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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| August 26, 2004 |
Bergen, Norway – One Roof, Eight Roads to Peace |
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| Rafto House in Bergen, Norway |
The grey clapboard building perched over the downtown of Bergen looks like any other house in Norway's
second largest city. This unremarkable three-story building, however is no ordinary home, but a humming
center of innovative human rights activities called Rafto House. A family of eight organizations work
under its roof on projects ranging from ethnic minority rights to an international high school exchange
program to a firm that publishes books on culture and human rights. The house was founded in 1997
in memory of Egil Rafto, a Norwegian journalist and activist, as an independent resource center and
working community. |
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| Therese Jebsen, director of Rafto House |
One of Rafto House's highest profile projects is the Rafto Prize, given every year on the first Sunday
in November. The prize is awarded to individuals or organizations who have contributed significantly
to human rights and peace, but have not been recognized by the international community. "Its
happened very often that the person who got the Rafto Prize is able to put the focus on the conflict
problem," said Therese Jebsen, director of Rafto House. Nicknamed the "little Nobel," four
of its laureates have gone on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy
activist who received the Rafto Prize in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, is now a patron of
the house. |
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| Bergen, Norway |
The prize is also known for its unique distinction of being completely organized by young people. "Students
from 20 to 30-years old play an important role in Rafto House and holding the Rafto Prize," said
Guntha Venge, the prize's student leader. A group of twelve students spend several months looking
over nominations, researching candidates' work and choosing the final recipient. This reflects the
house's dedication to getting young people involved in social issues. |
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| Raising awareness of wealth disparity between countries through sports in Bergen's
biggest sqaure |
Trygve Bergland, a young peace activist who works with Rafto House, said the eight organizations share
a strong desire to get all layers of society involved. "By getting everyone together in one house,
its easier to cooperate and for peace activities to actually come about," said Bergland. Rafto
House, a part of the Human Rights House Network, also seeks to raise awareness by holding seminars,
active debates and meetings. With more than 300 events throughout the year, they aim to get more journalists,
businessmen, local and international politicians involved in social issues. Open to the public, these
also give average citizens the information and tools they need to become more effective activists,
providing networking opportunities and inspiring creative approaches to problems. |
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| Peace Boat in Bergen's harbor |
Peace Boat participants young and old crowded into the light-filled first floor meeting room on a
rainy August afternoon to learn about a few of the house's groups. Eric Urban, an European Union and
Turkey specialist, addressed changes in the EU since 2003, when the number of EU countries jumped
from 15 to 25. With Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Turkey all looking to join, Urban discussed the
human rights records of those countries and the EU's influence over improving them. Urban is concerned
that the EU may skip over abuses, particularly in Turkey, which was rejected once before in 1999 due
to its treatment of Kurdish ethnic groups. His work focuses on putting pressure on member states,
so that the EU will not overlook the way Turkey's government blurs lines that should be clear in a
democracy. "The problem is the military intervenes with politics," Urban said. |
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| Knut Konsgsvik speaking to Peace Boat participants |
Norwegian Knut Konsgsvik talked about human rights abuses in his home country.
A recent United Nations report castigated Norway for using incarceration too much, putting people
in isolation for up to four weeks and having trial delays as long as two years. "And that
is very serious, because we think we are very good in human rights. The Norwegian government is
very good at telling other countries how to behave in human rights, but if you want to tell others
to believe, you should have your half clean," he said. According to Tanja Clifford, a Scottish-Norwegian
working for Amnesty International at the house, there's very few countries in the world that don't
have human rights abuses, pointing at Amnesty International's comprehensive annual report. "Gradually,
the report has become thicker and thicker, especially after September 11th, because a lot of new
security laws also abuse human rights."
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| A participant and International Student Narae Lee at Rafto House |
Some human rights abuses effect relatively few people, meaning that without organizations like Rafto
House they often have no voice defending them. Rafto House worker Joachim Ophang spoke about one of
those groups - war children whose parents are from different sides of a conflict. Whether German-Norwegians
born born during World War II or Vietnamese-Americans born in the Vietnam War, these children often
face discrimination and denial of basic services in both of their parent's home countries. "They're
not acknowledged as citizens due to their dual status...our hope is bring this issue to the attention
in the world and to make the overall situation better," Ophang said. Clifford discouraged the
audience from just setting out to change the whole world. Following Amnesty International's campaigning
methodology, she urged them to use their freedom to help specific individuals with fewer rights. "We
have to get out there and work, otherwise we'd just be a bunch of academics and that's no good," Clifford
argued. |
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