Oslo Freedom Forum is a conference about human rights first held in May 2009 in Oslo

Oslo

Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. Founded by the Human Rights Foundation

Human Rights Foundation

The Human Rights Foundation is a non-profit organization whose stated mission "is to ensure that freedom is both preserved and promoted" in the Americas. The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen...

. According to Thor Halvorssen (founder of the Human Rights Foundation

Human Rights Foundation

The Human Rights Foundation is a non-profit organization whose stated mission "is to ensure that freedom is both preserved and promoted" in the Americas. The Human Rights Foundation was founded in 2005 by Thor Halvorssen...

), "the Oslo Freedom Forum is an intimate gathering where leaders who are transforming the world present effective solutions and inspiring testimonies that impact human rights and freedom. Speakers share diverse perspectives and expertise, from those individuals with first-hand experiences in the fight for human rights to those offering insight based on academic research and political and non-profit leadership".

The forum aims to bring together world leaders including former heads of state, winners of the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

 and prisoners of conscience as well as a selection of authors, together with business, political, media, technology and cultural leaders from both Norway and internationally. According to the Forum website, the Oslo Freedom Forum is supported by Fritt Ord, the City of Oslo, the Thiel Foundation, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Sundt AS, the John Templeton Foundation, the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fredskorpset, Amnesty International Norway, Human Rights House Foundation, and Ny Tid. It is endorsed by several groups including the Nobel Peace Center, the University of Oslo, the Norwegian Author's Union, and the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights. It also received support from the government of Norway.

The second OFF took place in April 2010 in Oslo and the third OFF took place in May 2011. Every speech was filmed and is posted at youtube.com/oslofreedomforum. It is supported by Norway's Fritt Ord

Fritt Ord

Fritt Ord is a Norwegian foundation, whose self-proclaimed aim is to support freedom of expression and a free press...

, Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, the Nobel Peace Center, the Norwegian Author's Union, University of Oslo, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Thiel Foundation and the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights. In 2011 Oslo Freedom Forum will take place from May 9 to May 11.

Forum

The OFF is produced by the Human Rights Foundation. The conference was funded with a grant from the Templeton Foundation, and also received support from the Norwegian government and the City government of Oslo. Partners for the 2009 are listed as Civita

Civita

Civita is a Norwegian liberal think tank which gains support from, among others, the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise. In the beginning, it was led by Terje Svabø, but prominent Conservative Party politician Kristin Clemet took over on November 16, 2006 after having central roles in many...

, Human Rights Action Center, International Society for Human Rights

International Society for Human Rights

The International Society for Human Rights is an international non-governmental, non-profit human rights organization with Participative Status with the Council of Europe and is a member of the Liaison Committee of the Non-Governmental Organisations at the Council of Europe...

, Laogai Research Foundation

Laogai Research Foundation

The Laogai Research Foundation is a human rights NGO located in Washington, DC. The foundation's mission is to "gather information on and raise public awareness of the Laogai—China’s extensive system of forced-labor prison camps."-History:...

, and Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...

. In 2010 the Forum's partners include Norway's Freedom of Expression, Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, Amnesty, Civita, The Norwegian Helsinki Committee and Human Rights House Foundation. In 2011 the Forum's partners included Amnesty International, Civita, Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and PLAN Norway.

The Forum's mission is to be the place where human rights defenders and social entrepreneurs from around the world can network and exchange ideas - where extraordinary human rights advocates lacking international support and recognition are given a platform to share their work with a global audience - where those with first-hand experience as survivors of human rights violations are able to share their insights with leaders who are shaping the world through journalism, business, philanthropy, and politics.

2009 Forum

Thor Halvorssen the conference’s 33-year-old founder explained to the Wall Street Journal in 2009: “We all should want freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom from torture, freedom to travel, due process and freedom to keep what belongs to you.” Unfortunately, he explains, “the human-rights establishment at the United Nations is limited to pretty words because so many member countries kill or imprison or torture their opponents.” John Fund

John Fund

John H. Fund is an American political journalist and conservative columnist. Currently a senior editor of The American Spectator,...

 writing in the Wall Street Journal about "Human Rights Beyond Ideology" said it "was unlike any human-rights conference I've ever attended. As at other such gatherings, racism and gender discrimination were on the minds of plenty of participants. But there was no desire to blame such problems on the U.S. or other Western nations. The emphasis was on promoting basic rights in all nations at all times." The article by Fundamentions that "Even Oslo's leftist newspaper Klassekampen (Class Struggle) overcame its initial skepticism, declaring the forum "an impressive assembly of people."

