English homepage - Den norske Helsingforskomité

This site presents an overview of Norwegian Helsinki Committee news and reports published in English.
See also the news archives sorted by year.

The Kurti Case: Law or Politics?

(14/05-2007)

   The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is concerned about the legality of detention cases in Kosovo, and about the arbitrariness in human rights organisations' access to interview detainees.
   Last week an international judge in Kosovo decided to release Albin Kurti, the leader of the Self-Determination Movement, from pre-trial detention after three months, placing him instead under house arrest. Less than twenty-four hours later Mr. Kurti was back in detention.
   Past events have concerns about the legality of Mr. Kurti’s detention and the impartiality of decision-making in the U.N.-administered province of Kosovo. Regardless of one’s personal views on Mr. Kurti and his movement or the politics of the moment vis-à-vis Security Council proceedings on Kosovo’s future, rule of law must apply to his detention as it would in any other case.

Read op-ed by Julie Chadbourne, NHC and IHF representative in Kosovo

Umida Niyazova has been released on conditions

(09/05-2007)

The Uzbek human righs activist, for whose release the NHC appealed in February, was set free from prison yesterday.

Umida Niyazova was released from jail on May 8, after originally being sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

While welcoming the release of Niazova, the NHC urges the EU not to be fooled into considering this ‘progress’ in Uzbek human rights record. The unlawful arrest and imprisonment of an innocent person followed by an ‘amnesty’ of a seven year suspended sentence, is by no means ‘progress’ – quite the contrary.

Her imprisonment has been widely condemned by leading Human Rights groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. The United States, and the EU, with support from Norway and the OSCE, also condemned the sentence. Read original statement by NHC here

Witness protection still an obstacle to justice in Kosovo

(04/05-2007)

   Witnesses in war crimes trials in Kosovo are scared off from going to court, Institute for War and Peace Reporting shows in a recent report.
   Human rights groups and observers say the witness protection programme in Kosovo is inadequate, pointing to particular incidents where witnesses have faced violent retributions. Fear of being badly injured or murdered, lose employment or being viewed as betrayers, discourages witnesses from testifying against war crimes suspects.
   - If witnesses are not able to come forward or are unwilling to come forward then there cannot be justice, said Julie Chadbourne, representative for the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. Read the IWPR article

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights greets Murmansk conference

(28/03-2007)

Louise Arbour. UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre

   Today and tomorrow 100 professionals are gathered in Murmansk to improve human rights education in Norwegian and Russian schools and institutions of justice.
   For the first time high level politicians, teachers, bureaucrats, prison personell, persons responsible for police training and NGO representatives discuss how to implement the UN World Program for Human Rights Education in elementary school, as well as in professional training for lawyers, police and prison personell.
   This morning UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, greeted the conference, saying:
   - Human rights education work constitutes an important investment towards fostering just societies in which all human rights of all persons are valued and respected.
   The conference is initiated by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

Read Arbour's message

Annual report:
Human Rights in the OSCE Region

(28/03-2007)

Yesterday the International Helsinki Federation released the annual report Human Rights in the OSCE Region: Europe, Central Asia and North America, Report 2007.
The IHF and national Helsinki Committees have reported on the 2006 human rights developments in 40 countries: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kosovo (Serbia), Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Russia (Chechnya), Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uzbekistan.

Access report
The Norwegian Helsinki Committee authored the chapters on Norway and Kosovo.

Letter to Bulgarian authorities:
Do not return Annadurdy Khajiev to Turkmenistan!

(16/03-2007)

   On a request for extradition from Turkmen authorities, police detained Annadurdy Khajiev on February 19 as he was renewing his humanitarian status document in Varna, Bulgaria.
   A member of the Turkmen opposition movement Watan, Mr. Khajiev was granted humanitarian status in Bulgaria on March 10, 2004, on grounds of persecution for his political opinion.
   The Norwegian Helsinki Committee and exile Turkmen politicians urge Bulgarian authorities to decline the request for extradition. Upon return to Turkmenistan Mr. Khajiev would face persecution and a certain risk of torture or other ill-treatment in custody.
   We also urge the authorities to release Mr. Khajiev from detention immediately.There are no legitimate grounds to keep Mr. Khajiev in custody while the court considers the extradition request. There are no evidence demonstrating that Mr. Khajiev is a flight risk or would obstruct justice. Read the letter to Bulgarian authorities

Turkmenistan seminar:
Status quo - or hopes for change?

(15/03-2007)

   A NHC seminar yesterday focused on the new situation in Turkmenistan after the death of President Sapamurat Niyazov on 22 December 2006, and the succession of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedov on 14 February 2007.
   - There is no more democracy in Turkmenistan now than under Niyazov, said Aygul Tajieva, a former senator of the Turkmenistan Parliament who lost her mandate and fled to Sweden after criticism of the Niyazov regime. - Under Niyazov, the president had full control of all power structures in the country. Now, this power has been taken by Berdimuhammedov. Nobody, including members of the parliament can speak or think independently, now as before. The reforms that have been promised or even introduced are mere window-dressings with no intention of continuing with the desperately needed political reforms.
   - The international community must not pretend that a qualitatively new leadership is in place in Turkmenistan. Real changes must be implemented before aid and economic cooperation can be stepped up, said Pirimkuli Tanrykuliyev, a Turkmen professor and former Parliamentarian who has lived in exile in Norway since 2003. Tanrykuliev knows the new president well, as he was his supervisor at the University.

Read the seminar summary

Seminar in Kyrgyzstan:
Reforming the Penitentiary: The Role of NGOs

(02/03-2007)

   The NHC Central Asia office celebrates its official opening by welcoming to the first seminar on human rights in Kyrgyzstan.
   Local and international human rights activists as well as local politicians is gathered in Bishkek today to discuss the role of non-governmental organisations in improving the situation for inmates in Kyrgyz prisons.
   Compared to neighbouring countries, the authorities are relatively open and ready to enter into dialogue with local and international NGOs in their work to improve the difficult situation surrounding prisons. In this process, it is important to know what authorities and NGOs should expect from one another, and how both sides can better co-ordinate their work for this common goal.
   Present from NHC headquarters in Oslo are Deputy Secretary General Gunnar Karlsen and Central Asia Advisor Berit Lindeman. Secrecaty General Robert Hård from the Swedish Helsinki Committee also attends the seminar.

Read minutes from the seminar