Maria_01_400px.jpg– We want governments to adopt transparent, comprehensive, and verifiable policies to protect human rights defenders, both in their own countries and abroad, says Maria Dahle Executive Director of the Human Rights House Foundation, in the introduction to the Human Rights House Network Annual Report 2004.

 

 

Read more about the activities at the established and emerging Human Rights Houses in Oslo, Moscow, Warsaw, Sarajevo, Bergen, London, Zagreb, Nairobi, Kampala, Minsk, Baku, Istanbul, and Bogota. 
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Read the introduction below

Human rights activists are under attack. In many countries it is becoming increasingly dangerous to defend the rights of others and to speak up against oppressive regimes and political opponents. The work puts them in positions of great personal and professional risk, including risk to their colleagues, family members and friends. In many parts of the world, there is an increased use of the law, the courts and local public platforms as a means to deter human rights defenders from carrying out their activities and to restrain their work. This development worries us, and we have a responsibility as human rights activist to address the problem.

 

Hence, the Human Rights House Network marked its 10th Anniversary in 2004 with an international conference entitled Activists Under Attack – Defending the Right to be a Human Rights Defender. Our hope was that the conference would be a small contribution to putting the protection of human rights defenders higher on the agenda. By gathering human rights defenders from all over the world, as well as intellectuals, artists, politicians, researchers, and others who share a common goal of strengthening the work for human rights, we wanted to manifest the right to be a human rights defender and discuss how to protect the right to be a human rights defender.

 

The conference adopted a statement, with recommendations to governments on how to support and protect human rights activists. Experience has shown that the most effective protection measures are those that have collective implications and are driven by political will. Durable solutions rest on the political will of stakeholders and competent authorities at all levels. The international community and donor community must uphold high human rights standards in all human development efforts and use the level of national protection afforded to those defending human rights as some development indicators. We want the governments to adopt transparent, comprehensive, and verifiable policies to protect human rights defenders, both in their own countries and abroad. One of the recommendations was to provide immediate protection to human rights defenders in urgent situations, by granting temporary visas to human rights defenders at grave risk or facilitating asylum procedures and temporary admission programmes.

 

The statement adopted at the conference is an important strategic tool for the future work in the Human Rights House Network.

 

Since the beginning in 1994, the main aim of the Human Rights House Network has been to improve the work for human rights. Human Rights Houses enhance co-operation and collaboration among organisations and strengthen solidarity among them. They make organisations more visible and put human rights on the agenda.

 

But most of all, a Human Rights House increases the security of human rights defenders and activists and provides a base from where they can pursue their goals more efficiently and at less risk.

 

One person in Norway has played a major role in the Human Rights House project from the beginning. It was his idea to establish the first Human Rights House in Oslo, and it was his initiative to establish the Human Rights House Network. He has provided funding and let us use the house in Urtegata 50 free of charge until we had to move to larger offices in 2004, and he has invested time and effort as a board member of the Human Rights House Foundation. Therefore, we would like to thank Knut Kloster jr for nurturing the Human Rights House idea and providing the human rights community in Norway with generous support for more than a decade.