The NHC was present when the Directorate of Youth and Sport within the Council of Europe organized the Forum”Living, Learning Acting for Human Rights” in Budapest from October 14th to 18th. An outcome of the forum was a message to the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers on the future of human rights education for young people. The message highlighted human rights education as a fundamental human right and called for greater cooperation, networking and interaction between formal and non-formal education sectors – emphasizing on the irreplaceable role of NGOs in this capacity.
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Together with the Human Rights Center "Memorial" in Moscow, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee will soon publish a report based on extensive research on the conditions in the only women’s prison in Turkmenistan. The report, due to be published in English and Russian in the near future, is based on interviews that our colleagues and we have made with eyewitnesses – women who are imprisoned in this prison colony, and their family members who visit them there. The main findings were presented at the OSCE HDIM conference in Warszawa last week.Read the presentation here 

Today it is three years since the prominent Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead at the entrance of her home in Moscow. Anna Politkovskaya was an outstanding person and a courageous journalist. She travelled regularly to Chechnya, which is the most dangerous region for journalists to work in since 1994, the beginning of the first Chechen war. Anna’s articles were critical and represented the voices of hundreds of Chechens. The Human Rights Centre Memorial in Russia has documented that since 1994, 3000 to 5000 persons have involuntary disappeared. Anna investigated many of those cases. It was Anna, who in the newspaper ‘Novaya Gazeta’ revealed the case of “Kadet", whose real name was Sergei Lapin. He was tried and sentenced to prison for kidnapping and torturing Zelimkhan Murdalov during the second Chechen military campaign. Considering the dimension of the human rights violations during the Chechen conflict, only two persons have so far been brought to justice for such crimes. “Kadet” was one of them. In fact, three persons worked together for the conviction of “Kadet”: Anna Politkovskaya wrote about the case; Natalia Estimirova, a human rights activist from HRC Memorial in Chechnya, collected witness accounts on the case; and the lawyer Stanislav Markelov represented the complainant. All three have since been brutally murdered. Read More

The court hearings in the lawsuit against Oleg Orlov, the Chairman of the Russian Human Rights Center ‘Memorial’ continues today in Moscow. The lawsuit is brought by the President of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov who demands an apology and 10 million Rubles in compensation from ‘Memorial and Orlov after Orlov pointed to Ramzan Kadyrov as one of the responsible for the murder of Natalia Estemirova. On the morning of July 15, 2009 Natalia Estimirova, a prominent staff member the Human Rights Centre Memorial was kidnapped outside her apartment in Grozny and found murdered in Ingushetia later the same day. Kadyrov has also urged the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of Moscow to open a criminal libel case against Orlov. The attacks against human rights defenders in North Caucasus keeps increasing and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee sees them as an attempt to silence critics in the region. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has written a letter the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev urging him to protect the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" and its staff members and to respect the freedom of expression in Russia. Read the letter here 

Enver Djuliman will adress this years OSCE HDIM conference with the The Norwegian Helsinki Committe's views and recommendations on human rights education. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee appeals to all participating states to strengthen their commitment for the implementation of international standards promoting the right to education, and more particularly the right to human rights education. The OSCE Human Dimension Implementing Meeting is currently taking place in Warszaw, and is the largest early human rights gathering in Europe. Read the contribution here  Download the compendium of Good Practice in Human Rights Education

In December 2008 the Norwegian Helsinki Committee started a series of seminars on Human Rights for prison officials in the Arkhangelsk region in Russia. Since the projects kickoff, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee has together with partner organizations, arranged 3 such seminars for employees of the Russian prison system as well as for others interested in human rights from state and civic organizations. With the establishment of Observing Committees of Human Rights in Closed Institutions in Russia, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee has received requests from participants in the abovementioned seminars to organize training seminars on monitoring of human rights in closed institutions (prisons, correctional facilities, detention centers). After a strenuous planning process, the first of a series of 4 such seminars took place in Kirkenes, Norway between 21st and 24th of September. Participants in the seminar were members of Observing Committees from several different regions in North West Russia. The next training seminar in monitoring the human rights situation in closed institutions is to be organized early next year.  Read program 

Today, 29 September, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee presented a letter to Western governments and multinational companies, where we ask that greater consideration is given to the issue of human rights when interacting with the government of Turkmenistan. The letter has been signed by a number of highly respected international human rights organisations, and will be presented for the first time today at the OSCE Human Dimentions Implementation Meeting (HDIM) in Warszaw. Joining the Norwegian Helsinki Committee for this effort are organisations such as Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group and Open Society Institute, as well as Kjell-Magne Bondevik and the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights." Read the letter here  See Human Rights Watch homepage

Between the 26th and the 30th of September, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee organizes the second stage of the International Youth School for Human Rights in the Barents region. The school is taking place in Tromsø, with participants from Arkhangelsk, Russia and Tromsø, Norway. After a general introduction to human rights and participative learning methods during the school’s first stage, participants have now the opportunity to go deeper and discuss topics related to means of protecting human rights on national and international levels as well as to civil society and its role in protecting basic human rights. The school includes also a session where participants are given the chance to discuss directly with representatives of human rights organizations such as Save the Children Norway, Amnesty Norway and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. This second stage of the International Youth School in Human Rights is part of a more encompassing human rights education project that the Norwegian Helsinki Committee started in the Barents region in 2001. Read program   Read more about human rights education in the Barents region

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The Rafto Prize for 2009 goes to journalist and human rights activist Malahat Nasibova. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee would like to congratulate Malahat Nasibova with this years Rafto Price. The prize will hopefully lead to a greater focus on the grave situation for independent press and human rights in Azerbaijan. Nasibova has been awarded the prize for her courageous and unwavering struggle for a free and independent press. Risking her own safety, she reports on abuse of power, human rights violations and corruption in the isolated autonomous republic Nakhchivan, which is part of Azerbaijan. Malahat Nasibova (40) is a correspondent for the independent information bureau, ‘Turan’ in Azerbaijan and for ‘Radio Free Europe’/‘Radio Liberty’. She is the leader of the human rights organisation ‘Democracy and NGO’s Development Resource Center’ in Nakhchivan. Nasibova has been a critical voice against the authorities for ten years and she steadfastly refuses to give up the fight for freedom of speech. She reports on violations by the police against ordinary citizens, kidnapping of members of the opposition, and attacks on journalists. In the absence of other independent institutions, Nasibova has become a kind of ombudsperson whom the local population turn to, to be heard. Read more

During a working meeting on religious extremism between the Kyrgyz Security Council and the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security (GKNB) today, both organs came out in favor of re-establishing death penalty in Kyrgyzstan. According to Kyrgyz news agencies AKIpress and 24.kg, the Secretary of the Security Council, Adakhan Madumarov, stated that the Council is considering the matter, and will present the idea to the formal head of the Security Council, President Kurmanbek Bakiev. He was supported by the head of the security services, GKNB, Murat Sutalinov, who said that even the possibility of public executions should be considered. According to Sutalinov, public executions “would bring order to the country within 2-3 days.” Madumarov said that Kyrgyzstan chooses its own way, and does not have to look towards the West and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is shocked by these statements, and urges the President not to consider such proposals from the security services. The Kyrgyz Republic took an important step in the right direction when it abolished death penalty in 2007, and the country should be proud to be in the company of an ever-widening group of countries to have done so. Kyrgyz security services have been involved in a number of questionable affairs over the past few years, and should not under any circumstance be involved in decision-making in profoundly moral matters such as capital punishment. Read More