Deeyah Khan is a Norwegian documentary film director and human rights activist of Punjabi/Pashtun descent. Deeyah is a two-time Emmy Award winner, two time Peabody Award winner, a BAFTA winner and has received the Royal Television Society award for Best Factual Director. She has made seven documentaries to date, all have been shown on ITV in the UK as part of its Exposure series.
Islam is the second largest religion in Norway after Christianity. As of 2021, the number of Muslims living in Norway was 169,605. The majority of Muslims in Norway are Sunni, with a significant Shia minority. 55 percent of Muslims in the country live in Oslo and Akershus. The vast majority of Muslims have an immigrant background, and very few Norwegians are Muslim.
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a non-profit organization that focuses on promoting and protecting human rights globally, with an emphasis on closed societies. HRF organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum. The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen Mendoza, a Venezuelan film producer and human rights advocate. The current chairman is Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, and Javier El-Hage is the current chief legal officer. The foundation's head office is in the Empire State Building in New York City.
Pakistani Norwegians are Norwegians of Pakistani descent, 65.23% of Pakistanis in Norway live in the capital Oslo. First-generation Pakistani Norwegians, who migrate from Pakistan, are distinguished from the mainstream in several demographic aspects, while second-generation Pakistani Norwegians, who are born in Norway, are well established in Norway and have gone on to become professionals and politicians.
Betzy Aleksandra Kjelsberg was a Norwegian women's rights activist, suffragist and a member of the feminist movement. She was a politician with the Liberal Party and the first female board member of the party.
The Norwegian Association for Women's Rights is Norway's oldest and preeminent women's and girls' rights organization and works "to promote gender equality and all women's and girls' human rights through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy." Founded in 1884, NKF is Norway's oldest political organization after the Liberal Party. NKF stands for an inclusive, intersectional and progressive mainstream liberal feminism and has always been open to everyone regardless of gender. Headquartered at Majorstuen, Oslo, NKF consists of a national-level association as well as regional chapters based in the larger cities, and is led by a national executive board. NKF has had a central role in the adoption of all major gender equality legislation and reforms since 1884.
Hege Storhaug is a Norwegian political activist and author. She has been known for her criticism of Islam since the 1990s, and later also opposition to immigration. She formerly worked as a journalist, and now runs the small organisation Human Rights Service with her partner. In 2015 she published the bestselling book Islam, den 11. landeplage, later translated to English as Islam: Europe Invaded. America Warned, which claimed that Islam is a "plague." Scholars and commentators have described her views as far-right and Islamophobic.
Aage Storm Borchgrevink is a Norwegian human rights activist, writer and literary critic. He works at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, where he focuses on the human rights situation in Russia, Chechnya and Georgia. He has written eight fiction and non-fiction books since his debut Arkivene. He is chair of the Norwegian Non-Fiction Writers and Translators Association.
Maryam Durani is an Afghan activist and women's advocate. In 2012 she received the International Women of Courage Award.
Khalid Salimi is a human rights activist, culture and arts critic, former music columnist for weekly Morgenbladet and an advisor on cross-cultural and art-related issues for the Nordic Culture Fund. He is artistic director of international performing arts festival Mela Festival, organized annually in Oslo, Norway by Mela Foundation, and Chief Editor of Samora Forum Magazine. He is currently director of Melahouse, an independent cultural community center of performing arts. Salimi is regarded as one of the most influential intellectuals in Norway with an immigrant background.
The Norwegian Women's Lobby is a feminist policy and advocacy organization in Norway and works for "the human rights of girls and women in all their diversity, to eliminate all forms of discrimination against all girls and women and to promote a gender equal society." It is described as the country's "main, national, umbrella organization" for women's rights. NWL is inclusive, understands women's human rights and discrimination in an intersectional perspective and "works to represent the interests of all those who identify as women and girls." NWL is funded by the government over the national budget.
The MiRA Resource Centre for Black, Immigrant and Refugee Women is a Norwegian NGO founded in 1989, which works to improve the living conditions of immigrant and refugee women in Norway. The founder and executive director of the centre is Fakhra Salimi. The MiRA Centre is funded directly over the state budget of Norway. It is one of the fifteen organisations under the royal patronage of Queen Sonja of Norway and was granted special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2001.
University of Oslo's Human Rights Award honours individuals who have made important contributions in different fields. The award was launched in 1986 and since then, it is awarded every year to notable people from different walks of life. Those years when the award was not distributed are 1997, 1999, 2003, and 2004.
Sara Hossain is a leading Bangladeshi lawyer. She is a barrister in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. Hossain is the honorary executive director of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), a major legal aid provider. Hossain has been at the forefront of advocating for women's rights in Bangladeshi courts and played a key role in drafting legal reforms to protect women. She was the plaintiff's lawyer in the landmark case of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLW) v. Bangladesh, in which the Supreme Court supported the judicial practice of referring to international human rights law in the absence of domestic legislation. She is known for her role in challenging fatwa violence when a fatwa is issued to mete out punishment to women and girls. Hossain co-edited 'Honour': Crimes, Paradigms and Violence Against Women with Lynn Welchman.
Ragnhild Helene Hennum is a Norwegian jurist, academic administrator and women's rights leader. She is Professor of Public Law at the University of Oslo Faculty of Law and Director of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights. Hennum served as Pro-Rector of the University of Oslo, the university's second highest official, 2014–2017. She previously served as the university's Vice-Rector 2009–2014. Hennum's research fields are criminal law, criminal procedure and sociology of law, and she is a specialist on child sexual abuse, sexual violence in general and forced marriage. She is President of the Norwegian Women's Lobby, the umbrella organisation for the Norwegian women's movement.
Tanveer Jahan is a Pakistani human rights defender and trainer. Jahan has been associated with the social development sector in Pakistan for over 35 years. She serves as Executive Director at the Democratic Commission for Human Development, and as National Coordinator of the Pakistan Human Rights Defenders Network. She has served as a member at the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW).
Rubina Feroze Bhatti is a Pakistani human rights activist, peace activist and leadership consultant. She is currently a member on the country's National Commission on the Rights of Child where she represents Punjab province.
