PEN International

The member states of the United Nations should hold Azerbaijan to account during its Universal Periodic Review on 30 April 2013 for its failure to protect basic human rights, says the International Partnership Group on Azerbaijan.

Award-winning writer Mamadali Makhmudov was released just days before Uzbekistan’s Universal Period Review process in Geneva, where the country is required to show how far it has met its obligations to uphold human rights, and will be questioned by other UN member states.

Writer and historian Enoh Meyomesse, currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in a Cameroonian jail, is being prevented from writing and has effectively had three of his new works confiscated.

Fazıl Say, an outspoken critic of Prime Minister Erdoğan, was charged with religious defamation in response to a series of messages posted on Twitter. The claimant who brought the case against Say has argued that the tweets publicly degraded religious values.

Thank you to all those who signed an on-line letter protesting the ongoing imprisonment of writer Mamadali Makhmudov, who has finally been released from prison upon completion of his 14-year term.

Thank you to all those who signed an on-line letter protesting the ongoing imprisonment of writer Mamadali Makhmudov, who has finally been released from prison upon completion of his 14-year term.

Vietnamese writer and activist Nguyen Huu Cau, 67, is reportedly seriously ill and denied adequate medical care in the prison camp where he is serving a life-time sentence for his critical writings.

Over 30 IFEX members express concern at a set of proposals put forth by the government of Ecuador and due to be discussed on 8 March in Ecuador that seek to reform the OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression.