Annual Report 2025

At the end of 2025, we received the wonderful news that our longtime partner and friend, Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, was released from prison, along with 122 other Belarusian political prisoners. Ales had been sentenced to a ten-year prison sentence in 2021 as part of a massive crackdown on dissent in the country.

His release was a reminder that while we must face the fact that we are in a dark place when it comes to respect for human rights and liberties globally, good things also happen, following the hard work of all of us who continue to believe in those values.

As we write 2026, we can look back on the 50th anniversary year of the Helsinki Final Act with a feeling of nostalgia. We went back in history and saw how nations, at the height of the Cold War, were able to sit around a table and negotiate an agreement they may not have recognised as significant at the time. That proved important to the collapse of the authoritarian Soviet Union and the birth of a human rights movement, which the Norwegian Helsinki Committee is still part of.

The signed Final Act was a victory of diplomacy; time-consuming, boring at times, yet bringing state leaders together in conversation and ultimately reaching an agreement.

As I write this, President Trump’s USA has, along with Israel, attacked Iran, has caused an extremely dangerous situation in the Middle East and upended the world economy. The decision to attack was made for unclear reasons, but improving the horrifying human rights situation in Iran was clearly not one of them. Trump has made threats implying he does not believe his actions are limited by international law. In this way, the leader of the most powerful and once democratic country in the world aligns with authoritarian leaders elsewhere, leaders that previous US Presidents would be horrified to be compared to.

Over the past year, the world has become an even more dangerous place, and threats, inflammatory language, and military engagement seem to play a larger role on the world stage than slow diplomacy.

Working to protect and defend human rights and the respect for international law and institutions during these times feels both urgent and humbling. But even as it seems we are losing the battle, it makes a lot of sense to look more deeply and realise that the foundation of the international order is solid enough. We still have our institutions. Laws are still in force, albeit violated incessantly. We are seeing the contours of a tribunal to prosecute Putin for the crime of aggression. And even if we will not see perpetrators brought to trial immediately, we are keeping the documentation of their crimes, allowing that to happen later.

And most of all, we have our relentless partners and colleagues with whom we continue to work and achieve amazing results. Through this, we are building and maintaining the democratic resilience needed for these very challenging times. Along with the many challenges human rights organisations face, financial support for human rights work declined sharply in 2025, and many organisations struggle to survive.

I am grateful that we continue to have consistent support from our Norwegian and international donors. We are likewise grateful for the in-kind and financial contributions from YARA ASA, law firm Wikborg & Rein, the Norwegian Association of Judges, FERD, Itera ASA, and others. We are also very excited that, starting in 2026, we will be one of the recipients of the Norwegian Postcode Lottery surplus. Steady financial support forms an important part of the resilience needed for our partners’ and the NHC’s continued efforts.

Democracy is threatened. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is a proud defender of it.

Berit Lindeman
Secretary General