Human rights, freedom, and democracy are not separate pillars of our work, they are mutually reinforcing conditions that rise and fall together. Human rights establish the dignity and protections every person is entitled to.
Advocacy for Human Rights,
Freedom and Democracy
Freedom and Democracy
Freedom of expression, movement, participation, and conscience is the lived experience of those rights: The space where individuals can speak, organize, and act without fear. Democracy, in turn, is the system capable of protecting those freedoms and enforcing those rights through institutions that answer the people rather than to power.
When human rights are violated, freedom disappears. When freedom is restricted, democracy becomes hollow. And where democracy collapses, abuses thrive in silence. This is why our work treats these three concepts as one integrated agenda: Defending human rights, expanding civic freedoms, and supporting democratic standards are inseparable tasks in the effort to rebuild Venezuela’s social and institutional fabric.
At the heart of all three lies the rule of law, which is our guiding compass. Only a society anchored in lawful, impartial, and predictable institutions can guarantee rights, protect freedoms, and sustain a true democracy.
Human Rights
Our focus in this area initially centered on information and awareness helping bring verified case information and legal context to the Norwegian public sphere. By sharing and elevating credible evidence and keeping Venezuela’s human rights violations and abuses visible to decision makers and the public, we have helped to protect people in the country affected by repression, and contributed to increase the political cost of harming their defenders.
With analyses and translations of key data from organizations like Foro Penal, we have made human rights developments accessible to Norwegian and international audiences.
NORVEN Alliance led one of the earliest largescale diaspora initiatives urging the International Criminal Court to advance the Venezuela situation from the preliminary examination stage to a full investigation for crimes against humanity. Our team also took part in an early meeting in The Hague with officials from the Office of the Prosecutor to reinforce the urgency of the case.
In Norway, our advocacy has combined documentation, public awareness, and direct institutional engagement. Our efforts cover advocacy and engagement with institutions such as the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Utenriksdepartementet), academia, media, and NGOs to sustain attention on rights violations and humanitarian needs. Throughout the years we have hosted and participated in public events, university panels, and documentary screenings with rights defenders to connect evidence with audiences.
For years, we have urged the Norwegian Government, both privately and publicly, to issue clear, unequivocal condemnations of the ongoing human rights violations in Venezuela. Throughout the negotiation period facilitated by Norway, we consistently warned that silence or ambiguity risks normalizing abuses and undermining victims’ rights. Our position has been firm and respectful: Dialogue matters, but it must never come at the expense of truth, accountability, or the protection of fundamental rights. In this spirit, our appeals for a condemnation of the brutal repression surrounding the 2024 elections contributed to renewed statements by Norwegian authorities.
Freedom
Freedom is the lived expression of human dignity, the space where people can speak, organize, participate, and hold power to account without fear. Defending civic freedoms has been central to our work, especially as Venezuelans have faced increasing restrictions on expression, movement, association, and protest. Our role has been to keep these freedoms visible and protected in the Norwegian and European public spheres, ensuring that the reality of Venezuela’s shrinking civic space is neither ignored nor normalized.
We defend civic space and free expression in Venezuela by raising the alarm when repression escalates and supporting credible information flows through op eds, interviews, and talks that keep Venezuela’s struggle for free expression and association on the agenda in Norway. In sum, we have created spaces where Venezuelan voices can be heard, through panels, cultural events and academic conferences, as documented in our events archive.
Drawing from our ability to coordinate civic mobilization, we have organized dozens of public demonstrations in Oslo, peacefully denouncing authoritarian abuses in Venezuela and calling attention to shrinking freedoms. These actions connect Venezuelan voices with Norwegian civil society.
Our sustained civic work was recognized through the official appointment to organize the Nobel Peace Prize Torchlight Procession in December 2025, a signal of trust in our ability to mobilize people peacefully around universal values.
Democracy
As noted, democracy is the system capable of protecting human rights and civic freedoms through institutions that answer the people rather than to power. Our work has focused on promoting democratic standards, facilitating access to reliable information, and ensuring that Norwegian and international audiences understand the consequences of electoral manipulation and institutional collapse in Venezuela.
NORVEN Alliance has helped translate and contextualize key milestones in Venezuela’s negotiation and electoral processes, including official statements from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the EU, and other international actors, making these developments accessible to both the public and policymakers. From Oslo, we have also supported nonpartisan Venezuelans’ citizen initiatives, such as referendums, primary processes, and voter information efforts during electoral processes.
Democracy also requires informed debate. To support this, we have convened and participated in dedicated academic discussions, documentary screenings, EU and European Parliament events, and policy dialogues, providing evidence-based insights that help frame Venezuela’s crisis for decision makers and civil society actors in Norway and Europe. Our aim has been consistent: To strengthen democratic culture, promote accountability, and help ensure that efforts to rebuild Venezuela rest on transparency, institutional integrity, and respect for the popular will.