The 26 year old journalist Alisher Saipov was shot and killed on the street in Osh,  Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday.
   Saipov was an ethnic Uzbek, who worked for the respected news agency www.ferghana.ru, covering the human rights situation in Uzbekistan. He also worked for other international news agencies.
   Saipov was one of the bravest journalists in the region, and had been followed attentively by Uzbek securty forces over the last few months. Since a couple of days before his death, he had sensed that he was shadowed.
   The Norwegian Helsinki Committee today offered condolences to Alisher Saipov's colleagues at www.ferghana.ru Read More

After the UN Human Rights Committee this summer considered the closure of Viasna in 2003 a violation of the freedom of assocoation, Viasna is makin another attempot of registering. In August, a lower court refused the registration, and today the Supreme Court is to consider Viasnas appeal. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee supports an appeal to Belarsian authorities which urges: "The Supreme Court must take into consideration the international obligations of the Belarusian state and adopt the conclusion of the UN Human Rights Committee. The refusal to re-register “Viasna” is only one example of Belarusian authorities’ attitude towards freedom of association." Its leader, Alies Bialiatsky, is a Norwegian Helsinki Committee "Sakharov Freedom Award" laureate. Read More

   The Norwegian Helsinki Committee stresses the importance of selecting an Ombudsperson in Kosovo with professional and moral credibility and independence.
   The future of the Ombudspersons' Institution depends on the person chosen. Relevant experience from the human rights field and from work in the Ombudsperson Institution should be considered indispensable.
   Read the letter to the Assembly of Kosovo

   The Norwegian Helsinki Committee asks the Parliament to pass legal amendments that will make possible Norwegian criminal persecution of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
   In a letter to the Committee of Justice and the Committee of Foreign Affairs, the NHC, Amnesty International Norway, REDRESS and African Rights supports the proposition made by the Ministry of Justice about adding a chapter on international core crimes to the criminal law. Read the letter  

   Today at a seminar in Oslo the Norwegian Helsinki Committee lectures on the situation of Roma, Ashkaeli and Egyptian minorities in Kosovo.
   NHC Kosovo representative Julie Chadbourne bases her presentation at the Holocaust Center on our most recent Kosovo report: "Second Second-class Minorities: The Continued Marginalization of RAE Communities in Kosovo". She says:
   "The human rights situation of the RAE communities in Kosovo is grim. For years, human rights organizations both within and outside of Kosovo have acknowledged that the RAE communities remain the most marginalized and discriminated against of communities in the territory." Read the report   
 

   The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is happy to announce a small grants program for Tajikistan.
   During the fall of 2006, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee established a representative office for Central Asia, based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The Bishkek office administers its own small grants fund in support of projects related to human rights in Central Asia.
   This time, all organizations with project proposals in the sphere of human rights and the furthering of democracy in Tajikistan may apply. Info in Russian Read More

   The Norwegian Helsinki Committee adresses human rights issues in Kosovo, Uzbekistan and Russia at an international conference in Warsaw this week.
   The two-week Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the Organisation for Secureity and Cooperation in Europe takes place every year. In 2007 the NHC makes interventions on the topics of rule of law, democratic elections and freedom of speech. The NHC also held a side event last week on the International Criminal Court in the OSCE area.
October 2, 2007: rule of law in Kosovo
October 3, 2007: presidential elections in Uzbekistan
October 4, 2007: free media and freedom of speech in Russia
HDIM official website

   The Norwegian Helsinki Committee today presents the International Criminal Court's Legal Tools Project at an international conference in Warsaw. 
   The seminar focuses on some of the positive effects of the ICC in the OSCE area in terms of strengthening national capacity to investigate and prosecute core international crimes.
   The event also presents the Legal Tools Project, a unique legal service in international criminal law developed by the ICC. It also gives a practical presentation of the Case Matrix  - a powerful software, which helps organising information and legal arguments to build cases of international criminal law.
   The seminar is hosted in collaboration with the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights as a side event at the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. More information

   - The number of executions of minors in Iran is growing, says Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi at a meeting with the Norwegian Human Rights House today.
   The general human rights situation is deteriorating daily, and exectutions of underaged persons is, according to Ebadi, one of the gravest problems in the country.
   - The government admits that it is not correct practice and say that they want to change the laws. But it has taken eight years. It will not happen unless pressure from the international society becomes too much for them, says the human rights lawyer.
   - They also wait until the person has turned 18; then carry out the death sentence and claim that there are no underage executions. But imagine what torture it is for a young teenager to sit in the cell, turn the pages of the calendar and wait for the day he is old enough to die.
   Shirin Ebadi currently represents two 15-year old boys, Behnam Zare and Muhammad Latif, who after being involved in fights that resulted in persons dying have been sentenced to death, the judgements being final.
   - I am trying with all the help I can get from international organisations, particularly the UNICEF, to stop the executions, Ebadi says.
   Shirin Ebadi also discussed serious human rights issues such as women's rights and freedom of speech with the human rights organisations in Oslo.
Join the Amnesty International campaign to stop child executions in Iran

   The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg found Russia in serious violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in eight cases in the first part of 2007*.
   The cases include crimes of murder, torture, unlawful detention and disappearance. A majority of the cases refers to crimes committed in Chechnya during the conflict there. A recent substantial drop in recorded numbers of “disappearances” may result from increased awareness among Russian authorities that the violations hurt the image and international relations of Russia. Read More