Posts Tagged ‘Norway’

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FairSquare and Human Rights Watch have filed complaints re the selection process for FIFA’s peace prize”

January 19, 2026

FIFA president Gianni Infantino presents President Donald Trump with the FIFA Peace Prize during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Draw at John F. Kennedy  IMAGES via Reuters Connect…Show more 

This blog has a special interest in human rights awards, so it should not fail to mention the big surprise which occurred when FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), the worldwide governing body of soccer, gave President Donald Trump its first-ever prize for global peace. An investigation by the Times of London has revealed that the White House not only knew well in advance the honor was coming but also made demands about its size and style of presentation.

There has been no transparency around FIFA’s Peace Prize process. Human Rights Watch and FairSquare have written to FIFA on 11 November 2025 to request a list of the nominees, the judges, the criteria, and the process for the Peace Prize. Human Rights Watch received no response.In his haste to ingratiate himself to Trump, Infantino neglected to inform FIFA bigwigs about the “peace prize”. That flies in the face of FIFA’s code of ethics which states that officials are expected to maintain political neutrality. [https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2025/12/FIFA%20Peace%20Prize%20letter%20from%20Human%20Rights%20Watch%20.pdf]

“FIFA’s so-called peace prize is being awarded against a backdrop of violent detentions of immigrants, national guard deployments in US cities, and the obsequious cancellation of FIFA’s own anti-racism and anti-discrimination campaigns,” said Minky Worden, who oversees sport for Human Rights Watch. “There is still time to honor FIFA’s promises for a World Cup not tainted by human rights abuses, but the clock is ticking.”

Now the issue of not getting the Nobel Peace prize [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2025/07/24/nobel-peace-prize-choice-between-trump-and-albanese/] became even more relevant as U.S. President Donald Trump linked his aggressive stance on Greenland to last year’s decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize, telling Norway’s prime minister that he no longer felt “an obligation to think purely of Peace,” two European officials said Monday.

Trump’s message to Jonas Gahr Støre appears to ratchet up a standoff between Washington and its closest allies over his threats to take over Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO member Denmark. On Saturday, Trump announced a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from eight nations that have rallied around Denmark and Greenland, including Norway.

https://www.wsls.com/news/world/2026/01/19/trump-ties-his-stance-on-greenland-to-not-getting-nobel-peace-prize-european-officials-say/

https://eu.knoxnews.com/story/entertainment/columnists/sam-venable/2026/01/07/sam-venable-forget-fifa-if-you-want-an-award-make-it-a-fafi/87993522007/

https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/other/trump-s-fifa-peace-prize-breached-neutrality-claims-rights-group/ar-AA1S1TnG

https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/donald-trump-gianni-infantino-fifa-world-cup-bz0qhlskg

https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/12/03/world-cup-2026-fifa-needs-to-act-on-human-rights

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Human Rights Defenders in Greece on trial for baseless charges for assisting people on the move; and end up being acquitted.

November 21, 2025

On 18 November 2025 Frontline published an urgent appeal that I – as a resident of Greece – with some shame share [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2022/07/28/human-rights-defenders-in-greece-my-adopted-country-not-doing-well/]:

On 4 December 2025, 24 human rights defenders, including Seán Binder and Athanasios (Nassos) Karakitsos, will appear before the Mytilene Court of Appeals, on the island of Lesvos. This comes seven years (!!) after their initial arrests. The human rights defenders are facing felony charges of ‘membership of a criminal organisation’, ‘facilitation of the entry of third country nationals into the country’, and ‘money laundering’. The charges stem from work carried out by the defenders in Greece between 2016 and 2018, where they assisted people on the move whose lives were at risk while trying to reach safety to the island of Lesvos. If convicted, they face up to 20 years of imprisonment.

Seán Binder and Athanasios (Nassos) Karakitsos are migrant rights defenders who worked with Emergency Response Center International (ERCI) between 2016 and 2018. The humanitarian work carried out by ERCI was extensive, and included helping more than 1000 people reach safety, organising workshops and swimming classes for migrant children in the Kara Tepe camp, and providing residents in the Moria camp with medical assistance. ERCI was registered as a non-governmental organisation and regularly cooperated with Greek authorities, including with the Greek Coast Guard on rescue operations. The organisation was dissolved after the criminalisation of its members and volunteers.