2010 Forum

Participants at the 2010 forum included Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer

Rebiya Kadeer

Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang Autonomus Region of the People's Republic of China...

, North Korean dissenter Kang Chol-Hwan, former FARC hostage Clara Rojas

Clara Rojas

Clara Leticia Rojas González is a Colombian tax lawyer, university lecturer, and campaign manager for former senator and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. She was kidnapped along with Betancourt by the FARC guerrilla group near San Vicente del Caguán on February 23, 2002, while Betancourt...

, and Sudanese reformer Lubna al-Hussein. World leaders like Poland's Lech Walesa, Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar bin Ibrahim is a Malaysian politician who served as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998. Early in his career, Anwar was a close ally of Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad but subsequently emerged as the most prominent critic of Mahathir's government.In 1999, he was sentenced...

, and Estonia's Mart Laar

Mart Laar

Mart Laar is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes. He was the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002, and is the leader of the conservative party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica...

 presented, as did technology pioneers such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....

, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Julian Assange

Julian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks with the stated purpose of creating open governments.WikiLeaks has published material...

, and entrepreneur Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel

Peter Andreas Thiel is an American business magnate, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. With Elon Musk and Max Levchin, Thiel co-founded PayPal and was its CEO...

. Other notable speakers included Russian democracy advocate and chess master Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, abolitionist and explorer Benjamin Skinner, former Cuban political prisoner Armando Valladares

Armando Valladares

Armando Valladares is a former prisoner in Cuba turned United States ambassador to the United Nations.-Political prisoner:Valladares was a Cuban Postal Bank employee . He was arrested when he refused to display a sign on his desk that promoted communism...

, and Chechen lawyer Lidia Yusupova, hailed as the bravest woman in Europe.

The Economist called the 2010 Forum "a spectacular human-rights festival" and described it as "on its way to becoming a human-rights equivalent of the Davos economic forum." Standpoint magazine says that the Oslo Freedom Forum "provides an intimate space for dissidents and human rights defenders from around the world to meet each other, to talk to internet entrepreneurs, academics, politicians, journalists and to draw inspiration and encouragement." Elsewhere coverage and mentions of the 2010 Forum can be found at CNN

CNN

Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

, Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera is an independent broadcaster owned by the state of Qatar through the Qatar Media Corporation and headquartered in Doha, Qatar...

, Forbes

Forbes

Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...

, The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...

, The Associated Press, The National Review, The Daily Beast

The Daily Beast

The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...

, Reason Magazine, Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy is a bimonthly American magazine founded in 1970 by Samuel P. Huntington and Warren Demian Manshel.Originally, the magazine was a quarterly...

, Front Page Africa, Standpoint Magazine, Aftenposten

Aftenposten

Aftenposten is Norway's largest newspaper. It retook this position in 2010, taking it from the tabloid Verdens Gang which had been the largest newspaper for several decades. It is based in Oslo. The morning edition, which is distributed across all of Norway, had a circulation of 250,179 in 2007...

, Real Clear Politics, Radio Free Europe, TEDFellows, Current TV, Illume, and SBS Dateline.

2011 Forum

The third OFF took place in May 2011 in Oslo. Supporters included the City of Oslo, Color Line AS, the Thiel Foundation, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fritt Ord, the Nobel Peace Center, Helly Hansen, and Voss Water.

Speakers at the 2011 conference included Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, Ghanaian economist George Ayittey, former president of Colombia Belisario Betancur, North Korea expert and journalist Barbara Demick, Egyptian analyst Mona Eltahawy, American neuroscientist James Fallon, Chinese dissident Yang Jianli, Harvard political theorist Steven Levitsky, Canadian free speech champion John Ralston Saul, Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist Jody Williams, and Bahraini rights activist Maryam al-Khawaja. Bahraini activist Ali Abdulemam was invited to speak and had confirmed his attendance in the forum, but went missing in Bahrain a month beforehand and was unable to participate. Egyptian internet activist and Tahrir Square protest organizer Wael Ghonim gave his presentation live from Cairo via satellite.

According to the Economist, the 2011 OFF was “a glittering gathering of veterans of human-rights struggles.” Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel

Peter Andreas Thiel is an American business magnate, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. With Elon Musk and Max Levchin, Thiel co-founded PayPal and was its CEO...

