This week a large peace conference was held in Oslo. The initiator was the US based Human Rights Foundation headed by Thor Halvorssen, a young American film director of Norwegian and Venezuelan descent.

The conference had an impressive list of speakers giving testimony from renowned people such as the Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky to the Chine exile Harry Wu to Akhmed Zakaev, Chechnya's prime minister in exile. Additionally there were video addresses by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel, ex Czech president Vaclav Havel, ex Venezuelan president Ramon Velasques and human rights campaigner Elena Bonner, whose husband was Andrei Sakharov, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

As to be expected with such participation the event turned out to be an important debate on human rights abuses around the world. Our most precious commodity is freedom. Freedom to live secure lives; freedom of persecution and terror; freedom of expression; freedom to vote, to enjoy the rule of law and democracy; freedom to enjoy the opportunity of movement and economic and spiritual fulfilment.

This freedom is also the greatest threat to totalitarian forces that seek to run society for greed, power, fascism or mad political or religious notions. Their enemy is freedom and truth. So both have to be suppressed, and the ingenuity and cruelty exercised to break the human mind and body, and whole societies or entire peoples is beyond comprehension for most of us.

Therefore, such testimonies are very important - we need to be constantly reminded of the battles between evil and good. We need to stay alert, identify crimes, mobilize rescue and restore legality.

In order to defend our civilization we have invented the United Nations. The EU, Council of Europe, NATO, G 20 and other institutions that are supposed to serve objectives the joint objective of securing freedom and security. Their Charters and Human Rights Conventions are clear and unambiguous. However, the big international institutions and individual governments are suffering from some seriously limiting illnesses: pragmatism, hidden egoistic agendas, and cowardice. All too often they prevent the response that is inherent in our minds and our institutions.

That is why I salute Mr. Thor Halvorssen and his private initiative for his peace conference in Oslo. The message so eloquently delivered there should be taken very seriously by media, politicians and all relevant organizations. It is a wake up call, and we should all be held responsible - and claim the same from our politicians.

Ivar Amundsen
Director, Chechnya Peace Forum

End notes:

Other key speakers who appeared at the Oslo conference included: the Tibetan monk Palden Gyatso, Kurdish parliamentarian Leyla Zana, author Jung Chang, previous presidents Emil Constantinescu (Rumania), Vytautas Landsbergis (Lithuania), prime minister in exile Akhmed Zakaev (Chechnya) and human rights campaigners Armando Valladares (Cuba), Aliaksandr Biliatski (Belarus), Jack Healy (US), Craig Johnstone (United Nations), Jean-Francois Julliard (France), Greg Mortenson (US), Arne Liljedahl Nygård (Norway), Leopoldo Lopez (Venezuela), Park Sang-Hak (North Korea), Jacueline Modeina (Chad), Voi Van Ai (Vietnam), Victor Hugo Cardenas (Bolivia), Mutabar Tadjibaeva (Uzbekistan), Ladan Boroumand (Iran).