before the investigating bodies have completed their job concerning the circumstantial evidence indicating that the coal mine contains bodily remnants of people who had been taken captive during the war.

9) Email campaign on Burma
The Norwegian Burma Committee, working out of the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo, has launched an email campaign this month to force the Norwegian Minister of Finance to address the controversial issue reported previously on this site, regarding the state-owned Norwegian Petroleum Fund's investment in the French Oil giant Total Oil, who in turn make big money while exploiting and violating the rights of Burmese civilians.

10) Warsaw film festival on tour
In April, documentaries from the Warsaw-based International Film Festival „Human Rights in Film”, organized by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, will be set up in the Ukrainian capital Kiev and in three Polish cities.

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Sent by:

Borghild Tønnessen-Krokan
Editor/Project Manager
Human Rights House Foundation (HRH)
Address: Menneskerettighetshuset,
Tordenskioldsgate 6b, 0160 Oslo, Norway
Tel: (+47) 22 47 92 47, Direct: (+47) 22 47 92 44,
Fax: (+47) 22 47 92 01
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