 (of Facebook, Paypal, and Linkedin) praised the Oslo Freedom Forum “because [its] focus on dissidents engages the intellectual debate as well as the moral cause.” Sohrab Ahmari, writing in the Weekly Standard, said that “unlike so many other such gatherings, the goal here in Oslo has not been to deploy human rights against free societies. Sure, a few of the speakers have aired grievances – legitimate and otherwise – against the democratic West. But the vast majority of the activists, journalists, and thought leaders I have met focus their efforts where they are needed most: those unhappy corners of the world – like my own native Iran – where birth condemns men and women to living under repressive regimes.”

The 2011 conference was streamed live in its entirety online and broadcasted live in part on Norway’s TV2. The event and its speakers were featured in a range of global publications including The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, El Pais, The National Review, The Weekly Standard, Verdens Gang, Finansavisen, Aftenposten, El Clarín, Svenska Dagbladet, Die Presse, and O Estado de São Paulo. All videos are available at www.youtube.com/oslofreedomforum.

Participants 2009

Among those present at the 2009 conference were:

• Kjell Magne Bondevik
  Kjell Magne Bondevik
  Kjell Magne Bondevik is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician . He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him Norway's longest serving non-Labour Party Prime Minister since World War II...
  
   (former Norwegian Prime Minister)
• Sarah, Duchess of York
  Sarah, Duchess of York
  Sarah, Duchess of York is a British charity patron, spokesperson, writer, film producer, television personality and former member of the British Royal Family. She is the former wife of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, whom she married from 1986 to 1996...
  
  
• Vytautas Landsbergis
  Vytautas Landsbergis
  Professor Vytautas Landsbergis is a Lithuanian conservative politician and Member of the European Parliament. He was the first head of state of Lithuania after its independence declaration from the Soviet Union, and served as the Head of the Lithuanian Parliament Seimas...
  
   (former Latvian President)
• Kristin Clemet
  Kristin Clemet
  Kristin Clemet is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party.She was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo in 1989, but was not re-elected in 1993...
  
   (former education minister)
• Mutabar Tadjibayeva (former Uzbeki political prisoner)
• Aliaksandr Bialiatski (Belarussian democracy activist)
• Palden Gyatso
  Palden Gyatso
  Palden Gyatso is a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was born in Tibet in 1933. During the Chinese invasion of Tibet he was arrested for protesting and spent 33 years in Chinese prisons and labor camps, where he was extensively tortured. After his release in 1992 he fled to Dharamsala, in exile...
  
   (former Buddhist prisoner of conscience)
• Arne L. Lynngård (president of the Rafto Foundation)
• Park Sang Hak (North Korean democracy activist)
• Magne Ove Varsi (indigenous rights leader)
• Vo Van Ai (Vietnamese human rights activist)
• Sarah Bronfman (Heiress to the Seagram's fortune)
• Jacqueline Moudeina (head of the Chadian Human Rights Commission)
• Peder Lunde
  Peder Lunde
  Peder Eugen Lunde was a Norwegian sailor and Olympic medalist. He was born in Nordstrand and represented the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club....
  
   (Norwegian Olympic medallist)
• Vladimir Bukovsky
  Vladimir Bukovsky
  Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....
  
   (former Soviet dissident)
• Harry Wu
  Harry Wu
  Harry Wu is an activist for human rights in the People's Republic of China. Now a resident and citizen of the United States, Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps. In 1992, he founded the Laogai Research Foundation. In 1996 the Columbia Human Rights Law Review awarded Wu its second Award for...
  
   (Chinese dissident)
• Leyla Zana
  Leyla Zana
  Leyla Zana , is a Kurdish politician, who was imprisoned for 10 years for her political actions which were claimed to be against the unity of Turkey. When she was a member of pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, she was banned from joining any political party for five years with the Constitutional...
  
   (former Turkish political prisoner)
• Victor Hugo Cardenas
  Víctor Hugo Cárdenas
  Víctor Hugo Cárdenas Conde is a Bolivian indigenous Aymara activist and politician. He is the leader of the MRTKL party...
  
   (former vice-president of Bolivia)
• Emil Constantinescu
  Emil Constantinescu
  Emil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist...
  
   (former president of Romania)
• Jung Chang
  Jung Chang
  Jung Chang is a Chinese-born British writer now living in London, best known for her family autobiography Wild Swans, selling over 10 million copies worldwide but banned in the People's Republic of China....
  
   (author, Wild Swans)
• Jack Healey
  Jack Healey
  Jack Healey is an American human rights activist and pioneer. A leader in the human rights movement for over 47 years, Jack has helped move the topic of human rights from closed-door diplomatic negotiations to widespread awareness, public debate, and direct citizen action...
  
