The Rafto Foundations Annual Report 2024
Fighting Authoritarianism: How the 2024 Rafto Prize champions art as resistance
On Sunday 10 November Rafto laureate 2024 Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara spoke to a captivated audience during the Rafto Prize award ceremony at the National Stage in Bergen, on a recording made over a poor phone line from his prison cell outside Havana. The prize, which received broad international media coverage, recognized the artivist, political prisoner, and founder of the San Isidro movement, for his courageous struggle for freedom of speech in Cuba. It also recognized art as a form of resistance against authoritarianism. Rafto will continue to support his struggle for freedom.
The prize, which received broad international media coverage, recognized the artivist, political prisoner, and founder of the San Isidro movement, for his courageous struggle for freedom of speech in Cuba. It also recognized art as a form of resistance against authoritarianism. The Rafto Foundation (Rafto) will continue to support his struggle for freedom.
Strengthening alliances: Partnering with and empowering human rights defenders
The difficult circumstances of Otero Alcántara reflected those of many others in 2024, when human rights suffered major setbacks while international law and democratic institutions faced new and fundamental challenges all over the world. Authoritarian leaders became more assertive in their crackdown on civil society, while anti-democratic movements gained ground, often using their positions to attack minorities, undermine free media, and curtail the independence of courts.
In this context Rafto continued our support for human rights defenders (HRDs) and hoping to sustain their work despite the increased pressure. This included work to document and address human rights violations, build and sustain networks and alliances, and national and international advocacy.
The work of Rafto laureate 2023 Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP) unfortunately remained all too relevant throughout the year. During a brutal war on children in Gaza, and faced with increased violence in the West Bank, DCIP continued to document and advocate against the massive violations of the human rights of children in Palestine.
We supported DCIPs work in Palestine, their international advocacy efforts for the rights of children in conflict, and their calls for holding perpetrators accountable in international courts and elsewhere.
In a year of many setbacks for the human rights community, it was inspiring to gather Rafto laureates from Egypt, Thailand, Mexico, Lebanon, Palestine, Russia, DRC, India, United States, Vietnam, Nigeria, Uganda, Bahrain and Western Sahara in Geneva to share experiences, build solidarity and strengthen resilience.
Women on the frontlines: Defending human rights amid rising global conflicts
Many among the women human rights defenders (WHRDs) working with Rafto have been forced into survival mode amidst war and conflict. For Rafto this has required adaptation of our programs and support to a new and more unpredictable situation.
Human rights defenders advocating for decent work and sustainable livelihoods
In our support for HRDs who address business related human rights violations, we continued our work with regional partners in Colombia, Nigeria and India to address challenges for human rights, decent work and sustainable livelihood related to the ocean industries. We organized our biggest ever roundtable in Singapore on workers’ rights for seafarers and supported trainings and participation of HRDs at the regional UN Forums on Business and Human Rights in Bangkok and Nairobi.
Teaching human rights in a troubled world
Almost 8000 students and teachers in Norway participated in Rafto’s educational activities throughout the year. We also developed our teaching material, supported schools in their work to address prejudice and exclusion, launched a youth-led guide to education against racism and piloted an innovative approach and collaboration between teachers and researchers gathering experiences in teaching controversial issues.
We reached a milestone when we secured the necessary funding to renovate and expand the Rafto house as a regional hub for human rights education and peace work, an ambitious project we will embark on in 2025.
As always, I want to express my deep gratitude to all our supporters, our volunteers and donors who make this work possible and to all our partners and the human rights defenders we are so privileged to be able to work with.
As the threats to democracy, human rights and international law has only increased since the beginning of 2025, the importance of individuals and organizations standing up for human rights is only more critical and it will unfortunately come at a greater cost.
Read our Annual Report for 2024
Contact
Ronja Bell Breisnes
Communication Advisor| Means of contact | Contact details |
|---|---|
| Phone: | +47 91519253 |
| E-post: | ronja.breisnes@rafto.no |