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The Rafto Foundation Annual Report 2015

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The Rafto Foundation Annual Report 2015 The Rafto Foundation Annual Report 2015 BRN: 877155102 : Contents 1: The year in review – Increased support for the bravest in society 2 2: The 2015 Rafto Prize: Padre Melo 3 3: Follow-up work 5 3.1 Freedom of expression and hate speech 5 3.2 The business community and human rights 6 3.3 Assistance to Prize Laureates 6 3.4 The Women’s Network 8 4: Education and public liaison 9 5: Communications 11 6: Operations 12 1: Increased support for the bravest in society This year’s Prize Laureate, Jesuit priest Padre Melo, does not believe he will die a natural death. Padre Melo runs the free radio station Radio Progreso in Honduras, one of the world’s most violent countries. On 1 November he was awarded the Rafto Prize at Den Nationale Scene (The National Stage) in Bergen. The year 2015 has seen a significant increase in the Rafto Foundation’s follow-up work. The Women’s Network has established a grassroots network of human rights activists from ten countries in the Middle East and North Africa. These 18 women will meet regularly to boost their skills and leadership qualities and to discuss strategy for work on women’s rights. The Rafto Foundation will focus more on social responsibility for human rights. The objective is to equip economics students, activists and the business community with increased expertise and a deeper understanding of the principles and dilemmas that need to be addressed in connection with production, value chains, contract negotiation and the purchase and sale of goods and services. Thorolf Rafto, who was a professor at NHH (the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, as it was at the time), was keen to urge the business community to actively embrace its corporate social responsibility. In 2015 we established a new partnership with NHH involving an annual lecture under the title the Thorolf Rafto Challenge. Furthermore, we have started work on increasing the focus on ethics and human rights in economics education, both in upper secondary schools and in higher education. Homophobia and repeated attempts to make homosexuality a crime are an increasing problem in many countries in the world, including Uganda. Rafto Prize Laureate Frank Mugisha said in 2013 that we need new voices in the global battle against homophobia; he suggested footballers. This inspired the Rafto Foundation to seize the initiative in 2015 and launch its first social media campaign, under the name #tacklehomophobia. Over 30 clubs have now signed up, and over 300 photos have been posted on Instagram. The campaign is not over, and we will continue to work in 2016 to reach out to the big names in the German Bundesliga. Regrettably, not all Rafto Prize Laureates live in freedom. Thich Quang Do, from Vietnam, has been under house arrest for 30 years. At the age of 87, securing his release is now a matter of urgency. In a letter to the US president, Barack Obama, we asked that he raise Thich Quang Do’s situation with the Vietnamese authorities when he met them in October 2015. The letter was signed by 90 organisations and high-profile human rights experts. Jostein Hole Kobbeltvedt Executive Director, Rafto Foundation 2 “The 2015 Rafto Prize is awarded to the Honduran priest, radio activist and human rights campaigner Ismael Moreno Coto, better known as Padre Melo. This prize is a recognition of his use of the media to defend freedom of expression and fundamental rights in a Honduras marked by extreme violence. (…) The Rafto Foundation wishes to highlight Padre Melo’s work as an example of how non-violent campaigning for freedom of expression and fundamental human rights can sow the seeds of hope for a better future in one of the world’s most violent countries.” –Excerpt from the 2015 prize citation 2: The 2015 Rafto Prize Padre Melo received the Rafto Prize at Den Nationale Scene (The National Stage) on 1 November 2015. Photo: Lind&Lunde/Rafto Foundation 3 In August, the Board of Directors decided to award the and Honduran activists gave the public a wide-ranging 2015 Rafto Prize to Padre Melo from Honduras, after a analysis of the human rights situation in Honduras. On nomination from the Rafto Foundation’s Prize Committee. Sunday 1 November, a closed workshop was held with the The committee considered nominations and candidates Prize Laureate and activists from Honduras, together with from January until the decision was made, under the representatives from relevant organisations. The objective leadership of Martin Paulsen. One innovation this year was to identify projects that could promote Padre Melo’s was that the student group was invited to attend the Prize work – something which became highly relevant after the Committee’s first meeting, in order to learn more about news of cuts in the Norwegian aid budget. the committee’s work and with a view to potentially assisting with research. The committee held ten meetings On Sunday 1 November, the Rafto Prize ceremony was during the year, working on a voluntary basis, assisted by held at Den Nationale Scene (The National