Latest

From 10-16 March 2025, the third edition of the Portraits of Strength exhibition, featuring women human rights defenders from the Network of Human Rights Houses, is exhibited at Vega Scene in Oslo as part of the Human International Documentary Film Festival.

Human Rights Houses in Belgrade, Banja Luka, and Zagreb, along with the Sarajevo Open Center – united in a Regional Network – strongly condemn yesterday’s armed police intrusion into the premises of member organisations of the Human Rights House Belgrade, conducted without a proper court order.

In recent months, Serbia has witnessed an alarming crackdown on its civic space. This has unfolded through a wave of arrests, smear campaigns, and repressive tactics aimed at silencing dissent and undermining democratic principles. These actions, exacerbated by growing Russian and Chinese influence, reveal a systematic effort of Serbia’s authorities to suppress civil society and stifle public dissent.

From October 7-11, 2024, 15 human rights defenders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine gathered for a week of advocacy as a part of the Network of Human Rights Houses’ 30th anniversary celebrations. Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) and Network partners aimed to deepen engagement with Norwegian policymakers and raise awareness of critical human rights challenges across the region, emphasising the need for increased political and financial support from Norway for civil society.

Dragoslava Barzut is a writer and human rights defender from Serbia. She is a Public Policy Program Manager at Civic Initiatives, a member organisation of Human Rights House Belgrade. Barzut’s work centres on combating hate speech and hate crimes, addressing the shrinking civic space, and advocating for the rights of LGBTQI people.

At the 56th UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) worked alongside civil society partners to highlight the situation for human rights in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Balkans.

On the sidelines of the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights House Foundation underlined several concerns related to freedom of expression in Serbia including Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), the misuse of the Law on the Prevention of Money-Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism to target civil society organisations, and inadequate protection mechanisms for journalists and the persistent impunity for crimes against them.

Human Rights House Foundation joins Belarusian and international organisations in calling on the Serbian authorities to stop the extradition of Belarusian filmmaker and co-founder of the “Free Association of Athletes SOS-BY”, Andrey Gnyot, from Serbia to Belarus.

On 19 March 2024, a new Regional Network of Human Rights Houses was launched by Human Rights Houses Banja Luka, Belgrade, Zagreb and the Sarajevo Open Centre. The group also launched their first Regional Report on the situation of human rights defenders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.