In September 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeals’ decision, delivered on 13 January 2023, to dismiss four misdemeanour charges of ‘forgery’, ‘espionage’, ‘possession of unlicensed radio’ and ‘infringement of state secrets’ faced by Seán Binder and seven other non-Greek speaking defenders. This was due to procedural flaws, including key documents, such as the indictments, having not been translated for the accused. In January 2024, the remaining sixteen human rights defenders, including Athanasios (Nassos) Karakitsos, were acquitted of the same charges. [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/11/17/greeces-mistaken-deterrence-migrants-and-aid-workers-facing-heavy-prison-sentences/]

On 21 August 2018, Lesvos Police arrested Seán Binder after he attended the police station voluntarily, having learned that another human rights defender had been arrested earlier that day. In the following days, they also arrested Athanasios (Nassos) Karakitsos, the field director of ERCI at the time. The human rights defenders were kept in pre-trial detention for more than one hundred days, accused of ‘people smuggling’, ‘money laundering’, ‘espionage’, and ‘membership of a criminal organisation.’ In December 2018, the human rights defenders were conditionally released on bail.

The upcoming trial is the second court case since 2018 initiated against the 24 human rights defenders based on their work, aiding, assisting and saving the lives of migrants and refugees, who were trapped in the Aegean Sea between Türkiye and Greece.

Front Line Defenders calls on the authorities in Greece to:

Immediately and unconditionally drop all charges against Seán Binder and Athanasios (Nassos) Karakitsos, and the other 22 human rights defenders who are also on trial;

  1. Cease the criminalisation of human rights defenders who peacefully defend the rights of the migrants and refugees, including the humanitarian assistance to save the lives of people stranded at the marine and land borders;
  2. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Greece are able to carry
  3. out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions, including judicial harassment.

Download the urgent appeal

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/human-rights-defenders-trial-baseless-charges-assisting-people-move

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerry/north-west-kerry-news/in-limbo-for-seven-years-kerry-man-sean-binder-to-face-trial-in-greece-over-humanitarian-work/a40232245.html

https://www.occrp.org/en/news/greek-court-to-hear-case-against-aid-workers-allegedly-smuggling-migrants

perhaps Tunisia can show the way: https://macaubusiness.com/tunisia-court-frees-ngo-workers-accused-of-helping-migrants

and then the good news:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/16/syrian-swimmer-sarah-mardini-cleared-by-greek-court-over-migrant-rescues

https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/01/15/humanitarians-cleared-of-bogus-charges-in-greece

https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/01/29/greek-immigration-bill-demonizes-civil-society

https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/06/greek-coast-guard-under-scrutiny-for-migrant-deaths

but it continue in 2026

https://euobserver.com/202747/greece-moves-to-arrest-nordic-aid-worker-supporting-migrants

and

https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/02/16/greece-continues-its-relentless-assault-on-civil-society

https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/norway-release-human-rights-defender-tommy-olsen-and-reject-his-extradition-to-greece/

https://impactpolicies.org/news/844/olsen-case-exposes-clash-between-refugee-pushback-secrecy-and-transparency

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Rafto Prize 2025 to Emergency Response Rooms of Sudan (ERR)

September 17, 2025

The Rafto Prize 2025 has been awarded to The Emergency Response Rooms of Sudan (ERRs) for their courageous work to preserve the most fundamental human right – the right to life.

The Emergency Response Rooms of Sudan are grassroot networks that emerged in the wake of the war in Sudan in 2023. They consist of thousands of volunteers who engage in collaborative, community driven efforts to meet urgent humanitarian needs of others, at great personal risk. The ERRs save lives and maintain human dignity in a place of misery and despair.

After the brutal war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out in April 2023, the Sudanese state collapsed. As a consequence, civilians have an enormous need for humanitarian assistance.In a desperate attempt to save lives, ordinary Sudanese took matters in their own hands and formed self-help groups to offer services supporting basic life, welfare, and human dignity through Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs).

The ERRs originated in Khartoum and has spread to other conflict areas of Sudan. To mitigate excessive loss of life and human suffering, ERRs provide key services such as health, food, water, body retrieval and burial. They also work on monitoring, documenting, and responding to cases of sexual violence.

The Rafto Prize 2025 honours the Emergency Response Rooms and the thousands of individuals protecting the right to life and health, who are building hope in Sudan, at tremendous risk to their own lives. The prize is also a recognition of the significance of grassroot mobilization and collective effort in ensuring basic human rights in times of conflict. The need for protection of human rights and humanitarian assistance is becoming greater by the day. In these trying times, we must all stand in solidarity with the people of Sudan.

