Shirin Ebadi will attend a conference in Oslo 13 October hosted by the Human Rigths House Foundation. The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate will talk about the importance of networks in strengthening the security of human rights defenders. (30-AUG-04) 

Ms Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2003, is an Iranian lawyer and human rights activist. She will open the international conference on 13 october together with Mr Thorbjørn Jagland, Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Norwegian Parliament.

Activists under attack
The conference is held in relation to the 10th Anniversary of the Human Rights House Network. The title of the conference is “Activists under Attack. Defending the Right to be a Human Rights Defender”.

– We are honoured that Shirin Ebadi has accepted our invitation, says Borghild T Krokan, Project Manager at the Human Rights House Foundation. – It is of great importance and inspiration to other activists to meet such a prominent human rights defender and learn about her experiences.

Deteriorating security and working conditions

The focus of the conference will be the deteriorating security and working conditions of human rights defenders. This tendency can be traced not only in an increase in the number of for instance incidents of harassment, threats, torture or unlawful arrests, but also in more subtle ways, such as a step-by-step undermining of funding opportunities, increasingly complex regulations on registration and re-registration or other kinds of suffocating bureaucracy.

 

Growing tendency
Representatives of governments, human rights organisations and international experts will participate at the conference. A representative from the UN Secretary General´s special representative for human rights defenders will also attend the conference. The UN office has identified a growing universal tendency to clamp down on independent human rights organisations and individual activists alike.

The conference will take place at the new Norwegian Human Rights House in Tordenskioldsgate 6b , Oslo, Norway. Read the preliminary program