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The right to be a human rights defender has been reinforced by the resolution adopted by consensus at the Human Rights Council. The resolution focuses on legislation affecting, restricting and criminalising the work and activities of human rights defenders.

On 10 March 2011 Human Rights House Azerbaijan was ordered to seize all activities in Azerbaijan until an agreement with the authorities was adopted. Three years after, the Human Rights House Azerbaijan is still closed.

HRHW 2013 tries to convey and illustrate the complexity of human rights issues through documentaries. By melding unconventional elements participants gain a better understanding of the complex array of legal, political, social, and cultural issues involved in human rights and human wrongs. Hence every day during the festival, different focal points are shared in the selected movies and seminars.

The Human Rights Human Wrongs Film Festival (HRHW) is organised by The Human Rights House Oslo and
Oslo Dokumentarkino (the Oslo Documentary Cinema).

Norwegian PEN continues to monitor developments in Turkey. On 22 January Norwegian PEN shows the documentary film of Swedish filmmaker Deniz Hell “Many faces of Turkey.”

NHC together with partner organisations Civil Society Institute and The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) call upon Armenian authorities to eliminate violations in the administration of justice and ensure the establishment of an independent judiciary and the rule of law. These steps are fundamental to the further democratic development of Armenia, and should be a prerequisite for any further engagement with the EU.

The PEN delegation visited Turkey from 12 – 18 November. PEN International and PEN branches from the USA, Sweden, England, Turkey and Norway participated. Meeting with President Abdullah Gül in Ankara on 13 November, the delegation asked that Turkey took concrete action to stop the alarming increase in the number of writers, journalists, translators and publishers who are detained or prosecuted in the country.

The office of Norwegain Helsinki Committee partner in Belarus, prominent NGO ‘Viasna’, led by the imprisoned human rights defender Ales Bialiatski, was confiscated on 26 November. The move was the last fulfilment of the illegal conviction of Bialiatski just over one year ago. NHC has protested this last blow against Viasna through the network Civil Society Platform.

FIAN International and other NGOs denounce the health plight of hunger-striking farmers arbitrarily imprisoned in Paraguay.

The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is deeply concerned at recent request by the Prosecutor General’s office in Kazakhstan that the court ban what in effect are all news outlets critical of the current government.