Thorolf Rafto - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Thorolf Rafto was a human rights activist and professor in Economic History

Economic history

Economic history is the study of economies or economic phenomena in the past. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations and institutions...

at the Norwegian School of Economics

NHH

The Norwegian School of Economics or NHH is a public business school situated in Bergen, Norway. Opened in 1936 by King Haakon VII, it is Norway's oldest business school and has since its foundation been the leading Norwegian teaching and research institution in the fields of economics and...

in Bergen, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. During a visit to Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

in 1979 to hold a lecture for students excluded from the universities for political reasons, Rafto was beaten up by the communist security police. He suffered from the inflicted injuries the rest of his life and died in 1986 at the age of 64. The Rafto Foundation for Human Rights

Rafto Foundation for Human Rights

The Rafto Foundation for Human Rights was established in 1986 in a memory of , a professor of Economic History at the Norwegian School of Economics and a human rights activist. The main objective of the is the promotion of freedom of political expression and enterprise...

was established the same year, in gratitude for his efforts and inspiration.

Personal life

Thorolf Rafto was born in 1922 in Bergen

Bergen

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

, Norway

Norway

. His father, Robert Rafto was an Olympic

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

gymnast and the winner of the Norwegian decathlon championships in 1918. In his younger days Rafto competed on national level in athletics

Athletics (track and field)

Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...

, and won the Norwegian championships in decathlon

Decathlon

The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of ten track and field events. The word decathlon is of Greek origin . Events are held over two consecutive days and the winners are determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a points system in each event, not...

in 1947.

During the World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Thorolf Rafto fled to Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and served with the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

. Back in Bergen

Bergen

after the war, he earned university degrees in Languages and History. In 1950, at the age of 28, Rafto married Helga Hatletvedt with whom, he had four children.

In 1956, Thorolf Rafto became a lecturer at the Norwegian School of Economics in Bergen

Bergen

. “Thorolf's abilities and charisma soon made him one of the most popular lecturers ever at the college. He had an almost photographic memory that enabled him to cite historical, economic and cultural facts as if he had a reference book before him. When he started his classes, only eight students enrolled. Two years later the lecture halls were crammed.”

Activism

Involvement in political activism in Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

has started from the Prague Spring

Prague Spring

The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...

of 1968. Later in his life, Thorolf Rafto got, particularly, supportive of the liberal ideas of the Czechoslovak reformists such as Alexander Dubcek

Alexander Dubcek

Alexander Dubček , also known as Dikita, was a Slovak politician and briefly leader of Czechoslovakia , famous for his attempt to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring...

and Jiri Hajek

Jirí Hájek

Jiří Hájek was a Czech politician and diplomat. Together with Václav Havel, Zdeněk Mlynář, and Pavel Kohout, Hájek was one of the founding members and architects of Charta 77.-Early political career:...

. In 1973, Thorolf Rafto travelled to Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

, where he witnessed the persecution of intellectuals and Jewish refuseniks, who had applied for emigration to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. On the return from the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, Rafto wrote an article criticizing internal Soviet politics in Italy's Corriere della Sera

Corriere della Sera

The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...

, that later was published in Norway

Norway

and Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

. Later, in March 1984 he was awarded the Danish Jewish Youth Organisation’s Ben-Adam Prize for his efforts on behalf of the Soviet Jews.

In 1979, Rafto travelled again to Prague

Prague

to hold a lecture for students excluded from the universities for political reasons. However, he was brutally beaten up by the communist security police and had to come back to Norway

Norway

. In 1981, Rafto made several trips to Poland to work closer with labour organisations there.

By 1985 his health was weakening. On 4 November 1986 Thorolf Rafto died.

The Rafto Foundation for Human Rights and The Rafto Prize

After the death of Thorolf Rafto, his friends and colleagues agreed to establish a foundation that would continue the Rafto’s work on a promotion of freedom of speech and political expression in Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

. It was also decided to introduce a prize for human right activists.

Nevertheless, the fall of the Iron Curtain

Iron Curtain

The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...

and the consequential democratization of Eastern European states made to reconsider the status of the foundation. Meanwhile it has opened new possibilities to work with other geographical regions in a promotion of human rights. Already in 1990, the Rafto Prize was awarded to a Burmese democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 81% of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained...

that in the following year 1991 has received the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...

for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.

The initial idea of the Rafto Prize is to provide a basic informative platform for the laureates that would help to receive further attention from the international media and support from political and non-political organisations. By awarding the Rafto Prize, the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights

Rafto Foundation for Human Rights

seeks to bring attention to independent voices that due to oppressive and corruptive regimes are not always heard. For example, four Rafto Laureates have subsequently received further international assistance and were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

. Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi

, Jose Ramos-Horta, Kim Dae-jung and Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi

Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's,...

were awarded the Rafto Prize prior to the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.