   (former Executive Director, Amnesty International)
• L. Craig Johnstone
  L. Craig Johnstone
  L. Craig Johnstone is UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees and former United States Ambassador to Algeria . He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and Council on Foreign Relations....
  
   (Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations)
• Greg Mortenson
  Greg Mortenson
  Greg Mortenson, SPk is an American humanitarian, professional speaker, writer, and former mountaineer. He is the co-founder and executive director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute as well as the founder of the educational charity Pennies for Peace...
  
   (co-author, Three Cups of Tea)

After the conference, each contribution was published on the internet. Due to illness, Vaclav Havel

Václav Havel

Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...

 and Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel

Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...

 each participated through a video segment recorded for the Oslo Freedom Forum. Additionally, Ramón José Velásquez

Ramón José Velásquez

Ramón José Velásquez Mujica is a Venezuelan political figure. He served as Acting president of Venezuela between 1993 and 1994. He is known as a historian, journalist, lawyer, politician and entertainer of companies for his knowledge of the "national life".Velásquez was born in Táchira,Venezuela...

, 94-year old former president of Venezuela, participated by video.

Participants 2010

Among those present at the 2010 conference were:

• Kjell Magne Bondevik
  Kjell Magne Bondevik
  Kjell Magne Bondevik is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician . He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him Norway's longest serving non-Labour Party Prime Minister since World War II...
  
   (former Norwegian Prime Minister)
• Kristin Clemet
  Kristin Clemet
  Kristin Clemet is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party.She was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo in 1989, but was not re-elected in 1993...
  
   (former NorwegianMinister of Education and Research)
• John Peder Egenaes (secretary general, Amnesty International Norway)
• H.E. Manizha Bakhtari (Afghan Ambassador to Norway)
• Kai Eide
  Kai Eide
  Kai Aage Eide is a Norwegian diplomat. He was appointed the United Nations Special Representative to Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan on 7 March 2008, a position he held until March 2010 when Staffan de Mistura took over.Eide has previously served as...
  
   (U.N. Special Representative to Afghanistan and Head of UNAMA)
• Jan Erik Helgesen (president, Venice Commission)
• Torstein Nybo (co-producer, Burma VJ)
• Åsne Seierstad
  Åsne Seierstad
  Åsne Seierstad is a Norwegian freelance journalist and writer, best known for her accounts of everyday life in war zones - most notably Kabul after 2001, Baghdad in 2003 and the ruined Grozny in 2006.-Personal and professional life:...
  
   (author, The Bookseller of Kabul)
• Therese Jebsen (executive director, Rafto Foundation)
• Kate Hughes (Women for Women International)
• Mark Belinsky (Digital Democracy)
• Birgitta Ohlsson
  Birgitta Ohlsson
  Eva Birgitta Ohlsson is a Swedish politician, currently serving as Minister for European Union Affairs in the Swedish government. She is a war-mongering, anti-Cuban and USA-loyal member of the Liberal People's Party....
  
   (Swedish Minister for European Union Affairs)
• Vladimir Bukovsky
  Vladimir Bukovsky
  Vladimir Konstantinovich Bukovsky is a leading member of the dissident movement of the 1960s and 1970s, writer, neurophysiologist, and political activist....
  
   (former Soviet political prisoner)
• Emil Constantinescu
  Emil Constantinescu
  Emil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist...
  
   (former president of Romania)
• Mauro de Lorenzo (VP for Freedom and Free Enterprise, John Templeton Foundation) Michael C. Moynihan (senior editor, Reason magazine)
• Paula Schrifer (director of advocacy, Freedom House, James Traub (contributing writer, The NYT Magazine)
• Claudia Rosett
  Claudia Rosett
  Claudia Rosett is an American writer and journalist. She is journalist-in-residence at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute based in Washington, D.C. A former staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, she writes a weekly column for Forbes, blogs for Pajamas Media, and...
  
   (columnist, Forbes magazine)
• Mona Eltahawy (award-winning Egyptian journalist)
• Diego Arria
  Diego Arria
  Diego Arria Salicetti is a Venezuelan politician, diplomat, former Venezuelan Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the United Nations and President of the Security Council . He was Governor of the Federal District of Caracas in the mid-1970s...
  
   (former President of the U.N. Security Council)
• Julian Assange
  Julian Assange
  Julian Paul Assange is an Australian publisher, journalist, writer, computer programmer and Internet activist. He is the editor in chief of WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website and conduit for worldwide news leaks with the stated purpose of creating open governments.WikiLeaks has published material...
  
