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In an open letter, Human Rights House Foundation joins Amnesty International and 97 other civil society organisations in expressing serious concern at the EU and several European states‘ decision to suspend or review their funding to Palestinian and Israeli civil society organisations.

In 2023, Human Rights House Foundation launched an update to the Rights of Defenders booklet. The update coincides with the 25th anniversary of the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the updated booklet expands on the original 16 standards that we first published in 2018.

Oksana Tropina is a human rights defender from Kherson. She remained in the city during the Russian occupation from February to November 2022. In this interview, she discusses life and human rights under occupation as well as evacuation.

74 civil society organisations including Human Rights House Foundation have written to the European Commission, the European Parliament’s rapporteur, the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council and the Ministers of Justice of all EU Member States to reiterate their concerns regarding the trilogue process of the anti-SLAPP Directive. Members of the CASE coalition urge the European institutions to negotiate the strongest possible Anti-SLAPP Directive that effectively protects public watchdogs.

From 29-30 September 2023, the Lesia Ukrainka Theatre visited Oslo to perform at the National Theatre its first play since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as participate in the panel discussion “When Art Rebels”. Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) spoke to the Theatre’s project manager Viktoria Shvydko to discuss the role of the arts during wartime.

Ane Tusvik Bonde joined Amnesty Norway in September 2023 following almost two decades with the Human Rights House Foundation. In this interview, Ane shares her reflections about the significance of the Human Rights House concept, the Network and the power of solidarity.

Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) was active throughout the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) advocating on key issues including calling for the renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia, as well as the issue of reprisals for civil society engaging with the UN, and the human rights situations in Belarus, Georgia, Serbia and Ukraine.

HRHF is concerned by the Georgian authorities’ on-going efforts to criminalise, hinder, and de-legitimise the essential work of civil society and obstruct peaceful protests. We call on the Georgian authorities to reverse restrictions on civic space and create an enabling environment for human rights defenders and other civic actors.

14 human rights defenders refined their advocacy skills and deepened their knowledge of Council of Europe (CoE) advocacy throughout 2023 as part of the Human Rights House Foundation’s Advocacy Capacity Building Programme, co-funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Union.

HRHF welcomes the UN Human Rights Council’s (HRC) adoption of a new resolution on Russia, which renews the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Russian Federation.

Human Rights House Foundation issued a statement on 11 October 2023 at the UN Human Rights Council, highlighting the rise of radical anti-rights groups in Georgia, concerns for the human rights situation in Russian-occupied South Ossetia, as well as recommending that the capacity of the Public Defender’s office is increased.

We, the undersigned members of the Network of Human Rights Houses, are concerned by the attempt to suppress independent civil society and drastically narrow free civic space for the essential and legitimate activities of human rights defenders in Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina.