Human Rights House Newsletter: April 2008
Dear HumanDHS network friends
Please find below the Human Rights House Newsletter: April 2008
Kind regards
Brian Ward
NEWSLETTER FROM THE HUMAN RIGHTS HOUSE NETWORK
4 / 08
1) HRH Network: HR defender hospitalized after police beating in Azerbaijan
The Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) is seriously concerned about the alleged threats and beating by Azeri police last Saturday of Emin Huseynov, a well-known human rights defender. The gross violations followed in the wake of the police´s breaking up of a marking of Che Guevara´s 80th birthday in the Alaturka Cafe in Baku.
2) HRH Oslo: HRH F concerned about media crackdown and opposition harassment in Uganda
The Human Rights House Foundation (HRH F) is deeply concerned about recent infringements on basic rights and freedoms of both the media and the opposition in Uganda. While the media have experienced temporary detention of editors and journalists, confiscation of equipment and material, and initiatives by the authorities to further tighten relevant legislation, including the Constitution, the opposition has been subjected to arrests and interrogation, violations of the right to assembly, and physical attacks on leading members.
See also: HRH Uganda: The two ways to suppress the media: The frightening and the effective
See also: HRH Uganda: Ugandan government rapes free press as an act of ‘love’
See also: HRH Network: Media freedom in Eastern Africa: paradoxes - and severe suppression
3) HRH Oslo: Kyrgyzstan: Questioned for six hours at the Ministry of Interior
Two employees of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee´s office in Bishkek, Elena Mamadnazarova and Ivar Dale, were questioned at the Ministry of Interior (MVD) for six hours yesterday. The two were questioned about the activities of the office, about their legal grounds of residence in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan and the registration of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee´s (NHC) office. By the end of the questioning, NHC reached an agreement with the MVD.
See also: HRH Oslo: The Norwegian Helsinki Committee in Kyrgyzstan raided
4) Vacant position: Director of the Human Rights House in Vilnius. Deadline: 25 June. For more information, click here.
5) HRH Belarus: Draft bill on mass media worries BAJ
Wednesday 11 June the Belarusian Association of Journalists finally received the draft bill on mass media. BAJ is dissatisfied with numerous elements including re-registration of journalists and the regulation of publications of the Internet. The authorities want to get the bill passed by Parliament as soon as possible, but BAJ reminds them to their promise to discuss it with civil society and European experts.
See also: HRH Belarus: HRH F expresses regret over imprisonment of human rights defender
See also: HRH Belarus: HRH F expresses concern over harassment of human rights defender
6) HRH London: Index honoured at Amnesty awards
Index on Censorship magazine has been awarded the Amnesty International Media Award for best periodical at a ceremony in London. The award was given for a series of articles from the issue ‘How Free is the Russian Media?’. The magazine was praised for its ´brave, impassioned journalism´.
7) HRH East and Horn of Africa: International outcry over assassination of Somali journalist leader Nasteh Dahir Farah, 28, Vice President of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), was assassinated on Saturday, 7 June 2008, in Kismayu, Southern Somalia. The Somali journalists community condemned the assassination, and received immediate moral support from throughout Eastern Africa.
HRH Network: Steadfast in Protest - Observatory’s annual report for 2007 is out
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), releases its 2007 Annual Report today. The report focuses on the year- round fight for human rights and includes contributions from Hina Jilani, right, Desmond Tutu, Barbara Hendricks, José Ramos Horta, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Wei Jingsheng.
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Sent by:
Niels Jacob Harbitz
Editor
Human Rights House Foundation
–
Niels Jacob Harbitz
Prosjektleder / Project Manager for Africa
Redaktør / Editor, www.humanrightshouse.org
Human Rights House Foundation
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