The large contingency of Belarusian human rights defenders who had come travelling for the conference and tomorrow’s forum purely on Belarusian issues, listened to introductions on the various protection mechanisms available to human rights defenders, both at the international UN level, through the EU guidelines, and through national guidelines, exemplified by the recently revised Norwegian ones, presented by Idun Tvedt, left, adviser at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Norwegian guidelines requests the embassies to undertake several measures to protect human rights defenders and their work, and Tvedt strongly encouraged human rights NGOs to familiarise themselves with the Norwegian guidelines and contact and use Norwegian missions more. Complimenting these official and institutional sets of guidelines, Front Line’s protection coordinator Maria Chichtchenkova and Aleh Hulak, Chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee provided the perspectives from the ground, sharing very practical, experience-based advice on how best to protect oneself.

Comparative insights on the human rights situation in Belarus and the Baltic states were presented by Ales Bialiatski, right, head of Human Rights Centre Viasna, and academic researchers from both Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Before the concluding session on how to raise awareness, insights on the freedom of expression situation in Belarus were shared by both domestic and foreign experts.  

Among the high-lights were Maya Ganesh, left, Project Manager at Tactical Technology Collective’s headquarters in Bangalore, India, who continued her sharing of experiences from the annual network meeting yesterday, with creative use of communication technologies. Finally, Jan Erik Helgesen, Professor of human rights law at the University of Oslo and First Vice-President of the Venice Commission, gave a personal, moving account of the most committed human rights defenders’ need for rest and respite. For the five last years leading up to its approval, Helgesen lead the drafting of the UN human rights defenders resolution that has been so instrumental and actively in use since, not the least by HRHN.

Also see:

L. Andrikienė Žmogaus teisių konferencijoje Vilniuje by Bureau of the Member of European Parliament Laima Andrikienė, 24 September 2010

Laima Andrikienė: „Europos Sąjungoje turi būti daug efektyvesnė žmogaus teisių gynėjų apsaugos sistema“ by Vytautas Valentinavičius, Gayline, 24 September 2010