-In spite of a few legislative reforms, Kazakhstan has yet to show its seriousness in living up to its OSCE commitments on human rights. Norway and other OSCE states should ask for real improvements during its 2010 Chairmanship of the OSCE, says the president of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, Kjell Magne Bondevik. -In bringing up human rights issues with Kazakhstan’s authorities, they should underline the responsibility of Kazakhstan to upholding the principles of the OSCE by its own example.
The Oslo Center and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee recently discussed human rights with the Government of Kazakhstan, focusing on freedom of religion issues. Kazakhstan’s 2007 Madrid pledges of reforms included strengthening of both political rights and freedom of assembly. It also promised increased media freedom. -Reforms initiated so far have not solved these issues. On the contrary, some of the problems have been worsening, while at the same time there have been some small improvements in other fields. Kazakhstan still has a long way to go in order to implement the human rights principles of the OSCE, says Bjørn Engesland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

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Today, the CoE Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) publishes the report of its ad hoc visit to Azerbaijan in December 2008. Even though visits were conducted also in 2004, 2005 and 2006 the Government of Azerbaijan has not agreed to publish any of the reports since 2002. The delegation visited several places of detention as well as hospitals and psychiatric institutions and received several credible allegations from prisoners of deliberate physical ill-treatment and excessive use of force by prison officers. The delegation also revealed insufficient health care systems, overcrowding and excessive use on confinement of prisoners to the cell. Although some improvements to the physical conditions of places of detention was observed, the conditions in non-refurbished ward remains poor. Read More

This Common Vision is the unique product of the thorough work of 24 Turkmen citizens supported by several international NGOs. These citizens of Turkmenistan wish to present the most appalling human rights violations in Turkmenistan under Berdymuhamedov today and introduce concrete recommendations for the international community, which is now actively involved in this formerly closed country. We are pleased to see the start of intensive contact between the countries of the West and the government of Turkmenistan. We believe that new possibilities are being presented at this time; possibilities that can, on the one hand, lead to the economic and political inclusion of Turkmenistan in global processes, and on the other hand, begin to correct the monstrous legacy of the previous totalitarian regime. We believe that contact between western governments and the leadership of Turkmenistan can and must play a role in both processes. At the same time, however, we ask you to remember the connections between the cost of economic contacts with Turkmenistan and the value of human rights, human life and the dignity of Turkmenistan’s citizens. We draw to your attention the fact that human rights violations are numerous and widespread, systemic in character, and purposefully supported by the authorities in Turkmenistan.
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On Wednesday, the EU and Russia gather in Stockholm for a summit. During last year, the human rights situation in North Caucasus has deteriorated and several human rights defenders have been kidnapped and murdered. EU and the Swedish Presidency must now present harder demands to Russia. The human rights violations must cease and the guilty must be held responsible. Together with Civil Rights Defenders, and several other international human rights organisations, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee have produced concrete recommendations directed to the current Swedish Presidency and the EU on the demands that should be presented to Russia. A fundamental demand is that Russia ensures that extrajudicial executions, disappearances, kidnappings and other abuses cease immediately. Read the recommendations here

The Human Rights House Foundation, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Rafto Foundation, the South Caucasus Network of Human Rights Defenders and the Belarusian Human Rights House in exile in Vilnius are concerned about the noticeable tendency in Azerbaijan to put local non-governmental organisations under increased government control
following the recent amendments to the NGO law. The amended law allows the government to collect information on NGOs without referring to any specific purpose articulated in this or other laws. This concern was expressed in a letter the above mentioned organisations sent to the Minister of Justice Fikrat Mammadov on friday 6 November.Read the letter here

