Oslo as a breathing space city for human rights defenders: SPRING 2024

In the spring of 2024, the Breathing Space City Programme had its third round of participants, with two human rights defenders staying in Oslo. See the highlights from their stay in this article.
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Breathing Space City is a temporary relocation programme with the aim of creating a breathing space for human rights defenders living in stressful or hostile environments. Read more about the background and objectives of the programme here.

One of the participants was Suren Perera, a human rights lawyer working with the Human Rights Office in Sri Lanka. In his everyday life, Suren handles cases of victims of rape and torture, families of the disappeared and the family members of prisoners, among others. Through his participation in the Breathing Space City programme, he was able to take a break from this demanding work and gain inspiration and support through encounters with like-minded people, individual coaching sessions, cultural events and many other activities.

In this article by Global Citizen, you can read about the career development of Suren from his first encounter with human rights to his participation in the Breathing Space City programme, about how his stay in Oslo helped him to take better care of himself, and much more.

Photo highlights from their stay

Establishing a good network in Oslo with contact persons from civil society and other areas of life is one of the goals of the Breathing Space City programme.

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The human rights defenders were welcomed at a small get-together with staff from the different initiating organisations and other collaborating partners.
Throughout their stay, many of them became important reference persons and friends for them.

The programme offered the participating human rights defenders capacity-building opportunities in different areas, such as psychosocial support, digital security, and English proficiency. To support their mental and physical well-being, the programme also offered participation in regular physical exercise. These opportunities were much appreciated by the defenders, who emphasised that this helped them relax from their challenging work as well as reflect and learn about what they need in order to continue with their work as human rights defenders.

Furthermore, their stay in Oslo enabled them to expand their networks through meetings with different actors from civil society, academia, trade unions and others, who are important for their work as human rights defenders.

Oslo is probably one of the best places in the world to have such a programme. Oslo is a calm city but has a very vibrant human rights community with many organizations. Suren Perera, Oslo Breathing Space City participant during Spring 2024
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One such experience was a meeting with the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan.
The Mayor of Oslo, Anne Lindboe, welcomed the human rights defenders to her office to hear about their work back home and their stay in Oslo.
Another event, where they had the opportunity to enter into dialogue with various people, was this years’ summer festival of Fagforbundet Ung.
The defenders were furthermore invited to participate in the Oslo Freedom Forum, an annual event that brings together activists dedicated to human rights, freedom, and democracy from around the world.
Human rights defender, Suren Perera, also participated as a panel speaker at NHRF’s public event at the Nobel Peace Center, where he talked about the human rights situation and his work in Sri Lanka.

The programme additionally includes visits to museums and other important sites to offer the opportunity to learn about the history, society and culture of Norway.

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Through a guided visit at the Norwegian Parliament, the human rights defenders learned about the political system and history of Norway.
Furthermore, the human rights defenders mentioned their trip to Trondheim in Norway as another highlight of their stay!

This round of participants in the Breathing Space City programme showed how much impact this type of initiative can have on human rights defenders who are in need of a break from their work. Not least, the experience they gain during their stay in Oslo can even impact their colleagues, communities and work at home, as the defenders explain:

“As a result of my participation in the program I started speaking English (…), I started sleeping well here, breathing calmly, I’m feeling happy every minute… And I already really want to go home, I have big plans for work again.” Anonymous, Oslo Breathing Space City participant during Spring 2024
“As a human rights defender, I feel that I have more network to face any possible threat due to my work. The programme became a real breathing space where I got the opportunity to relax [...] and refresh my mind to reflect on my work.” Suren Perera, Oslo Breathing Space City participant during Spring 2024

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About Oslo as a Breathing Space City

Breathing Space City is a temporary relocation programme with the aim of creating a breathing space for human rights defenders living in stressful or hostile environments. Read more about the background and objectives of the programme here.