NEWSLETTER FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS HOUSE NETWORK

1) Uganda found guilty of invading and looting Congo
Yesterday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Uganda violated the sovereignty of the Democratic Republic of Congo, plundered its natural resources and was responsible for human rights abuses when it sent its troops there.
Read HRH's comment: - A long overdue turn of attitudes

2) Protests against the Russian NGO bill
Tomorrow the Russian Duma will have a second hearing on a draft law that will dramatically restrain Russia’s civil society. Activists at the Human Rights Houses of Moscow and Oslo fear that the law is aimed at human rights NGOs that criticize the Chechnya policy.

3) Turkey: Trial against Orhan Pamuk delayed
On Friday, the trial of Turkey's best known writer, Orhan Pamuk, was suspended until next year. Pamuk has been accused of insulting the Turkish nation after his remarks about the mass killings of Armenians in the early years of the 20th Century.

4) Belarus tightens protest laws
On December 8th the Upper House of the Belarusian parliament unanimously approved a new law making it illegal to submit “false information” about Belarus to international organisations. Human rights activists in Belarus ask President Lukashenko to recall the changes in the law.

5) Azerbaijan: Police violence against demonstrators
A number of oppositionals were detained and dozens beaten up during an unsanctioned demonstration in Baku on Sunday. The Azeri Authorities received massive international criticism after the brutal break-up of a peaceful rally in Baku on November 26.

6) Croatia: Human rights situation worsened
For the first time since 1996, the human rights situation in Croatia has deteriorated seriously, said Zarko Puhovski, Chairman of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, on the International Day of Human Rights.

7) Warns against recycling of Colombian paramilitaries
The demobilization of paramilitaries in Colombia should not be supported, the Colombian human rights lawyer Alirio Uribe Muñoz said when he visited the Norwegian Human Rights House recently. He warned that paramilitaries are recycled into the armed conflict, and that the rights of victims are not sufficiently respected.

8) Bosnia: Roma are the most endangered
On the International Day of Human Rights, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina drew attention to the unacceptably poor status of the Roma minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

9) Norway: Fakhra Salimi awarded the Ossietzky Prize for 2005
The Ossietzky Prize - Norwegian PEN´s award for outstanding contributions to freedom of expression - was awarded yesterday to Fakhra Salimi. Originally from Pakistan, she has always represented a different voice in Norway´s otherwise rather homogenous and unisone public debate.

******************************************************************
Free of charge news and background service from the Human
Rights House Network, an international forum of cooperation between
independent human rights houses. It works to strengthen cooperation and
improve the security and capacity of the 80 human rights organizations in
the Network. The Human Rights House Foundation in Oslo is the
secretariat.

To subscribe, please send an email to: newsletter-subscribe@humanrightshouse.org

More news and background on www.humanrightshouse.org

******************************************************************

Sent by:
Borghild Tønnessen-Krokan
Editor
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
Website: http://www.humanrightshouse.org,
http://www.menneskerettigheter.no