Ans.Red.

Oslo Freedom Forum

Ans.Red.
Oslo Freedom Forum

Oslo Freedom Forum

 

The human rights conference, Oslo Freedom Forum, was held for the 15th time in Oslo Concert Hall 13th - 15th June. “Celebrating solidarity” was the slogan of the Forum. Tuntreet shares its thoughts from two thought provoking and eventful days. 

Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is a conference for human rights held in Oslo every year. The organizer writes kindly about the conference on its website, describing it as “a display of humanity, solidarity, and hope for the future”. Volunteer Liz Shelbred describes OFF as “Very unique. It brings together activists, journalists, and techs to talk about and convey stories”. Today, around 300 activists from around 100 countries participate. 

Journalist: Ingvild Lauvstad Sunde

Co-operators: Martin Hansebråten, Tord Kristian F. Andersen

Translator: Natalie Nazareno

Web distributor: Martha Ingeborg Evensen

 

 

Human Rights Foundation, the organisation behind OFF  

The OFF conference is held by the politically independent organization Human Rights Foundation (HRF). HRF, founded in New York in 2005, is an organization which “promotes and protects human rights globally, with an emphasis on closed societies”.  

HRF’s motto, “We believe that when we rise, tyranny falls”, shows their special focus on authoritarian regimes. At this year’s OFF, many of the speakers and panellists were political activists from authoritarian regimes, such as Iran and Russia. “The conference brings up difficult, but important issues, however, we hope that it also creates a community and a platform for likeminded people”, tells Shelbred. 

 
 

“Oslo is perfect” 

HRF explains that there are many reasons why Oslo in particular is the perfect place to hold a conference like this. In addition to being the city where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, HRF highlights the fundamental role Norway has in many of the world’s peace negotiations, and the country’s appreciation for peaceful democracy. Furthermore, the OFF has taken place in other parts of the world, like Mexico City, Johannesburg, and New York. After taking place in Oslo this summer, the 15th OFF conference will be held again in New York in September with new conference speakers and panellists. 

 

Three days of strong impressions  

Tuntreet participated at two of the three conference days. The days were filled with main sessions before and after lunch, with workshops, panel discussions, and presentations running parallel after the main sessions. On the first day, Tuntreet participated in a short panel discussion on the topic “Iran: The Final Revolution?”. Amongst the speakers were Masih Alinejad, human rights activist from Iran who fights for women’s rights, and Yasmin Green, CEO at Google’s department Jigsaw, with special focus on fighting threats against open societies. In other words, the opposite of closed authoritarian societies. Alinejad is known as a fearless defender of human rights, with great focus on women’s situation in her home country. She was hopeful when saying that this was the last time people would talk about a revolution in Iran. 

 
 
 
 

“Gender apartheid” and technology in authoritarian regimes  

The most interesting part of the panel discussions was to learn about the so called “gender apartheid”. The panellists used Iran as an example, where women are consistently discriminated economically and socially based on their gender. The panellist described how technology is used to monitor the people of Iran. As her final statement in the panel discussion, Alinejad had one last urgent plea: “Always remember that Iran is not the Islamic republic. It is the ‘Iranian people’”. 

 
 

LGBTQ+ rights in Uganda  

Tuntreet got in touch with Edward Mutebi in the swarming crowd, a master’s student in Social Work and Human Rights from Uganda. He is fighting for the LGBTQ+ community in his home country and has founded several organisations such as Let’s Walk Uganda. Uganda is a republic, however, Mutabi explains how the president more resembles a strong dictator. Through rewriting the constitution, in addition to other methods, he has remained in power of the country since 1986. 

It was moving listening to Mutabi tell the story about the LGBTQ+-community’s struggles in Uganda, and how it in many ways already started back in 2009. Nevertheless, he makes it clear that the government over many years, both before and after, has targeted the LGBTQ+-community in the country. “The preparation of the first antihomosexuality law started in 2009. These negotiations continued until 2013”, tells Mutabi. “In 2014, the law was approved by the president”. This law introduced death penalty for homosexuality, among other things. However, the law was withdrawn only a few months later, due to being declared unconstitutional. 

“Our situation still did not improve”, states Mutabi. “The office of Let’s Walk Uganda is a shelter for homeless people of the LGBTQ+-community. “In 2019, the police started attacking us there”, he explains. Everyone at the office was beaten up, and several of the homeless were taken into custody, tortured, and forcefully put through physical and psychological examinations.  

Further, Mutabi says that a new antihomosexuality law was approved in 2023. “What’s special about this law is that, instead of taking several years to come to an agreement, this law went from negotiations to approval from February to May the same year”. The law did not only implement death penalty for homosexuals, but also penalties for any supporters of the LGBTQ+-community such as fines or jail time up to 20 years. Mutabi has a theory; “the law is used to distract the public from the ‘real’ problems in the country. Uganda suffers from high unemployment rates, poverty, maternal death, and corruption”.  

OFF is an arena which allows activists like Mutabi to tell their story. ‘Activist’ is, however, a wide term… 

 

Zara Larsson… at a human rights conference?  

 

Several panel debates were scheduled for the second day of the conference, followed by a short concert with Zara Larsson. Larsson is a Swedish popsinger. It felt strange jumping from humanitarian crises to cheery pop, and the most ‘eager’ activists left the concert after a while. Even so, Larsson was not invited completely out of the blue. The artist has voiced several opinions supporting feminism and body positivity. This, however, does not entirely shine through in her song lyrics, and even though a dedicated corner of the hall enjoyed the music, the concert did not quite fit in with the rest of the three-day long program.

 

Two days filled with purpose  

The three participants from Tuntreet left the OFF with a new perspective of little Norway and how lucky we are here. Nevertheless, the OFF shows that there are many channels where one can listen to stories shared from around the world. And that it is exactly where we must start in order to get these stories out into the world – be the ears that listen.