   (founder, WikiLeaks)
• Lubna al-Hussein
  Lubna al-Hussein
  Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein is a Sudanese Muslim, media worker and activist who came to international attention in July 2009 when she was prosecuted for wearing trousers...
  
   (Sudanese women's rights advocate)
• Anwar Ibrahim
  Anwar Ibrahim
  Anwar bin Ibrahim is a Malaysian politician who served as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998. Early in his career, Anwar was a close ally of Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad but subsequently emerged as the most prominent critic of Mahathir's government.In 1999, he was sentenced...
  
   (Leader of the Opposition, Malaysia)
• Rebiya Kadeer
  Rebiya Kadeer
  Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang Autonomus Region of the People's Republic of China...
  
   (President, World Uyghur Congress)
• Kang Chol-hwan
  Kang Chol-Hwan
  Kang Chol-Hwan is a defector from North Korea. As a child he was imprisoned in the Yodok concentration camp for 10 years; after his release he fled the country, first to China and eventually to South Korea...
  
   (author, Aquariums of Pyongyang)
• Garry Kasparov
  Garry Kasparov
  Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
  
   (Russian chess grandmaster and democracy advocate)
• Mart Laar
  Mart Laar
  Mart Laar is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Foundation for the Investigation of Communist Crimes. He was the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002, and is the leader of the conservative party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica...
  
   (former Prime Minister, Estonia)
• Leopoldo Lopez
  Leopoldo López
  Leopoldo López Mendoza is a Venezuelan politician and economist. From 2000 until 2008, López was the mayor of the Chacao Municipality of Caracas. A 2006 Los Angeles Times article describes López as an immensely popular leader of the opposition to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, as well as a...
  
   (opposition leader, Venezuela)
• Marina Nemat
  Marina Nemat
  Marina Nemat is the author of a memoir about growing up in Iran, serving time in Evin Prison for speaking out against the Iranian government, escaping a death sentence and finally fleeing Iran for a new life in Canada.-Life:...
  
   (former political prisoner, Iran)
• Clara Rojas
  Clara Rojas
  Clara Leticia Rojas González is a Colombian tax lawyer, university lecturer, and campaign manager for former senator and presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. She was kidnapped along with Betancourt by the FARC guerrilla group near San Vicente del Caguán on February 23, 2002, while Betancourt...
  
   (Colombian politician, formerly kidnapped by the FARC)
• Sima Samar
  Sima Samar
  Dr. Sima Samar OC is a politician in Afghanistan, who served as Minister of Women's Affairs of Afghanistan from December 2001 to 2003...
  
   (Chairperson of the AIHRC)
• Benjamin Skinner (author, A Crime So Monstrous)
• Mukthar Mai (Pakistani women's rights advocate)
• Peter Thiel
  Peter Thiel
  Peter Andreas Thiel is an American business magnate, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. With Elon Musk and Max Levchin, Thiel co-founded PayPal and was its CEO...
  
   (co-founder, PayPal)
• Samuel Kofi Woods
  Samuel Kofi Woods
  Samuel Kofi Woods is a Liberian human rights activist, journalist, politician and academic. In 1994, Woods founded and still runs the Forefront Organisation, which documented many of human rights abuses during the Second Liberian Civil War. He won the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1994 and received...
  
   (Minister of Public Works, Liberia)
• Lidia Yusupova (Chechen lawyer)
• Armando Valladares
  Armando Valladares
  Armando Valladares is a former prisoner in Cuba turned United States ambassador to the United Nations.-Political prisoner:Valladares was a Cuban Postal Bank employee . He was arrested when he refused to display a sign on his desk that promoted communism...
  
   (former Cuban political prisoner)
• Lech Walesa (former Polish president; Nobel Laureate)
• Jared Genser (President, Freedom Now)
• Kasha Nabagesera
  Kasha Nabagesera
  Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera is a Ugandan LGBT rights activist. She is the founder and executive director of an LGBT rights organisation called Freedom and Roam Uganda. She has publicly campaigned for an end to homophobia in Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal...
  
   (Ugandan rights activist)
• Gilbert Tuhabonye
  Gilbert Tuhabonye
  Gilbert Tuhabonye, born on November 22, 1974 in Songa, Burundi, is an American long distance runner.Tuhabonye's most noted accomplishment is winning the Burundi national championship in the men's 400m and 800m as a junior in high school....
  
