News
SAIH joins the Oslo Breathing Space City initiative
SAIH has become a formal partner in the Oslo Breathing Space City initiative. Together with other human rights organizations, SAIH will help provide human rights defenders at risk with a breathing space for rest, safety, and capacity strengthening, with a particular focus on students and academics.
Across the world, student activists and academics are facing increasing pressure in the form of surveillance, threats, and violence. For many, working to advance human rights and democracy involves significant personal risk.
Temporary relocation programmes such as Oslo Breathing Space City can be a vital form of protection. They provide activists with a rare opportunity to pause, process difficult experiences, and develop new strategies in a safe environment.
The Oslo Breathing Space City programme is an important complement to protection initiatives such as Students at Risk and Scholars at Risk. It enables us to reach more people while also helping raise awareness of the challenges faced by students and academics at risk.
The overall objective is for participants to return home with renewed energy, strengthened resilience, and an expanded global network.
This is not only about providing a temporary place to stay, but about recognizing the vital work these individuals carry out.
A natural expansion of existing cooperation
The initiative was originally launched in 2023 by the Norwegian Human Rights Fund, Amnesty International Norway, Human Rights House Foundation, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and the Rafto Foundation.
The Norwegian Human Rights Fund serves as the programme secretariat, and the initiative is funded by, among others, the City of Oslo and the Fritt Ord Foundation.
We are very pleased to welcome SAIH as a partner. We are now six organizations standing together to provide human rights defenders with a breathing space here in Oslo. With SAIH on board, this partnership has become even stronger. It demonstrates that many people care about the situation of human rights defenders around the world and want to show practical solidarity with them.
About Oslo Breathing Space City
- A temporary relocation programme that offers international human rights defenders a three-month stay in a safe and supportive environment.
- The stay combines rest, recreation, and opportunities for reflection to help prevent burnout, alongside networking opportunities and meetings with Norwegian decision-makers and civil society organizations.
- The programme was initiated in 2023 by the Norwegian Human Rights Fund, Amnesty International Norway, Human Rights House Foundation, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, and the Rafto Foundation.
- In 2026, SAIH formally joined as a partner to strengthen the programme’s work on academic freedom, student activists, and young human rights defenders.
News that engage in the fight for educational justice
News
SAIH stands in solidarity with Iranian students
In this statement SAIH condemns the Iranian authorities’ brutal crackdown on peaceful protests and stands in solidarity with Iranian students who are risking their freedom and lives in the struggle for democracy, dignity, and human rights.