For more on the Rafto prize and its many previous laureates: see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/A5043D5E-68F5-43DF-B84D-C9EF21976B18

https://www.rafto.no/en/news/the-rafto-prize-2025-to-emergency-response-rooms-of-sudan-err

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sudanese-network-volunteer-aid-groups-wins-norwegian-human-rights-award-2025-09-17/

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Important Resolution on Human rights Defenders adopted by UN Human Rights Council

April 7, 2025

Led by Norway, the resolution crucially covers new grounds and further develops States’ obligations to protect human rights defenders in the digital age. It also considers the needs expressed by human rights defenders during the consultative process leading to its negotiation and approval. 

For the first time and in a major win for the human rights defenders movement, the resolution includes a reference to the Declaration +25 and is very much in line with its content. 

‘The Declaration +25 is a ground-breaking initiative,’ said Phil Lynch, Executive Director at ISHR. ‘Civil society organisations worldwide have united to produce this authoritative articulation of the international legal framework for the protection of human rights defenders. We are very pleased that the Human Rights Council recognised it,’ Lynch added.

For example, the resolution calls on States to forgo the use of biometric mass surveillance and to refrain from or cease the use or transfer of new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence applications and spyware to actors that are not liable to operating these in full compliance with international human rights law. 

Initially, the resolution included a reference to transnational repression but this was removed in the final version.  

‘While we welcome the reference to types of transnational repression referred to in the resolution, we stress that transnational repression is not only about actions taken by a State, but also its proxies, to deter, silence or punish people and groups who engage in dissent, critique or human rights advocacy from abroad, in relation to that State,’ said ISHR’s Lynch and civil society partners in their end of session statement. 

Indeed, transnational repression includes acts targeted directly against human rights defenders, journalists or activists, as well as acts targeting them indirectly by threatening their families, representatives or associates. Particularly vulnerable are nationals or former nationals, members of diaspora communities and those living in exile. ISHR will continue to push for States to publicly recognise and acknowledge this form of harassment. 

Another lost opportunity is the lack of explicit recognition of the positive role of child human rights defenders in promoting human rights and fostering change in societies, including their active role in the digital space. The resolution also doesn’t tackle the specific challenges and risks they face because of their age and their civic engagement, as highlighted by the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders in her 2024 report.

The resolution fell short of reaffirming States commitments from UNGA A/RES/78/216, to enhance protection measures for child defenders and to provide a safe, enabling and empowering environment for children and young people online and offline. 

The negotiation of the resolution was a hard and long process: 12 informal sessions were needed to agree on a text. In a regrettable move, some States presented amendments to the tabled text trying to undermine and weaken it. The text was finally adopted without a vote.

OHCHR is now mandated to convene three regional workshops and a report to assess risks created by digital technologies to human rights defenders and best practices to respond to these concerns.

https://ishr.ch/latest-updates/hrc58-states-adopt-substantive-resolution-on-human-rights-defenders-emerging-technologies

Report on the 58th session of the Human Rights Council
UN Human Rights Council Renews Mandates for Special Rapporteur and Fact-Finding Mission on Iran

https://mailchi.mp/ishr/ishr-hrc58-april-8900949?e=d1945ebb90

https://www.apc.org/en/news/digital-milestone-new-resolution-human-rights-defenders-and-new-technologies-adopted-un-human

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Norway presents resolution on new technology and human rights defenders at Human Rights Council 58th Session

March 19, 2025

From press release dated: 13/03/2025

‘New technology provides human rights defenders with tools to organize, spread information, and reach people. At the same time, many experience digital surveillance, online violence, and harassment. It is important that these issues are discussed in the UN, and therefore, Norway is presenting a resolution in the UN Human Rights Council this spring’, says Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

The resolution emphasizes that human rights are universal and apply in the same manner online as offline.  It advocates for increased protection against digital threats and surveillance and ensures that new technology is not used to restrict freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, or the right to privacy. The resolution also highlights the need for dialogue with tech companies to discuss the challenges faced by human rights defenders in the digital space.

‘We want to gather broad support for the resolution and secure clear commitments from the international community to protect those who fight for our shared rights – also in the digital sphere’, says Eide.

Norway has a long tradition of advocating for the protection of human rights defenders. The new resolution is the result of close dialogue with civil society actors, technology experts, and other countries. The resolution will be presented and adopted at the UN this spring. Moving forward, Norway will work to gain as much international support as possible for the resolution’s important message.

https://www.norway.no/en/missions/wto-un/our-priorities/other-issues/pressreleasenorway/hrc58hrd/

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Request to sign joint NGO letter for human rights defenders resolution at 58th session HRC

February 3, 2025

At the upcoming 58th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Norway will present a draft resolution on human rights defenders and new and emerging technologies.

