NEWSLETTER FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS HOUSE NETWORK

1) Belarusian journalist found dead from traumatic brain injury
Last week, Vasil Hrodnikau from the independent newspaper Narodnaya Volya was found dead. The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation by Belarusian police. - This is the third violent death among independent Belarusian journalists since 2000, Andrej Dynko, editor of Nasha Niva, reminded the audience at a seminar at the Human Rights House in Oslo.
See also: Belarusian Helsinki Committee further harassed by its authorities

2) Ministers dismissed before election in Azerbaijan
The run-up to the parliamentary election on November 6th is chaotic. Last week the Azeri President Ilham Aliyev dismissed two of this Ministers and arrested the former Minister of Finance. He was charged with financing opposition clashes against the police before the planned return of the opposition leader Rasul Guliev. Guliev has denied any contact with the Ministers.

3) A 60th anniversary for the UN, a 10th for Aung San Suu Kyi
As the UN celebarates its 60th anniversary, and the world should have been able to mark vast human rights advances, Aung San Suu Kyi has been held in house arrest in Burma for a total of ten years since 1989. Even during her spells of relative freedom, she has suffered severe violations of her rights, including tight restrictions of movement.
See also: Take Burma to the UN Security Council, say Burma activists worldwide

4) Tunisian journalists on hungerstrike
Seven dissidents, among them Lotfi Hajji, the leader of the Independent Union of Journalists, has gone on hunger strike in Tunisia. The seven demand the introduction of freedom of assembly, opinion and expression, the media and information. They also request the release of all political prisoners before the opening of the World Summit on the Information Society to take place in Tunisia in three weeks.

5) - My horror pushes me to speak out
Rebyia Kadeer, the Uighur spokesperson of the Xinjiang province in China, and last year´s Rafto Prize laureate, was released in March after six years imprisonment. - I will not let my horror silence me. Indeed, my horror pushes me to speak out, she said when she visited the Human Rights House in Oslo last week. Read Kadeer's full speech

6) What's in a word? Turkey and the Armenia problem
The anniversary of the 1915 events in Armenia has generated more public debate on both sides of the issue than ever before. The disagreement over the semantics of the matter has assumed what to many seem absurd proportions. The Turkish authorities are ready to settle for the term 'massacre'; the Armenian diaspora insists on the use of 'genocide'. Index on Censorship reports.

7) Russia: Shamil Basaev claims responsibility for the Nalchik raids
On 13-14 October, armed people seized hostages and occupied the administrative buildings of the police, the local departments of the FSB and of internal affairs and other places within the city. The average age of the insurgents was 18-20 years. The exact number of injured and killed people is still being counted. The resonance of the events in Nalchik has divided the Russian society.

8) - Misplaced loyalty is Ugandan media's biggest problem
- Even if limitations of the freedoms of opinion and information, expression, speech and the media are a reoccurring problem, the biggest weakness, and what really keeps the people of Uganda away from learning what is going on in their own country, is the media's misplaced loyalty towards the authorities and even worse; poor journalism, says Niels Jacob Harbitz from the Human Rights House Foundation, who is leaving for Uganda today.

9) Norway strengthens its support to human rights defenders
The Norwegian government is making a booklet for its embassies on how to support and protect human rights defenders internationally. The Human Rights House Foundation welcomes the initiative, and asks its government to ensure adequate reporting and transparency.

10) Roma in Croatia still suffer discrimination
The majority of the Roma population in Croatia is deprived of basic communal infrastructure, lack citizenship papers, are uneducated, unemployed and with minimum or no social care benefits or health insurance. For them, every day is a struggle, according to a report presented Friday by the Croatian Law Centre, B.a.B.e and the Croatian Helsinki Committee, working to set up a Human Rights House in Zagreb.

11) First verdict in Poland on compensation for 'wrongful birth'
For the first time, the Supreme Court in Warsaw issued a verdict 13 October on compensation for so called “wrongful birth”. The Court considered an extraordinary appeal of Mr and Mrs Wojnarowski, drawn up by lawyers cooperating with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, and returned the case for re-consideration by the Court of Appeals in Bialystok.

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Sent by:
Borghild Tønnessen-Krokan
Editor
Human Rights House Foundation (HRH)
Address: Menneskerettighetshuset,
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