Nobel Prize laureates with common call to action

The Nobel Peace Conference Human Rights Defenders gathered five Nobel Peace Prize laureates, activists and expertsin Oslo today. The backdrop for the conference was the Nobel Peace Prize 2022 to the Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russia organization Memorial, and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties. All three laureates were represented in Oslo today, together with Peace Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi from Iran, Rigoberta Menchú Tum from Guatemala and Beatrice Fihn, former Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

“We want these ideas to come true, and that the people who are bravely fighting for human rights to never face prosecution.” , said Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of Center for Civil Liberties. Together with her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates she launched “The Sunflower Declaration”: A call to action to protect human rights defenders at risk. It is a concrete set of recommendations to governments, international bodies and businesses, designed to better protect human rights defenders and the space they have in which to work. 

“The Sunflower Declaration” was drafted together with the Nobel Peace Prize laureates and other organisations working for human rights and is already endorsed by 11 Nobel Prize laureates and more than 100 organisations and individuals. They all call for urgent action to support and defend the people who are defending our common rights – often at great risk.

2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the Declaration of human rights, and the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights defenders. At the same time, being a human rights defender has never been more dangerous. Last year 400 targeted killings of human rights defenders were reported.

“Peace cannot exist without human rights, and human rights cannot exist without those who defend, promote, and protect them. When human rights defenders are being prosecuted and threatened to silence, it is a warning signal to all of us”, said the executive director of the Nobel Peace Center, Kjersti Fløgstad.

Nobel Peace Conference; Human Rights Heroes was followed by a festival outside the Nobel Peace center, where the Nobel Prize laureates met with a larger, local audience. For the third consecutive year, the Nobel Peace Center invited the public to an international peace conference and an outdoor festival in Oslo to culminate a year of events related to the latest Nobel Peace Prize.

“Our goal is to make the spotlight the Nobel Peace Prize has cast upon thelaureates’ causes remain bright”, Fløgstad said.