Stage), where a secretary from the Foundation’s administrative staff. one of the artistic contributions was Frode Grytten’s reading of a new poem dedicated to the Prize Laureate The Rafto Prize project is a cornerstone and Radio Progreso. Some 350–400 people of the Rafto Foundation’s work. This year were present for the prize-giving, which the project management team consisted 190 was followed by a torchlight procession of a project coordinator and an acting attendees at the 2015 Rafto and an appeal by student leaders. The general manager, who together with the Conference prize-giving ceremony was streamed by information department coordinate the NRK and was covered by the NRK news public announcement and the Rafto Prize programme Dagsrevyen, the Norwegian Week. The follow-up department is also involved in the News Agency, the newspaper Dagbladet, NRK Hordaland project. In addition, a project assistant was also employed regional TV, Bergens Tidende, Bergensavisen and student on a part-time (40 per cent) basis during the autumn. media in Bergen. Events organising company Kulturoperatørene is an important partner when it comes to staging the events Prize Laureate’s visit to Oslo associated with the prize-giving in November. This year’s On 2 and 3 November, Padre Melo was in Oslo for student group had 14 members, including a chairman and meetings with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a deputy chairman. President of the Storting Olemic Thommessen, and the Storting’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Announcement of the 2015 Rafto Prize Defence, as well as Norwegian People’s Aid and the The announcement was made on 24 September at the Council for Religious and Life Stance Communities. Rafto House in Bergen. The newspaper Bergens Tidende Padre Melo took part in an open public event organised broadcast live on its website from the press conference, by the Rafto Foundation’s Oslo group at the House of with commentators and interviews both before and Literature, with about 80 present. He was also a guest after the announcement itself. NRK Hordaland streamed at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights and the the announcement, and there was also coverage in University of Oslo’s event “To damer og en té” (“Two the national newspaper VG, on national NRK radio and Ladies for Tea”), an academic talkshow with Inga Bostad TV, the TV2 News channel and the biggest regional and Anine Kierulf. The event was filmed by the University newspapers via the Norwegian News Agency. News about and streamed online by Morgenbladet. The University’s the prize also spread to news media in Latin America and recording was broadcast on NRK Kunnskapskanalen in Honduras, such as La Tribuna, La Prensa and Rapporte 2016. Padre Melo was also interviewed by NRK for the 24, and it also received good coverage in social media. magazine programme Urix in its Marienlyst studio, for an Following the announcement, a breakfast meeting was edition on Honduras and Latin America that was shown held in partnership with the Bergen Student Society, on NRK2 the same evening. where Prize Committee chairman and professor Frank Aarebrot discussed this year’s prize in front of the 80 Other events during the visit to Norway: attendees. • Portrait photography by Hans Jørgen Brun • Visit to the half-yearly meeting of the board of Prize Laureate’s visit to Bergen representatives of the Hordaland/Sogn og Fjordane Padre Melo arrived in Bergen on Wednesday 28 October branch of the Electrician and IT Workers Union in along with his colleagues Jennifer Avila and Margot Bergen, as well as the union’s national conference for Navarro from Radio Progreso/ERIC. Two half-days were the energy sector in Oslo allocated for media interviews, and Melo was interviewed • Students’ welcome dinner for the Prize Laureate, next by the newspapers Bergens Tidende, Bergensavisen, door to the Rafto House Dagen and Studvest, along with the national broadcaster, • Bergen City Council banquet at the Galleri Nygaten NRK, Student Radio in Bergen and Bergen Student TV. • Lunch reception at the NHH (Norwegian School of The 2015 Rafto Conference, “Fighting Violence with Words Economics), with a wreath-laying ceremony at Thorolf – Reports on Honduras’ Human Rights Crisis”, brought Rafto’s memorial together some 190 attendees at the Radisson Blu Hotel • Reception at the Rafto House after the prize Norge on Saturday 31 October. Norwegian academics ceremony 4 3: Follow-up work 3.1 Freedom of expression and OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media; Miklós Haraszti, Professor at the Columbia Law School in New hate speech York and the former OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media; Andrei Richter, Special Adviser at the Office In spring 2015, the Rafto Foundation started the seminar of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media; series “Free Speech to Overcome Hate Speech”, a Juan Barata, Principal Adviser to the OSCE Representative collaboration with Rafto Prize Laureates Péter Molnár on Freedom of the Media; and Bernard Rorke from the (1989), Ian Hancock (1997) and Frank Mugisha (2011).
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