NEWSLETTER FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS HOUSE NETWORK

1) Widespread election falsification in Azerbaijan
The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Human Rights House Foundation, Human Rights Center Viasna and Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan deeply regret to note that Azerbaijani elections once again appear to have been grossly manipulated.

2) Rafto Prize to Lida Yusupova, Chechnya
The Professor Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize for 2005 was yesterday awarded to the Chechnyan lawyer and human rights advocate Ms Lida Yusupova, in recognition of her brave and unrelenting efforts to document human rights violations and act as a spokeswoman for the forgotten victims of the war in Chechnya.

3) Kenya on the spot over treatment of human rights defenders
The Kenyan Government has failed to acknowledge a request for invitation from the UN Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders. Three years after President Moi lost power, Kenyan defenders continue to be harassed and intimidated.

4) Belarusian independent mass media pressured
The pressure against the independent media in Belarus increases before the presidential elections due to take place in six months. - We are rudely pushed out of the legal information space into underground and “non-traditional” forms of mass-media activity, says Zhanna Litvina from the Belarusian Association of Journalists.

5) Remember Saro-Wiwa
An alliance of human rights groups and community activists, including Index on Censorship and English PEN, are joining forces to mark the tenth anniversary on Thursday of the executions of the Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight colleagues.

6) A sentencing verdict for anti-semitic statements in Poland
On 28 October, Leszek Bubel was sentenced for making anti-Semitic statements. In a rare verdict, the District Court in Warsaw ruled that Bubel committed a crime by insulting the Jewish nation in his statement.

7) Russian and Sudanese human rights defenders awarded
Mrs. Ludmila Alexeeva, the chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group and Mr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, the chairman of the Sudan Social Development Organization, received the annual award from the organization “Human Rights First” in New York on 24 October.

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Borghild Tønnessen-Krokan
Editor
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