HRHF Oslo Representatives in Baku

On the first week of May, the representatives of HRHF from Oslo, Maria Dahle and Ane Tusvik Bonde, had a week’s visit to Baku. The trip was dedicated to the preparatory arrangements and fundraising activities prior to the establishment of the House in Baku. Numerous meeting with representatives of international organizations, Embassies and national organizations confirmed the importance of HRH in Baku. (08-MAY-07)

Written by Shahla Ismailova/HRH Baku, photos by Shahla Ismailova

Meetings with the Core Group
During the visit, Maria Dahle and Ane Bonde had two meetings with the Core Group, consisting of the leaders of 9 member organizations of the Human Rights House Baku. There was discussed the current situation on human rights in Azerbaijan as well as the issues directly related to the establishment of HRH Baku, such as ongoing process of registration, joint projects, importance of the code of conduct, commitments of the member organizations, etc. The senior representatives also explained the process of establishing HRH Baku as time-demanding and efforts-demanding process, requiring the input of all the members.

Meetings with national organizations
HRHF Oslo representatives had a series of meetings with leaders of other national organizations and mass media outlets, when they discussed the general situation on human rights, democracy, freedom of expression. The importance of the establishment of the HRH Baku by 2008, the year of Presidential Elections, was underlined by all the leaders, which considered the activity of HRHF in Azerbaijan contributive to civil society building and human rights respect.

Meetings with international organizations
Another significant part of the visit was connected with meetings with the representatives of international organizations and Embassies. There were paid visits to Baku offices of OSCE, Council of Europe, NDI, British Embassy, US Embassy, Norwegian Embassy as well as Statoil. Maria Dahle and Ane Tusvik Bonde updated the diplomats about the ongoing process of establishment and received important recommendations from them. During the visits there was conducted fundraising on parts of the budget for the establishment of the Human Rights House.

In general, it is important to underline that all, whom the Oslo representatives of HRHF met during 4-11 April were very supportive to the initiative and stressed the necessity of finalizing the establishment of the Baku House as soon as possible.