Riksteateret, Deria and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee co-operates in arranging a seminar on integration and cultural diversity 6 November at the Norwegian Human Rights House. The seminar will discuss different aspects of integration of immigrants and refugees in Western countries. In the seminar, experiences and discussions from Canada, Denmark, England, France, and Germany will be presented and related to Norwegian experiences. Read More

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee advisor Aage Borchgrevink is currently in Tblisi to investigate alleged occurences of war crimes and crimes against humanity during and after the armed conflict in August. According to a statement published in Tblisi today by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in cooperation with three other human rights organisations, the investigation has concluded that ethnic cleansing continues in the de-facto border region between Georgia and South Ossetia. "The Human rights monitors found evidence of the burning of houses, attacks on civilians and forced displacement of the Georgian population as late as Friday 17 October. There is still fear and tension in the conflict zone. The Russian Federation effectively controls South Ossetian territory and is responsible for maintaining security and allowing the displaced population to return and to investigate numerous allegations of crimes committed in the areas that have been and continue to be effectively under Russian control during and after the armed conflict in August, irrespective of who actually committed them. The Georgian government, on the other hand, is responsible for providing security to the population in the areas it controls, including in the de facto border regions, and for investigating the numerous allegations of crimes committed during and after the armed conflict, irrespective of who actually committed them", Aage Borchgrevink says in the statement. Read More

- Yesterdays' presidential election in the Republic of Azerbaijan took place in an environment where free and fair elections are not possible, says head of information in The Norwegian Helsinki Committee Berit Lindeman, who is currently in Baku monitoring the election. Some of the basic conditions for holding elections are public debate, a free press and equal conditions for all political forces in the country. Neither is present in Azerbaijan, says Lindeman. Read More

Ivar Dale, the representative of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) in Central Asia, was denied entry into Kyrgyzstan when arriving at Manas Airport, Bishkek on Sunday 12 October. He was kept at the airport for 21 hours and then left for Istanbul. Read More

- Sonja Biserko, the head of the Helsinki Committee for human rights in Serbia was physically threatened on Sunday 5 October. Two persons were waiting for her in front of her apartment in Belgrade. She discovered the ambush just in time and was able to alert friends about the situation.
Since mid-September, the Committee has been subject to a smear campaign in the media. Biserko has been called a fascist, a communist and as so many times before, an enemy of Serbhood. According to the Committee the smear campaign has been an attempt to mobilize the public to react violently, in line with this, some websites and tabloids published Biserko’s home address.
-The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is concerned about her security, said Secretary-General Bjørn Engesland. On Friday 3 October an ultra-nationalist group demonstrating against the arrest and extradition of Radovan Karadzic tagged the entrance to the office of the Helsinki Committee with a swastika.
Most of the hateful and unreasonable criticisms have been based on a misrepresentation of the Committee’s 2007 annual report. The report, which was published in May 2008, carried the title ”Self-Isolation. Reality and the Goal”.
Read the annual report Read The Helsinki Committee of Serbia's own account of the smear campaign Read letter of support from other NGOs in Serbia

The Human Dimension Implementation Meeting is the single most important yearly OSCE event focusing on human rights and democracy in Europe, North America, and Central Asia. For two weeks, attendants will review how and to what extent governments in the OSCE region have put their human rights and democracy commitments into practice. More than 1,000 participants - government representatives, experts, human rights defenders - are expected to attend, making this Europe's largest human rights conference. Berit Lindeman is representing The Norwegian Helsinki Committee at the conference, and you can read her contribution about the use of the Dublin II regulation in the Shengen area to the conference below.
Read intervention on the Dublin II regulation Download report on Greek asylum policy Read intervention on freedom of religion

-These elections can in no way be considered free and fair, says Secretary General Bjørn Engesland of The Norwegian Helsinki Committee, who is currently in Belarus to follow the events.
-The conditions for holding free elections are simply not present in Belarus. The regime has systematically surpressed alternative voices the last 12 years, and there is no meaningful public debate between opposing views, a basic precondition for holding free elections, Engesland says. According to preliminary results published by the Central Election Commission it appears that no opposition candidates were elected to the Parliament in yesterdays’ vote. Read More

The Helsinki Task Force (HTF), a group of persons chosen by Helsinki Committees from North America, Europe and Central Asia, met for its second meeting in Budapest 16-17 June 2008. HTF decided to propose a new international Helsinki organisation early 2009, with a mandate to coordinate and strengthening lobbying activities on behalf of Helsinki committees. Read HTF statement

Ivar Dale, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC) regional representative to Central Asia will be tried in a local court in Bishkek on Thursday 4 September. Dale has been accused of illegal work in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan.
The trial is next step in a series of attacks by Kyrgyz authorities against the NHC office in Kyrgyzstan, which started in June 2008 when the office was raided. - We believe it is part of efforts by Kyrgyz authorities to stop NHC activity in Kyrgyzstan and in the Central Asian region. We have reason to believe that it is politically motivated, says Secretary General Bjørn Engesland. Engesland will attend the court during the hearing of the case against Dale, and meet with national and international officials in Bishkek. A press conference will be held on Friday 5 September. Read More

On August 16,the former candidate during the presidential elections in the Republic of Belarus in 2006, Alyaksandr Kazulin was released. Kazulin was arrested on 25 March 2006 and later convicted to 5.5 years of prison after protesting against the rigged elections. Since then, he has been allowed to leave the prison only once, to attend his wife’s funeral. Last year, Kazulin was on a hunger strike for 53 days protesting his unlawful imprisonment, a hunger strike that almost cost his life. The release has come after a decree of pardon of president Lukashenka, and does not entail a declaration of Kazulins’ innocence.
-We are very pleased that Alyaksandr Kazulin finally has been released from prison, and are happy he now can return to his much tested family. However, our view on Lukashenkas regime remains unchanged as long as two more political prisoners, Andrei Kim and Sayrhei Parsyukevich, remain imprisoned in Belarus, repressions continue against civil society and there is a complete lack of democracy in the country, says Secretary General Bjørn Engesland.