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The Rafto Foundation 2016 Annual Report

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The Rafto Foundation 2016 Annual Report The Rafto Foundation 2016 Annual Report BRN: 877155102 Contents Annual report 1. Foreword: 30 years promoting human rights ........................ 4 2. The 2016 Rafto Prize and Rafto 30 ....................................... 8 3. Follow-up work – Human Rights Defender Assistance Pro- gramme (HRDP) ................................................................. 13 3.1 Assistance for the Rafto Prize Laureates ........................ 13 3.2 Free Speech to Overcome Hate Speech .......................... 15 3.3 Corporate Responsibility for Human Rights .................. 15 3.4 The Women’s Network ..................................................19 4. Education and public liaison ............................................... 21 5. Communications .................................................................24 6. Operations ..........................................................................27 2 FOREWORD: “The anniversary has provided us 30 years promoting with an opportunity to look back and human rights honour Prize Laureates from the last 1 30 years, as well as to look to the future” 2016 mARkeD 30 yeARS since the death of Professor and In 2016 we reinforced and enhanced our long-term programmes. human rights activist Thorolf Rafto and the subsequent estab- The Women’s Network has held training sessions in Lebanon and lishment of the Rafto Foundation in his memory. Rafto 30 was continues to develop as an important platform for young female commemorated through various events throughout the year. The grassroots activists from the Middle East, North Africa and South- anniversary year was rounded off with a grand gala event in a east Asia. Within work on free speech to combat hate speech, a packed Grieg Hall in Bergen on 20 November, with 18 Rafto Prize series of seminars was organised in Hungary, and the #tacklehom- Laureates in attendance. ophobia campaign enjoyed a high profile during Oslo Pride. In At the event, the annual Rafto Prize was awarded to the Iraqi hu- collaboration with the Institute for Human Rights and Business man rights activist Yanar Mohammed, whose fight for the rights of (IHRB), and in dialogue with a number of Norwegian businesses, women and minorities in war-torn Iraq exposes herself and her col- we started work to develop a course on human rights for the busi- leagues to great personal risk. At the Rafto Conference Yanar stat- ness community. ed that the prize would secure a higher profile for her work in her In 2016 more than 5,000 young people, teachers and student homeland. teachers took part in the Rafto Foundation’s human rights training. A number of previous Rafto Prize Laureates were also exposed We are experiencing major interest in our educational offerings to various threats and risks in 2016. Padre Melo’s close colleague at the Rettighetstanken educational facility in the Rafto House, as Berta Cáceres was murdered for campaigning to preserve natural well as in school projects such as Fremtidspiloten (the Future Pilot) resources in Honduras. In Bahrain, Nabeel Rajab was imprisoned and Dembra (Democratic Preparedness against Racism and Anti- for tweets critical of the government. In Russia, the human rights Sem itism). The educational tool Demokratikaken (the Democracy group and lawyer association Agora’s office in Tatarstan was forci- Cake) is now available in Norwegian, English, Arabic and Tigrinya. bly liquidated, the organisation having been branded as a “foreign Translations have also been commissioned into Vietnamese, Kore- agent”. In Uganda, Frank Mugisha and several LGBT activists were an and Russian. In 2016 the Rafto Foundation, on the initiative of imprisoned during Uganda Pride. In Vietnam, Thich Quang Do the European Wergeland Centre and Utøya AS, also helped to devel- remains under house arrest for his non-violent work for religious op democracy education classes for young people on Utøya. freedom and democracy. 2016 was an extraordinary year for us. The anniversary present- The Rafto Foundation has provided support and striven to high- ed us with the opportunity to look back and honour the Prize Laure- light the extremely difficult situation in which many of our prize ates from the last 30 years as well as to look forward and to perform Laureates find themselves. As part of the 30th anniversary, the Raf- the groundwork to reinforce the Prize Laureates’ campaigns in a to Laureates’ Forum focused on the various challenges facing hu- world in which human rights are coming under severe pressure. man rights campaigners today. The forum brought together Prize Laureates and representatives from leading international human Jostein Hole Kobbeltvedt rights organisations and the UN, the eU and Norwegian authorities. 