ISHR has prepared the attached letter urging States to actively support the adoption of a resolution that recognises updated frameworks to protect human rights defenders in the digital era, addresses the growing risks of cybercrimes, online harassment, surveillance, and the suppression of free expression through censorship and disinformation. 

ISHR will be collecting NGO signatories until  7 February 2025. Please sign the letter using this link. Please feel free to circulate the link to sign on the letter to your civil society networks. We will be circulating the final version with signatories for publishing and sending it to  Geneva missions on 10 February .

Please note that  ISHR is not able to take on comments/edits on this letter. We invite interested NGOs to send their inputs directly to the drafters of the resolution – the Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva. 

Sign the letter

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Nominations for RAFTO prize 2023 now open

January 5, 2023
Call for nominations 1 1

The Rafto Prize encourages everyone with an interest in or knowledge of human rights to make a nomination. Annual deadline is 1 February. For more on this and similar awards, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/A5043D5E-68F5-43DF-B84D-C9EF21976B18

Criteria

  • A candidate should be active in the struggle for the ideals and principles underlying the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  • A candidate’s struggle for human rights should represent a non-violent perspective.
  • A candidate may be a person or an organization, and two or more candidates may share the prize.

Who can nominate?

Anyone with an interest in and knowledge about human rights is welcome to nominate candidates. Candidates nominated by themselves or by their staff or by honorary officers will not be taken into consideration.

Deadline for nominations: 1 February.
Nominations received after 1 February will be taken into consideration for the Rafto Prize the following year.

Who makes the decision?

Nominations for the Rafto Prize are received and evaluated by the Prize Committee. Recipient(s) is selected by the Board of Directors.

When is the announcement the Rafto Prize?

Each year we announce the recipient of the Rafto Prize in the end of September at a press conference at the Rafto House in Bergen. The announcement is live streamed on our website and on Facebook.

For questions regarding nominations, please contact the Secretary of the Committee, Liv Unni Stuhaug, livunni.stuhaug@rafto.no

Nominate a candidate

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Oslo Freedom Forum 2022 starts on 23 May

May 22, 2022

Every year, champions of human rights bring their stories to the Oslo Freedom Forum to shed light on the struggle for freedom around the world.

The theme for the 2022 Oslo Freedom Forum, CHAMPION OF CHANGE, celebrates both activists, who are themselves champions, and their causes. This theme represents a strong, scalable call to action, inviting you to act and advocate on behalf of activists and in support of human rights. At the Oslo Freedom Forum, we realize that everyone has the potential to effect change — either as a champion on an individual level, or as part of a larger movement.

The 2022 Oslo Freedom Forum, is from May 23-25 in Oslo at the Oslo Konserthus. You can also follow it as a stream: https://oslofreedomforum.com/?mc_cid=17de5f8b1f&mc_eid=f80cec329e

The 2022 mainstage program includes keynote speakers, who will be shedding light on the struggle for freedom around the world, including:

  • The three women who are leading the democratic movement in Belarus: Maria Kolesnikova, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and Veronica Tsepkalo, first stood on stage together in 2020 in Belarus, when Aleksandr Lukashenko brazenly stole the country’s elections. They will reunite with us, to provide an update on the Belarusian people’s remarkable multi-year protest, and explain how we can help.
  • Carine Kanimba, daughter of imprisoned “Hotel Rwanda” hero — who saved more than a thousand people during the Rwandan genocide — will share her extremely risky quest to liberate her father, who was was kidnapped by the state in 2020, and is now serving a life sentence in prison for criticizing the Kagame regime. Despite being wiretapped and targeted by Pegasus spyware, Carine continues to speak out to bring justice to her father.
  • At the young age of 26, Zarifa Ghafari became the unlikely mayor of Maidan Shar, a town in Afghanistan filled with Taliban support. Hatred toward her as a woman leader led to the assassination of her father in 2020. Last summer, with her life at risk after the fall of Kabul, she made a daring escape in the footwell of a car, evading Taliban fighters. Today she lives in exile, where she continues to advocate for human rights in Afghanistan, committed to the cause of freedom in her country. 
  • Jewher Ilham’s father, Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, has been held under a life sentence since 2014, imprisoned in a concentration camp in China’s Xinjiang region. Jewher has been speaking truth to power, shedding light on China’s forced labor police by testifying before US Congress, publishing op-eds, receiving numerous international awards on behalf of her father, and writing two books on the subject. 
  • In 2012, Syrian activist and Georgetown student Omar Alshogre was detained along with his cousin for demonstrating against the Syrian regime. He spent more than three years in Assad’s infamous jail system, where he endured and survived unspeakable torture. At the age of 20, his mother helped smuggle him out to freedom. His story is a bedrock piece of evidence in the international case to hold the Assad regime accountable for crimes against humanity.
  • One of the 100 most influential women defining the last century according to TIME Magazine, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman, also known as the “mother of the revolution,” “the iron woman,” “Lady of the Arab Spring,” as well as one of the Most Rebellious Women in History, is a notoriously true powerhouse. She is a human rights activist, journalist, politician, and founder of her own international foundation.