   (Burundian genocide survivor)
• Pierre Claver Mbonimpa (Burundian prison reformer)
• Siegmar Faust (German author)
• Marcel Granier
  Marcel Granier
  Marcel Granier Haydon is a Venezuelan businessperson. He is the President and CEO of Empresas 1BC and the General Director of Radio Caracas Televisión , which until becoming a cabel TV-channel on May 27, 2007, was the most watched television channel in Venezuela.-Biography:Marcel Granier was born...
  
   (Venezuelan journalist)
• Zuhdi Jasser
  Zuhdi Jasser
  Zuhdi Jasser, also known as M. Zuhdi Jasser, and Mohamed Zuhdi Jasser, is a medical doctor specializing internal medicine and nuclear cardiology in Phoenix, AZ. Jasser is a former Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy where he served as staff internist in the Office of the Attending...
  
   (President and Founder, American Islamic Forum for Democracy)
• Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani (Yemeni journalist)
• Guadalupe Llori (Ecuadorian politician)
• Sophal Ear (scholar of the Cambodian genocide)
• Alyaksandr Kazulin (Belarusian opposition leader)

Additionally, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....

, Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto, Vietnamese religious leader Thich Quang Do

Thich Quang Do

Thích Quảng Độ is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk.In 2002, he was awarded the Homo Homini Award for human rights activism by the Czech group People in Need, which he shared with Thích Huyền Quang and Nguyen Van Ly...

, and Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez

Yoani Sánchez

Yoani Maria Sánchez Cordero is a Cuban blogger who has achieved international fame and multiple international awards for her critical portrayal of life in Cuba under its current government....

 all participated via video.

Participants 2011

Among those present at the 2011 conference were:

• Izzeldin Abuelaish
  Izzeldin Abuelaish
  Izzeldin Abuelaish, MD, MPH, is a Palestinian medical doctor and founder of the Daughters for Life Foundation.Before his three daughters were killed by an Israeli tank shell, two of whom were decapitated in January 2009 during the Israeli incursion into Gaza, Dr...
  
   (Palestinian doctor)
• George Ayittey
  George Ayittey
  George Ayittey is a Ghanaian economist, author and president of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington DC. He is a professor at American University, and an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute...
  
   (Ghanaian economist)
• Shirin Ebadi
  Shirin Ebadi
  Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's,...
  
   (Iranian Nobel Laureate)
• Jan Egeland
  Jan Egeland
  Jan Egeland was the United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from June 2003 to December 2006. Egeland was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and succeeded Kenzo Oshima...
  
   (director, Human Rights Watch Europe)
• Mona Eltahawy (Egyptian-American analyst)
• Jody Williams
  Jody Williams
  Jody Williams is an American teacher and aid worker who received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the campaign she worked for, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines...
  
   (Nobel laureate)
• John Ralston Saul
  John Ralston Saul
  John Ralston Saul, CC is a Canadian author, essayist, and President of International PEN.As an essayist, Saul is particularly known for his commentaries on the nature of individualism, citizenship and the public good; the failures of manager-, or more precisely technocrat-, led societies; the...
  
   (President, International PEN)
• Alejandro Toledo
  Alejandro Toledo
  Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique is a politician who was President of Peru from 2001 to 2006. He was elected in April 2001, defeating former President Alan García...
  
   (former president of Peru)
• Philippa Thomas
  Philippa Thomas
  Philippa Thomas is a British television journalist, known for her reporting roles, both domestic and foreign, at the BBC. She grew up in Wakefield, West Yorkshire....
  
   (BBC anchor)
• Yang Jianli
  Yang Jianli
  Yang Jianli is a Chinese dissident with United States residency.Yang, a Tiananmen Square activist in 1989, came to the United States, earned two Ph.D.s , and then founded the Foundation for China in the 21st Century...
  
   (Chinese dissident)
• Wael Ghonim
  Wael Ghonim
  Wael Ghonim is an Internet activist and computer engineer with an interest in social entrepreneurship....
  
   (Egyptian internet activist)
• Lina Ben Mhenni (Tunisian blogger)
• Belisario Betancur
  Belisario Betancur
  Belisario Betancur Cuartas is a Colombian statesman, who as a member of the Colombian Conservative Party was President of Colombia from 1982 to 1986.- Biographic data :...
  
   (former president of Colombia)
• Emil Constantinescu
  Emil Constantinescu
  Emil Constantinescu was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist...
  
   (former president of Romania)
• Barbara Demick
  Barbara Demick
  Barbara Demick is an American journalist. She is currently Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood...
  
