The Norad Conference 2024 How can we push back on rising anti-democratic forces and human rights violations?
When: Thursday, February 1st, 09:00 – 16:00
Where: Sentrum Scene, Oslo, Norway
Authoritarian forces are on the rise and people’s fundamental rights are under pressure. How can we turn the tide and stop this negative trend? On February 1st, democracy advocates, women’s rights activists, indigenous peoples, climate activists, journalists, and academia from all over the world will enter the stage at the Norad Conference in Oslo to discuss this question.
During the past six years, the world has faced democratic setbacks. Women’s rights are being reversed. Climate activists and indigenous peoples receive death-threats for protesting. People who dare to speak up and mobilize are paying a high price.
At the Norad Conference: Rights and Resistance, we will highlight the consequences of the decline of democracy and growing polarization. We ask: what happens when social media and Artificial Intelligence become the new weapons in the war for truth? What can we learn from those who dare to resist? And what role does development cooperation and aid play in the fight for people’s fundamental rights across the world?
We will present new findings, interesting lectures, and engaging debates.
Some of the speakers you will meet at the Norad Conference 2024:
- Sevgil Musaieva, award-winning Ukrainian journalist and editor of the independent news-website Ukrainska Pravda; In 2023, Musaieva was awarded the Free Media Awards. In 2022, she was on Time Magazine’s Time100: Most Influential People of 2022.
- Mustafa Nayyem, Head of the Ukrainian State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development. Nayyem came to Ukraine from Afghanistan as a refugee. He sparked the Maidan Revolution, and now has the responsibility of rebuilding Ukraine.
- Iyad El-Baghdadi, Palestinian-Norwegian activist, founder of the Kawaakibi Center, and author of the book "The Middle East Crisis Factory" (Hurst 2021). El-Baghdadi was jailed and expelled from the UAE for his involvement in the Arab Spring, and was subsequently granted political asylum in Norway.
- Carlos Manuel Rodriguez is the CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility and an internationally renowned expert in reforestation, ocean conservation, and decarbonization. Over his three terms as Costa Rica’s environment and energy minister, the country doubled the size of its forests, made its electric sector fully renewable, and became a prime ecotourism destination. In 2023, he was on TIME’s inaugural Climate 100 list recognizing innovative leaders driving climate action.
- Timothy Snyder, Historian and professor at Yale. Author of a number of books about holocaust, Ukraine, and Russia.
- Hindou Ibrahim, Indigenous rights and environmental activist from Tsjad. A powerful and charismatic voice in the fight for indigenous peoples' rights and the conservation of nature.
- Ayesha Wolasmal, Consultant with a background in diplomacy and international development cooperation. She has been working in Afghanistan for the UN and other humanitarian organizations since 2007, and she is one of few on-the-ground experts left in Kabul after Taliban took power.
- Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS and an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. Byanyima has been a strong voice for women’s rights for decades. She has previously served as the Executive Director of Oxfam International, and she has been elected to parliament in Uganda three times.
- Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi, Co-founder and Board Chair of Afrobarometer – an independent African research network that measures public attitudes on economic, social, and political matters in Africa.
- Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, Minister of International Development
See all the speakers and sign up here: NORAD-KONFERANSEN