https://oslofreedomforum.com/oslo-freedom-forum-2022/?mc_cid=649fa76611&mc_eid=f80cec329e

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Norwegian Human Rights Fund: annual report 2021

May 13, 2022

The NHRF stated that 2021 has been another challenging year with numerous obstacles for human rights defenders, such as restrictive legislations, harassment, threats and attacks…
Many of our grantee partners risk their wellbeing, their security and their lives for the important work they do. They are on the front line for all of us. We particularly remember those who lost their lives this
year in the struggle for human rights. We promise to continue to work in their spirit. For more annual reports 2021, see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/annual-report-2021/

In 2021, the NHRF has supported 106 organisations in 11 countries. We hope that this annual report will give you an inspiring insight into their work in 2021. In our new 2021-25 strategy, the three strategic areas are:

1) Fight against impunity and for access to justice,

2) Dismantling discrimination, inequality and marginalization and

3) Protecting human rights defenders and the right to defend rights.

To reach our goals we work through direct financial support to human rights work, networking and capacity building and through communications, advocacy and strategic alliance building.

Voices from the ground must be heard where decisions are made. People sometimes say that they want to be ‘the voice of the voiceless’. We do not see our job as being someone’s voice. We see our task as creating and facilitating the spaces for human rights defenders to use their own voices.
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

We want to thank our donors, cooperation partners, the UN special rapporteurs we
work with, our board, our advisory board and all our followers and supporters, for the solidarity and encouragement you have provided in 2021!..Together we will prove that another
world is indeed possible.

Click to access NHRF-AnnualReport-2021-Final-IA.pdf

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Norway’s NGOs furious about Telenor’s data ending up in the hands of Myanmar’s junta

March 31, 2022
Former Minister of Trade and Industry Monica Mæland visiting Myanmar in 2014. Photo: Trond Viken, Ministry of Trade and Industry

On 25 March, Telenor announced that the telecom giant had transferred the operational activities of Telenor Myanmar to M1 Group. [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/10/26/norways-telenor-in-myanmar-should-do-more-than-pull-out-it-should-not-hand-sensitive-data-to-the-regime/] In a release following the announcement, the Norwegian Forum for Development and Environment (ForUM) condemns the sale, and Kathrine Sund-Henriksen, ForUM’s general manager calls it a dark day for Telenor and for Norway as a human rights nation.

ForUM is a network of 50 Norwegian organizations within the development, environment, peace, and human rights with a vision of a democratic and peaceful world based on fair distribution, solidarity, human rights, and sustainability. ForUM writes that together with transferring the operational activities of Telenor Myanmar to M1 Group, Telenor also sells sensitive personal data of 18 million former Telenor customers, and there is an imminent danger that this information will soon be in the hands of the country’s brutal military dictatorship. ForUM is furious at the news that the sale has been completed.

“Ever since the sale was announced last summer, we have worked to prevent it because there is a big risk that the military junta will have access to sensitive personal information and use it to persecute, torture, and kill regime critics. Incredibly, Telenor is going through with a sale that has been criticized by human rights experts, civil society, Myanmar’s government in exile, and even their own employees in the country,” says Kathrine Sund-Henriksen.

Telenor has admitted that since October last year they have known that the junta uses the M1 Group as an intermediary and that the data will soon end up in the hands of Shwe Byain Phy Group, a local conglomerate with close ties to the junta. Kathrine Sund-Henriksen believes it is only a matter of time before the sale has tragic consequences for human rights activists in the country.

“When metadata is transferred, the junta will be able to know who a user has called, how long the call has lasted, and where the call was made. All of this can be used to expose activist groups operating in secret for the junta. According to the UN, the junta has killed more than 1,600 people and more than 12,000 have been arrested since last year’s coup. Those numbers will continue to increase, and Telenor has given the junta all the information they need to expose human rights defenders,” Kathrine Sund-Henriksen says.

https://www.forumfor.no/nyheter/2022/forum-for-utvikling-og-miljo-fordommer-salget-av-telenor-myanmar

https://scandasia.com/norways-forum-condemns-the-sale-of-telenor-myanmar/

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