4 5 In 2016 the Rafto Foundation commemorated its 30th anniversary and brought together previous Prize Laureates in Bergen. From front left: José Raúl Vera López, Trimivi Velliste, Ramesh Nathan, José Ramos- Horta, Nnimmo Bassey, Junita Upadhyay, Pavel Chikov, Ian Hancock, Padre Melo, Julie Gromellon, Tatyana Fernandes. From back right: Sidi Mohammed Daddach, Maryam al-Khawaja, Rebiya Kadeer, Yanar Mohammed, Asha Kowtal, Malahat Nasibova and Frank Mugisha. Photo: Hans Jørgen Brun The 2016 Rafto Prize 2 and Rafto 30 THe 2016 Rafto PRIze cOINcIDeD with the Rafto Founda- tion’s 30th anniversary in November. It was important to ensure a high public and media profile for this year’s prize, at the same time as highlighting 30 years of campaigning for human rights and raising awareness of our Prize Laureates’ causes among the general public, organisations and politicians. Internal organisation The Executive Director was Project Manager of the 30th anniver- sary arrangements, and in 2016 the permanent position of Project Rafto PRIze LauReate 2016 Coordinator for the Rafto Prize was established. In addition to two Yanar Mohammed spoke to 500 business project positions and an intern, communications advisers and ad- leaders at the Bergen Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Conference in visers in the follow-up department made key contributions to this The anniversary concluded with a series of events to mark the November. Photo: Bergen Chamber of year’s project. presentation of the 2016 Rafto Prize in November. Commerce Our partner events arranger Kulturoperatørene played a key role in arranging this year’s largest events. The student group, which The 2016 Rafto Prize this year comprised 17 members, all of whom were volunteers, The Rafto Prize was awarded to the Iraqi human rights campaign- also made an important contribution to the prize project. We also er and Director of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq engaged an extra group of volunteers to help arrange the various (OWFI), Yanar Mohammed (55). Yanar received the prize for her events we held in November. work for women and minority groups in war-torn Iraq. The Board of Directors decided on this year’s Prize Laureate in August, on Rafto 30 – Kick-off in Oslo the recommendation of the Rafto Foundation’s Prize Committee, The Rafto Foundation’s 30th anniversary featured prominently chaired by Martin Paulsen. In 2016 the Committee comprised in the media and was marked with several events throughout the eight volunteer members, assisted by a secretary and an admin- year. A separate visual identity was developed and the anniversa- istration intern. ry was honoured at most of the year’s events. This year’s award was announced on 29 September at the Raf- The anniversary started in January with an event for our part- to House in an event streamed live via rafto.no and nrk.no. The ners and supporters in Oslo. Rafto and Nobel Prize Laureate José prize received wide coverage in Norway, including from the Nor- Ramos-Horta and the Mayor of Oslo, Marianne Borgen, gave wegian News Agency, broadcasters NRk Hordaland, NRk Dags- speeches, followed by a panel debate chaired by Inga Bostad, Direc- revyen and TV2, regional and local newspapers. The newspapers tor of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the University of Bergens Tidende and Dagen also wrote editorials on the prize. The Oslo (UiO). Dr Rajiv Narayan, an expert on Korea and senior advis- AFP news agency secured good international coverage, and we er to the International Commission against the Death Penalty, also are aware of around 50 online international news articles cover- participated in the debate. ing the prize, including on Alsumaria TV and in the Baghdad Post, 8 9 the 2016 Rafto PRIze and Rafto 30 El Mundo and the Daily Mail, to name but a few. In addition, Mar- tin Paulsen and Arne Strand wrote a piece on behalf of the Prize Committee that was published on dagbladet.no following the announcement. The Rafto Prize received wide coverage through shares, comments and likes in social media, both nationally and internationally. Following the announcement, a breakfast meet- ing was held at Bergen Public Library in collaboration with the Bergen Student Society, where Prize Committee Chairperson and author Per Egil Hegge discussed this year’s and the 29 previous Prize Laureates. The Prize Laureate’s visit to Norway, 16 –24 November Yanar Mohammed arrived in Bergen on Wednesday 16 Novem- ber together with two members of her family. Her colleague from OWFI in Iraq arrived on Friday 18 November, and participated in the remaining programme. The Rafto Foundation prioritised time for the press in the pro- gramme, and TV2, NRk Hordaland, the magazine programme Urix, Bergens Tidende, Bergensavisen, Dagen and student media all inter- viewed the Prize Laureate during her visit to Norway. In collabora- tion with the production company SmAU Film we produced an in- depth interview with Yanar Mohammed, along with mini portraits of all the Prize Laureates. Mohammed was also interviewed on stage in front of 500 business leaders during the Bergen Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Conference. The Rafto Conference “Fearless Women of Iraq – A Struggle Against Violence” was held for the first time in the university’s assembly hall in front of an audience of around 350. A mixture of activists and researchers as keynote speakers provided a wide-ran- ging and interesting introduction to the challenges faced by wom- the GRIeG haLL was fuLL en and minorities in Iraq.
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