Norge har fått en papirløs underklasse av mennesker som har levd her i inntil 17 år uten rettigheter, ofte i stor nød. Sammen med en rekke andre organisasjoner lanserte Den norske Helsingforskomité 31. august en bred kampanje for å sette fokus på papirløses situasjon med en heldagskonferanse på Litteraturhuset i Oslo. Les mer

Andrej Sakharovs Frihetspris 2010 tildeles Jevgenij Zhovtis og menneskerettighetsorganisasjonen Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law.
Helsingforskomiteens Generalsekretær Bjørn Engesland har reist til Kasakhstan, og overbringer nyheten til prisvinneren der han sitter fengslet i byen Ust-Kamenogorsk i dag.
Jevgenij Zhovtis har sammen med organisasjonen han leder, Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, gjennom to tiår vært en av de mest sentrale menneskerettighetsforkjemperne i Kasakhstan. Han har gjennom dialog med styresmaktene, rapportering av menneskerettighetssituasjonen, deltakelse i internasjonale fora og gratis rettshjelp og menneskerettsundervisning for borgere av Kasakhstan, bidratt til å styrke menneskerettighetenes stilling i hjemlandet. 
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Lev Ponomarev, the Russian human rights activist and the leader of the movement “For Human Rights” was arrested yesterday and got three days administrative punishment under article 19.3 Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation (charged with “insubordination to legal order of a policeman”). On August 22, Lev Ponomarev, together with the representatives of the movement “Soilidarity” Boris Nemtsov and Mikhail Shnayder carried Russian flag at Novy Arbat on the Russian Flag Day. All three were arrested right after and charged with unauthorized demonstration and insubordination to policemen. The Moscow Presnenskij court refused to arrest Nemtsov and ordered the case to be further investigated, as the judge didn’t find the facts of “insubordination to policemen”. Mikhail Shnayder’s case was planned to be proceeded today, August 26. Les mer

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is deeply concerned at continued reports of violence and ill-treatment during government operations in southern Kyrgyzstan. Some government structures are still mistreating local inhabitants under the guise of weapons searches and ongoing operations following the deeply tragic June events. Les mer

En dom fra Oslo Byfogdembete 12. juli, samt nye rapporter fra Landinfo og Europarådet tyder på at UDIs praksis i de såkalte ”tsjetsjenske sakene” bringer UDI, og til dels UNE, på kollisjonskurs med relevant landinformasjon. I et brev til UDI oppfordrer Den norske Helsingforskomité UDI til å justere sin praksis slik at den blir i tråd med relevant informasjon om situasjonen i Nord-Kaukasus. Les hele brevet ved å klikke på linken. Les mer

Kan vi leve med byråkrater som utøver politisk skjønn uten noen form for kontroll? Eller bør UNE inn under politisk instruksjon, på linje med UDI? Kan vi forandre forskriften hver gang UNE viser at de mangler evne til gode skjønnsmessige vurderinger? Advokat Halvor Frihagen diskuterer disse spørsmålene i et debattinnlegg som ble publisert i Klassekampen 26.07.2010. Les hele debattinnlegget her

The report “Broken Promises: Freedom of Religion or Belief issues in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan” was launched during a side event at the Conference on Tolerance in Astana on 30 June. The report is a result of cooperation between five human rights organizations: The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Forum 18 News service, Norwegian Mission to the East, the Oslo centre for Peace and Human Rights and the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief.
Kazakhstan, as chair of the OSCE in 2010, should take concrete steps to keep the promises made on the eve of the chairmanship, and the report addresses this issue. The report is now available in Russian as well as in English and attracted great attention at the conference.
 Download the report here (English version) Download Russian version of the report here
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Enver Djuliman, Helsingforskomiteens undervisningsleder hadde den 11. juli en kronikk på trykk i Verdens Gang i anledning 15-årsdagen for folkemordet i Srebrenica. Les kronikken her

The NGO coalition of Freedom House, Global Witness, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Eurasian Democracy Initiative organised a lunch time event in the vicinity of the OSCE PA meeting in Oslo yesterday.
The event addressed the scourge of corruption and its corrosive effect on governance across Eurasia and engaged in a frank discussion about how corruption undermines the very concepts that the OSCE was initially conceived to advance and what parliamentarians from its 56-nation membership might do to counter these trends.
Watch clips from the side event here

The report details freedom of religion or belief issues and presents recommendations in order to bring the countries in line with relevant international human rights standards. The report is launched on a 30 June Side Event of the 2010 Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Tolerance Conference, taking place in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The Side Event is arranged in cooperation with the Netherlands delegation to the OSCE. Read the report in English here 
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