Human rights

The Foreign Ministry has slammed the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for questioning the Turkish government's motives in calling snap elections on June 24, rescheduled to be held under the state of emergency a year-and-a-half before the original date. 

The trial of five members of foreign non-governmental organizations accused of attempted human smuggling was under way at a court on Lesvos on Monday. 

The five are three Spanish firefighters, who came to Greece at the peak of the refugee crisis to work for the Spanish group Proem-Aid, and two members of Danish non-government organization Team Humanity. 

"In 2017, there has been a stagnation in the protection of human rights in Bulgaria, with some areas deteriorating: the authorities and the public sphere have been deaf for human rights and civil society has failed to raise concerns about major issues and this task stands on the agenda in 2018.

Human rights groups expressed concern on Wednesday at plans by Greece to continue containing asylum-seekers on its islands, calling the policy "abusive."

Greek authorities are trying to legislate curbs on migrants' movements to try to cancel out a court ruling on April 18 that individuals landing on Greek islands should no longer be held there.

An independent Pakistani watchdog criticized the country's human rights record over the past year in a new report released yesterday, saying the nation has failed to make progress on a myriad of issues, ranging from forced disappearances, to women's rights and protection of religious minorities.

The UN chief made the appeal in a speech to the General Assembly in New York  on Tuesday, ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Russia is considering coming out of the European Convention on Human Rights and ending its cooperation with the European Court of Human Rights, RIA Novosti said after receiving information from government sources, Reuters reported.

According to unnamed sources, the reason for this intention is due to the fact that many court decisions are against the interests of Russia.

The Council of Europe’s Human Rights Commissioner Nils Muiznieks told BIRN that it was unacceptable for Serbia and other Balkan countries to give a public platform to convicted war criminals.

Amnesty International's annual report, published on Thursday, shone a light on human rights violations in all Balkan countries and pointed especially to a lack of will to deal with war crimes.

The report presented the state of human rights during 2017 in 159 countries and territories.

Recently we from Novinite.com published an article about German activist, artist and humanitarian Rebecca Sommer. We were contacted by a friend of hers about certain inaccuracies and therefore contacted Rebecca. She was kind enough to send us a translated version of the original interview she made for Polish media.