Reclaiming a Waste Land Called Ukraine

Ukrainian authorities are launching a massive nationwide project to transform the country’s dangerous and inefficient waste disposal network as officials admit the former Soviet state is facing an "ecological catastrophe".

Corporal Punishment Leaves Too Many Scars

Thousands of people are being left physically and psychologically scarred as countries around the world continue to breach international law in handing out brutal but "ineffective" corporal punishment for drug offences, it has been claimed.

UZBEKISTAN: Forced Child Labour Kills

A 13-year-old boy has become the latest victim of state-sponsored forced child labour in Uzbekistan as its regime continues to ignore boycotts and international condemnation of its practices during the country’s annual cotton harvest.

EUROPE: Striking at the Heart of Healthcare

Almost half of all doctors working in Slovakia’s hospitals have handed in their notice in a mass protest over working conditions and wages which they warn could cause the Eastern European country’s healthcare system to collapse.

EUROPE: ‘Fat Tax’ May Hurt Poor

The introduction of some of Europe’s most far-reaching taxes on unhealthy foods has sparked renewed debate about the effect of such levies on poor people.

KAZAKHSTAN: Workers Fight Massive Crackdown

Workers striking in what has been described as the biggest organised threat to Kazakhstan’s authoritarian regime in the last decade are being beaten by hired thugs as the government ignores pleas for basic international labour rights to be observed.

AFGHANISTAN:: New Therapy Battles Soaring Drug Addiction

A pioneering drug substitution programme in conflict-wracked Afghanistan has been hailed as a resounding success as local doctors and international health organisations battle soaring heroin addiction rates and an HIV/AIDS epidemic.

HEALTH: Scare Haunts HIV/AIDS Patients in Ukraine

Fears are growing among HIV/AIDS sufferers in the Ukraine amid claims from some patients that they have been denied life-saving medicines by authorities as a crackdown is launched on drug substitution therapy.

Forced Closure of HRW Worries Uzbek Rights Groups

Western powers must prove that their support for human rights is "on the right side of history" following the forced closure of the only independent international rights group in Uzbekistan, a country ruled by a repressive regime since 1991, rights defenders say.

HEALTH: Market Interests Fight Iodised Salt

Russia and the Ukraine have been warned they are lagging behind the rest of the former Soviet bloc in introducing a simple and inexpensive public health measure that has curbed the incidence of mental disabilities among children across the region.

Central Asian Regimes Fear Unrest

As revolutions and popular protests against dictatorships spread across northern Africa and the Middle East, questions are being raised whether they will inspire similar uprisings in Central Asia. Activists say that it is now a question of when, not if, regime change comes in the region.

UZBEKISTAN: EU Accused of Backing Child Labour

The EU is facing accusations of tacitly supporting child labour after its main decision-making body approved a trade agreement with Uzbekistan on textiles – an industry known to involve at least one million child labourers a year.

Brutal Crackdown in Belarus

Repressions in Europe’s last dictatorship show no signs of abating despite EU sanctions and international condemnation. International rights watchdogs warn that human rights abuses in Belarus have reached a "new low", and activists say that no one appears safe from Alexander Lukashenka’s brutal crackdowns in the wake of his controversial re-election as president.

EU Hosts Uzbek Dictator

In what appalled human rights defenders have described as an episode of "shame and discredit" for the European Union, Brussels played host to one of the world’s worst dictators Monday.

Europe Begins to Run Short of Water

Half of the Czech Republic’s population could face water shortages because of climate change, a top climate change expert has warned.

EAST EUROPE: Midwives Struggle to Deliver Home Births

Women’s rights in Eastern Europe have been put into the spotlight as a Hungarian midwife faces five years in prison for assisting with home births.

UZBEKISTAN: Muslims Face Horrific Torture in Jails

Muslims are facing a dark future of repression and torture in Uzbekistan for years to come as the government’s relentless campaign of religious suppression continues.

EUROPE: More of the Last Dictatorship

Belarus is set to remain Europe’s last dictatorship after Alexander Lukashenka was returned to the presidency last weekend in an election result which his critics say was never in doubt.

Kazakhstan Escapes Censure Over Rights

As Kazakhstan’s chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) comes to an end, its authoritarian leadership has been accused of ignoring pledges to improve human rights and instead stifling opposition and cracking down on freedom of expression.

EUROPE: Talking Green, ‘Lending Unclean’

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is reneging on pledges to support low-carbon economic models in Eastern Europe, and is instead ramping up its lending for fossil-fuel energy projects, critics say.

To Execute or Not, an Unfair Question

New polls in the Czech Republic showing high and growing support for the death penalty have sparked debate on the continuing use of surveys to back the retention of capital punishment.