Author: Guille Purchase

One of the greatest benefits of the Oslo Freedom Forum, say its participants, is that it makes people feel less alone. If you are a dissident up against a dictatorship, you can feel very, very alone. But the people at OFF are in the same boat, so to speak. They can trade stories, compare notes — be understood. And they feel less alone.

The forum hosts rights campaigners, dissidents, philanthropists and tech entrepreneurs from around the world.

Davos is an annual European conference where the well-to-do meet to do good. The Oslo Freedom Forum, on the other hand, is a European conference of do-gooders conspiring to stir up trouble.

This much is clear from last week’s gathering: There is no shortage of people committed to pushing human rights along. And they seemed to draw strength from one another.

The Oslo Freedom Forum is an important event to help encourage, teach and publicize human rights activists from around the world. These kinds of connections are necessary to continue the peaceful struggle against oppression that so many people are engaged in.

The Oslo Freedom Forum is a Davos for revolutionaries. Activists who have overthrown dictatorships meet activists who want to overthrow dictatorships. Even if they need translators, everyone speaks the same language. They agree on the radical potential of new technologies.

…an ever-more important gathering for those who defy tyranny…

The Oslo shindig — launched in 2009, and on its way to becoming a human-rights equivalent of the Davos economic forum.

…unlike any human-rights conference I’ve ever attended.