   (author, journalist, and North Korean expert)
• Ahmed Benchemsi
  Ahmed Benchemsi
  Ahmed Benchemsi is a Moroccan journalist.He is the founder and was the publisher and editor of TelQuel and Nishan magazines.- Education :Benchemsi attended high school in Casablanca. He spent his freshman years in Rabat’s Mohammed V University, before joining Paris 8 University, from which he...
  
   (Moroccan journalist)
• Violet Banda (Malawian youth radio host)
• Philippe Douste-Blazy
  Philippe Douste-Blazy
  Philippe Douste-Blazy is a French centre-right politician. He served as Minister for Health , Minister of Culture and Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Dominique de Villepin .Douste-Blazy is also a cardiologist and Christian Democrat politician from Lourdes...
  
   (former foreign minister of France)
• James Fallon
  James Fallon
  -Academics:He received his biology and chemistry undergraduate training at Saint Michael's College in Vermont and his psychology and psychophysics degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. He carried out his Ph.D. training in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology at the University of...
  
   (neuroscientist)
• Leymah Gbowee
  Leymah Gbowee
  Leymah Roberta Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. This led to the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia, the first African nation with a female president...
  
   (Liberian activist)
• Ghazi Gheblawi (Libyan writer)
• Thomas Glave
  Thomas Glave
  Thomas Glave is an American author of Jamaican descent who has published widely and won numerous awards. He is also a university professor.- Biography :...
  
   (Jamaican author, professor, activist)
• Uki Goñi
  Uki Goñi
  Uki Goñi is an Argentine author who is principally known for his work documenting the escape of Nazi war criminals from Europe.Goñi's research studies the role of the Vatican, Swiss authorities and the government of Argentina in organizing 'ratline', escape routes for fugitive criminals and...
  
   (Argentinian journalist)
• Justine Hardy (British journalist and mental health expert)
• L. Craig Johnstone
  L. Craig Johnstone
  L. Craig Johnstone is UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees and former United States Ambassador to Algeria . He is a member of the American Academy of Diplomacy and Council on Foreign Relations....
  
   (Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations)
• Maryam al-Khawaja (Bahraini rights activist)
• Busi Kheswa (South African LGBT activist)
• Steven Levitsky
  Steven Levitsky
  Steven Levitsky is a noted comparative political scientist, and has been a tenured Professor of Government and Social Studies in Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences since May 8, 2008. He specializes in Latin America, and particularly in Peru and Argentina.-Education:Levitsky received...
  
   (Harvard political scientist)
• Zhanna Litvina (Belarusian journalist)
• Vincent Manoharan (Indian Dalit rights advocate)
• Jacob Mchangama (Danish scholar)
• Fernão Lara Mesquita (Brazilian journalist)
• Malahat Nasibova
  Malahat Nasibova
  Malahat Nasibova , is a journalist and human rights activist who was awarded the Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize in 2009 for her "courageous and unwavering struggle for a free and independent press...
  
   (Azeri journalist)
• Amir Ahmad Nasr (Sudanese blogger)
• James O’Neill (Thiel Foundation, Clarium Capital)
• Zoya Phan
  Zoya Phan
  Zoya Phan is a high profile exiled political activist from Burma of Karen descent. Currently, she resides in the United Kingdom, where she is International Coordinator of the human rights organization Burma Campaign UK...
  
   (Burmese activist)
• Grigory Shvedov (Russian journalist)
• Victoria Villarruel (Argentinian lawyer)
• Wan Yanhai
  Wan Yanhai
  Wan Yanhai is the best-known AIDS activist in China born 20 November 1963.His "frank and aggressive" approach toward AIDS have led to frequent run-ins with authorities and landed him in detention three times in the past 12 years. Wan, 43, is the director of the country's foremost AIDS-awareness...
  
   (Chinese HIV/AIDS activist)
• Knut Olav Amas
  Knut Olav Åmås
  Knut Olav Åmås is a Norwegian writer and editor.He hails from Odda. He holds a cand.philol. degree in philosophy, haven taken his master's thesis on Ludwig Wittgenstein at the University of Bergen. He later took a dr.philos. degree on a thesis about Olav H. Hauge...
  
   (political editor, Norway’s Aftenposten)
• David Andelman
  David Andelman
  David A. Andelman is the editor of World Policy Journal, having previously served as the American executive editor at and was a news reporter for the New York Times, based in New York, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe, and CBS News, based in Paris...
  
