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HRHF’s director Maria Dahle addressed the Norwegian parliament on 15 October 2018, appealing for a significant increase in earmarked support for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and for support to independent civil society.

At the first stop on an official trip to Serbia, Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg visited Human Rights House Belgrade with her Serbian counterpart Ana Brnabic. At the House, the politicians had the opportunity to engage in dialogue with members of Serbian civil society.

Time and again in 2017 we saw how resilient, creative, and adaptable human rights defenders can be in the face of repression.

Human rights defenders are sharing their experiences working first-hand to defend the rights of others.

Discover how we, the Human Rights Houses and Human Rights House Foundation, protected, empowered, and supported human rights defenders and advanced human rights in 2016.

In November 2016, the Rafto Foundation celebrated 30 years of supporting human rights defenders. Rafto has awarded the Rafto Prize for Human Rights to 30 human rights defenders during these years, three of whom later won the Nobel Peace Prize.

On the 12 of July at the UN, high-level representatives from States, civil society and the private sector discussed the human rights situation in the world. There was also a first televised live debate with the candidates for Secretary General at the United Nations, which was open for questions from the public.

HRHN welcomes the UN General Assembly’s adoption of the resolution. This will protect, empower, and support human rights defenders, and address the increasingly threatening climate in which they work.

Civil society has less and less space to breathe or even exist in many countries, let alone participate in public life. Authorities are using restrictions as a pretext to prosecute and imprison human rights defenders, criminalising the right to be a human rights defender, and the right to assemble and associate.