News

The Norwegian Foundation "Human Rights House" (NFHRH) has called on the Azerbaijani authorities to resume the activities of its branch in this country – the "Azerbaijani Human Rights House (AHRH).

The website of the Department for Kalmykia of the Federal Service of Court Marshals has launched a new service that allows residents to know about their debt within the instituted executive proceedings.

In Georgia, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have addressed the authorities asking them to conduct the parliamentary elections this autumn in compliance with international standards. On March 9, activists of several NGOs submitted a corresponding statement to the President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili, Speaker of the Parliament David Bakradze and Minister of Foreign Affairs Grigol Vashadze.

Today, in Adygea, at the foot of Mount Tkhach, two men were covered by avalanche; one of them managed to get out.

Representatives of mass media, NGOs and professional associations of Azerbaijan have made statements condemning the threats and blackmail, to which the journalist Khadidja Ismailova was exposed.

On March 8, in the centre of the city of Tyrnyauz, the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic, a memorial board was opened in memory of the victims of deportation of the Balkar people.

In the context of the recent developments in the Azerbaijani city of Guba, where on March 1 a protest action turned into mass riots, five local residents were arrested.

Today, activists of youth organizations and NGOs held a protest action in front of the Georgian MIA under the slogan "I am a free citizen."

About three thousand people – residents of the streets named Nizhnyaya Imeretinskaya, Imeretinskaya, Staroshkolnaya, Staroklubnaya, Uritskogo Tsimlyanskaya, Tavricheskaya and Polevaya in Sochi – are without electricity since March 7 and get ready to protests.

Relatives and friends of Akhmetgiri Tsechoev, who perished in Malgobek at night on March 4 during a special operation, are categorically denying his association with militants. They do not believe that the retired lieutenant colonel, whose two brothers and a son are also professional militaries, was a militant, and talk about an extra-judicial execution.

Like throughout Russia, March 8 was announced a day-off in Dagestan; however, people treat this holiday differently: some celebrate it, others believe it is a routine day.

The International Committee to Protect Journalists (ICPJ) has resolutely condemned the threats addressed to Khadidja Ismailova, a journalist of the Azerbaijani service of Radio Liberty.

In the Armenian capital, ecologists and public activists, campaigning in defence of the Mashtots Park against construction, have demanded from the Mayoralty and the government to make an immediate decision and start dismantling the kiosks installed in the park. Otherwise, they will intensify their protests.

Georgian authorities will toughen liability for crimes out of religious, race, lingual, national or ethnic intolerance. The respective amendments to the Criminal Code are planned. Deputies from the ruling party Kakhaber Anjaparidze and Zviyad Kukava became their originators and authors.

International human rights organization Amnesty International expressed its concern about intimidation of members of human rights organization “MASHR” by the authorities of Ingushetia. Coordination Council of non-governmental organizations of Ingushetia also put forward a demand to stop persecution of the organization and its Head Magomed Multsogov.

The participants of a meeting in Nalchik devoted to the 68th anniversary of deportation of the Balkar people stated that the officials of Kabardino-Balkaria ignored their demands. The participants of the action consider that the main problem of the Balkars is unsettled land question.

On March 5, the Soviet District Court of Vladikavkaz held initial hearings on the case of explosion of a gas cylinder at a wedding in June 2011. The prisoners' dock keeps Vadim Vazagov, a resident of North Ossetia.

Today, in Tbilisi, in the building of the Sukhumi State University, the NGO "Free Caucasus" and the teachers of the university held a conference in memory of the deportation of the Balkar people.

In Adygea, an act of vandalism against the liturgical building of the Jehovah's Witnesses was committed.

Refusal of Armenian performers' participation in the international song contest "Eurovision-2012", which will be held in Baku in May, will result in the impossibility for voting for participants. Yerevan has explained the reasons for the boycott of the song contest by the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.