   (editor, World Policy Journal)
• Claes Arvidsson (foreign editor, Sweden’s Svenska Dagbladet)
• Jackson Diehl
  Jackson Diehl
  Jackson Diehl is the Deputy Editorial Page Editor of The Washington Post. He writes many of the paper's editorials on foreign affairs, helps to oversee the editorial and oped pages and authors a regular column....
  
   (deputy editorial page editor, Washington Post)
• Victor Diusaba (online director, Colombia’s El Semana)
• Daniel Domscheit-Berg
  Daniel Domscheit-Berg
  -External links:*, the whistleblower website started by Domscheit-Berg* collected news and commentary at Der Spiegel...
  
   (founder, Openleaks)
• Michael Fleichhacker (editor, Austria’s Die Presse)
• John Fund
  John Fund
  John H. Fund is an American political journalist and conservative columnist. Currently a senior editor of The American Spectator,...
  
   (columnist, Wall Street Journal)
• Jared Genser (president, Freedom Now; legal counsel for Liu Xiaobo)
• Erik Hersman
  Erik Hersman
  Raised in Sudan and Kenya and a graduate of Kenya's Rift Valley Academy, Erik Hersman is a widely respected technologist, blogger and commentator who specialises in the impact and application of technology throughout Africa. He runs two popular websites - and , a multi-author website dedicated to...
  
   (co-founder, Ushahidi software)
• Hui Siu Fun (producer, Hong Kong’s Pearl and Jade TV)
• Garry Kasparov
  Garry Kasparov
  Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
  
   (Russian democracy advocate)
• Jamie Kirchick (writer-at-large, Radio Free Europe)
• Amber Lyon (CNN correspondent)
• Marina Nemat
  Marina Nemat
  Marina Nemat is the author of a memoir about growing up in Iran, serving time in Evin Prison for speaking out against the Iranian government, escaping a death sentence and finally fleeing Iran for a new life in Canada.-Life:...
  
   (Iranian author and former prisoner of conscience)
• Birgitta Ohlsson
  Birgitta Ohlsson
  Eva Birgitta Ohlsson is a Swedish politician, currently serving as Minister for European Union Affairs in the Swedish government. She is a war-mongering, anti-Cuban and USA-loyal member of the Liberal People's Party....
  
   (minister for European affairs, Sweden)
• Ebele Okobi-Harris (director of business and human rights, Yahoo!)
• Abdel Nasser Ould Yessa (founder, Mauritania’s SOS Slaves)
• Jay Nordlinger (senior editor, National Review)
• Benedict Rogers (author and East Asia team leader, Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
• Reihan Salam
  Reihan Salam
  Reihan Morshed Salam is an American non-fiction writer and policy analyst. He is a columnist for The Daily and lead writer of National Reviews "The Agenda" blog, as well as a policy adviser at e21 and a contributing editor at National Affairs...
  
   (columnist, Daily Beast)
• Maria Antonia Sánchez-Vallejo (foreign editor, Spain’s El Pais)
• Hanne Skartveit (political editor, Norway’s Verdens Gang)
• Fabian Stang
  Fabian Stang
  Richard Fabian Stang is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party. He was elected Mayor of Oslo in 2007.Stang, a lawyer, is the son of celebrated Norwegian actress Wenche Foss and entrepreneur Thomas Stang.-References:...
  
   (mayor, City of Oslo)
• Paul Steiger
  Paul Steiger
  Paul Steiger was managing editor of The Wall Street Journal from 1991 until May 15, 2007.Steiger graduated from the Hun School of Princeton and attended Trumbull College at Yale University, where he was an editor of the Yale News and Review.He is currently editor at large for The Wall Street...
  
   (chairman, Committee to Protect Journalists)
• Andrew Stroehlein (communications director, International Crisis Group)
• Gilbert Tuhabonye
  Gilbert Tuhabonye
  Gilbert Tuhabonye, born on November 22, 1974 in Songa, Burundi, is an American long distance runner.Tuhabonye's most noted accomplishment is winning the Burundi national championship in the men's 400m and 800m as a junior in high school....
  
   (Burundian author, athlete, and genocide survivor)
• Dana Weiss (anchor, Israel’s Channel 2 News)
• Akhmed Zakayev
  Akhmed Zakayev
  Akhmed Khalidovich Zakayev is the former Deputy Prime Minister and the current Prime Minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria , which is unrecognised by other countries...
  
   (prime minister in exile, Chechnya)

External links

• Official site
• OsloFreedomForum's Channel on YouTube
  YouTube
  YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....