Dozens of youths arriving at the building of the National Library of Belarus on Thursday evening with pillows were arrested by police.

A youth organization called Historyka (Historical Studies) intended to stage a mass pillow fight there to mark the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald that took place on July 15, 1410, with the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Litva (Lithuania) beating the knights of the Teutonic Order.

On June 13th the youth tradeunion group "Studentskaya Rada/Students Council" held the first of its kind conference "Students' Rights and Human Rights defending among Students, Present-Day Students".
On Sunday morning more than 30 students, representatives of various youth organizations and civil activists gathered at the International Educational Center to discuss what the Students' Rights are, Why do students need them, Who the Present-Day Student is and What his role and place in the Belorussian society is.

Open Letter to His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia Kirill, the Blessed Metropolitan Vladimir, and to the Ukrainian and international community.

Your Holiness,

Kharkov municipal authorities proceed with the scandal deforestation of our city. Under different pretexts, they ceded vast areas in Kharkov Forest called Lesopark, Gorky park, Artem park and the whole area of Zustrich park to business corporations and individuals.

 The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), undertook a visit of Mr. Evgeny Zhovtis in prison. Mr. Zhovtis is a founding member and the Director of the Kazakhstan International Human Rights and the Rule of Law Bureau, as well as a member of the Council of Experts of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODHIR) under the Organisation on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in charge of freedom of assembly[1].

FotoDepartament Foundation presents the exhibition: "Yuri Ivaschenko. Uprooted." 4 July – 4 August 2010.

Exhibition Hall / Ground Floor
Art and Music Center at Mayakovskiy Library/ Nevskiy prospect, 20
The exhibition opens on 4 July, Sunday, 6 p.m.

This documentary photography exhibition is devoted to two ethnic groups – batumi kurds and ezidi. The scene – Krasnodar krai, which became the new habitation place after the forced departure from the former abode.

On 27-28 of May in Moscow on base of the Center of History and Cultural Anthropology of the African Institute in the Russian Academy of Science took place the International seminar "Racism, xenophobia, discrimination. How we have seen them ... ".

Jock Palfreeman is a 23 year old Australian citizen who, before his arrest in Bulgaria, was a trainee soldier in the British Army.

Jock was arrested following an incident in which he had attempted to defend two Roma people who were being attacked by a group of men in an alleged racist attack, late at night near a metro station in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, shortly before Christmas 2007.

I have learned with deep concern the disturbing news of the sentencing of the human rights activist Alexey Sokolov on 13 May 2010 to five years’ imprisonment sentence in high security prison colony on the alleged crime of theft and robbery.
 
There are serious concerns over the conduct of his trial. According to the information I have received, the Bogdanovich town court in the Sverdlovsk region of Russia gave decisive weight to potentially unsound evidence while failing to sufficiently take into account testimonies in support of Alexey Sokolov.

From 11 to 16th of May in Budapest (Hungary) young activists from 33 European countries met at a regular conference of the European network UNITED for Intercultural Action which this time was devoted to the topic “Europe All Inclusive? Minorities at the Edge of Society”.
 
Every six months UNITED holds international conferences in different countries. This time it was Hungary, and thus a large part of the conference programme dealt with the situation in this country.

A conference “Forgotten Victims” focused on the problem of hate crimes and the victims of hate violence and assistance of the state and non-governmental organizations, was held on April 22 – 23, 2010. The conference took place in the Goethe-Institut, Prague, under the auspices of the Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer together with the Forum 2000 Foundation, the Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" (Foundation EVZ), In IUSTITIA o.s. and Kulturbüro Sachsen e.V. Among the participants there were experts from Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.

From March 14th to 19th the 2nd International Academy of Remembrance and Human Rights took place in Berlin (Germany). In the framework of the program “Teaching Human Rights” the organizer (the foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future”) has gathered 23 participants from Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, the Ukraine, Israel and Germany.

The initiative of Georgian, Russian and international NGOs to forge relationship between civil societies of Georgia and Russia invites anyone interested to join.

The initiative has appeared after the last conflict in August, 2008, and since then there have taken place a lot of meetings and discussions, both in Georgia and Russia, and internationally.

It has become the practice when the officers of the Customs Department of the Revenue Service do not allow the Armenian language printed products into Georgia. According to verbal explanations issued by the customs officers such restrictions are imposed by Georgian legislation.