Mass searches have been held by policemen and KGB men in Minsk, Hrodna, Brest, Homen and Mahilyou at the places where democratic activists live. Policemen burst doors.

The searches were held in the framework of the defamation criminal case opened under Article 250 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (dissemination of false information about goods and services).

The first search was held on May 18 in Minsk in the headquarters of "Say the Truth!" civil campaign. It was held among others by policemen from the special brigade of Savetski police department who had armoured vests and machine guns. All computers, leaflets, booklets and books were confiscated from the office.

Today, on May 4, 2010, Minsk Region Court has fully acquitted Ivan Mikhailau, finding no legally defined crime in activities of a young parishioner. The case that has lasted since December 2009, has been finalized.

A 21-y.o. parishioner of the “New Testament” Community was accused of draft evasion according to Art. 435.1 of the Belarusian Criminal Code.

On 20 and 21 of May in Voronezh a two-day seminar “The practice of interaction between government and non-government Human Rights institutions in the sphere of promotion of Human Rights European standards at the national level” was held." The seminar was organized by Youth Human Rights Movement and Interregional Human Rights Group supported by the Directorate General of Human Rights of Council of Europe and the Public Reception of the Ombudsman on Human Rights in Russia (in the Voronezh region).

From 10 to 15 of May in Kislovodsk (Russia) "Introductory Seminar on Human Rights” for young people from Chechnya and Ingushetia took place. The seminar was organized by the Committee "Civil Assistance" in the framework of the program for education in the sphere of Human Rights for the North Caucasus, which is implemented with support of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. The seminar was attended by 50 students and young members of public organizations. The seminar was conducted by experienced trainers: President of International Youth Human Rights Movement Andrey Yurov and chairperson of the Human Rights commission "Memorial" in the Komi Republic, YHRM Honorary Participant Igor Sazhin.

On may 6, 2010, in Murmansk, took place a roundtable on the issue of spreading the ideas of fascism and nationalism among youth. The meeting was initiated by the Committee for Cooperation with NGOs and Youth Affairs of the Murmansk region in conjunction with the Office of Internal Affairs of the Murmansk. Also, it was attended by representatives of the Murmansk student council, environmental organization “Nature and Youth”, Public Organization" Humanistic Movement of Youth, Youth Human Rights Movement, a public movement Governor's operational detachment "The Bear", Department of Internal Affairs of Murmansk and the Department against Extremism of the Murmansk region.

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. Particular concern is the fact that at the last election a significant number of votes were received by the obviously extreme-right party Jobbik, which not only uses populist slogans in its rhetoric, but also has its own paramilitary “guard”, consisting of volunteers-supporters.

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.

A Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) consultation meeting took place in Kiev on 2 May. The informal meeting was well attended, which illustrates a strong interest in common activities against racism in football among Ukrainian FARE partners. It is also a testimony to the networking work in Ukraine conducted by the 'NEVER AGAIN' Association in frames of the FARE East European Development Project.

From March 26 till April 2 there had been the 7^th anniversary of the International festival of documentary on human rights “Docudays UA” in Ukraine. This year the audience could see the best 32 documentaries from Australia, Great Britain, Greece, Denmark, Israel, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, Hungary and Ukraine.