The 2009 Rafto Prize for Human Rights was awarded to journalist and human rights defender Malahat Nasibova from Azerbaijan on 1 November. The award ceremony took place at the National Venue of Theatre in Bergen. - It is a great honour for me to receive this prize, and I will use it to build an island of freedom in an ocean of tyranny, said Nasibova after the ceremony. This years Rafto laureate is a journalist an human rights defender from the autonomous republic Nakhchivan, which is a part of Azerbaijan, but an enclave, bordering Iran, Armenia and Turkey. Risking her own safety, she reports on abuse of power, human rights violations and corruption in Nakhchivan. As a correspondent for the independent information bureau, 'Turan' in Azerbaijan and for 'Radio Free Europe'/'Radio Liberty', she is the brave voice reporting on violations by the police against ordinary citizens, kidnapping of members of the opposition, and attacks on journalists. The Rafto price can hopefully give Nasibova protection from the persecution that she and her family has been a victim of for several years. With the Rafto price for human rights given to a prominent human rights defender from Azerbaijan, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee encourages the Norwegian government to continue to lead the way in criticising the Azerbaijani government when it comes to grave situation for human rights in the country. Torbjørn Jagland, the newly elected Secretary general of the Council of Europe, should also seize this opportunity, and demand that Azerbaijan fulfill their international obligations as a member of the Council of Europe, and respect basic human rights. Read Malahat Nasibova's acceptance speech

On 20 October 2009 Almaty regional court disallowed the appeal of the founder and head of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law - Evgeniy Zhovtis. The outspoken human rights defender was convicted on 3 September and sentenced to four years in prison for an accident that causes a person's death. The investigation and the court were accompanied by procedural violations, in which the accused was denied the opportunity to fully exercise his right to defense. At the appeal hearing the defense applied for a new motor -vehicle examination and the abolition of the results of the expertise of the prosecution and sentencing, and to request Zhovtis’ personal attendance during the hearing. The appeal hearing was held in the absence of the accused. The Court referred to the fact that by law the presence of the convicted person to appeal hearing is mandatory only in cases where the prosecution insists on stricter punishment. Evgeniy Zhovtis has been held in jail since 3 September.
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The Norwegian Helsinki Committee today wrote to a number of representatives of Turkmen authorities, asking that the well-known environmentalist Andrey Zatoka be released from detention. Zatoka was arrested on 20 October, under suspicious circumstances. It is not the first time he has been subject to attention from the authorities in Turkmenistan, a country that practices one of the harshest policies in the world towards civil activists.
The letter from the NHC was sent to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Rashid Meredov, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Iskander Mulikov and the Minister of Justice, Mr. Myrat Karryev. Letters were also sent to the Presidential Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, as well as to the Turkmen Embassies in Austria and the Russian Federation. The letter reads as follows:
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The European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has been awarded to the Russian Human Rights organization ‘Memorial’ and their representatives Oleg Orlov, Sergei Kovalev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva as well as all other human rights defenders in Russia. The three representatives have expressed that “they hope to contribute to ending the circle of fear and violence surrounding human rights defenders in the Russian federation, and to advance our message that civil society activists everywhere must be free to exercise their most basic rights of freedom or though t and freedom of expression.” - The activists of ‘Memorial’ has many years been some of the bravest human rights defenders in the country , never shying away from raising the burning issues almost nobody else dare speak about, Secretary General Bjørn Engesland says. -Tragically, this led to the death of one of them this summer when Natalia Estemirova was killed. The prize is highly deserved. The prize underlines two important issues for us all to take into consideration: The grave human rights situation in Russia and the need to protect Russian human rights defenders. Lyudmila Alexeyeva is the president of the Moscow Helsinki Group and was for many years also the president of the International Helsinki federation.

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has received information that the well-known environmentalist and civil society activist, 53 year old Andrey Lvovich Zatoka, was detained yesterday, October 20, 2009, in the city of Dashovuz (Turkmenistan) on his birthday. Memorial Human Rights Center in Moscow has been in contact with acquaintances of Andrey’s in Turkmenistan, who explained that around 11 AM, when Zatoka was purchasing groceries at the market, an unknown man who looked violent suddenly came at him with his fists. Andrey tried to keep him at a distance, and then, understanding that this was a set-up, started to run away from the attacker and call the police. However, two police officers, who had been standing nearby, stopped Zatoka instead.
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