PRIO was founded in 1959 and became an independent institution in 1966. It was one of the first peace research centres, and its foundation and early influence were instrumental in promoting the idea of peace research. According to the Institute’s statutes PRIO should stimulate research in Norway and abroad, engage in training and teaching, hold conferences and seminars, disseminate the results of its own and of other institutes’ research and set its own research agenda.

PRIO conducts basic and applied research and maintains a reasonable balance between the two. It publishes an international journal, the Journal of Peace Research, an international policy journal, Security Dialogue, and a book series as well as reports.

PRIO has an international research staff (with English as the Institute’s working language) and has developed national and international networks of contacts. It encourages the work of younger researchers, such as hovedfag which approximates to a Masters degree) students and doctoral candidates, as well as applied research projects.

The Norwegian Institute of Human Rights was established in January 1987, as a result of an earlier decision of the Norwegian Parliament. The aim of the Institute is to contribute to the respect for and implementation of internationally recognised human rights, through research, information and documentation.

The Institute has been organised as a research programme under the Norwegian Council for Research in Science and Humanities (NAVF). Its primary source of funding is an annual governmental grant administrated by NAVF.

The Institute is affiliated with the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. The Institute’s current research projects are: ‘The emergence of the International Bill of Human Rights’, ‘Prevention of discrimination and protection of minorities’, The relation of human rights norms to different cultural traditions and ideologies’, ‘Textbook on the European system of human rights protection’, ‘Democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights as requirements for the admission of Central and Eastern European States to the Council of Europe’, ‘The right to defence counsel in criminal proceedings: comparative and international human rights law’, ‘Prospects for polyarchy in Africa’, ‘Human rights and development: Kenya and Tanzania’, ‘Prerequisites for accession to the European Convention on Human Rights by Central and Eastern European States’.

The Institute’s main activities are research, training, documentation/information, conference organisation, publication, international cooperation programme and consulting.

Since 1991, the Institute has served as depository library for the collection of human rights primary sources from the Council of Europe, including material from the European Commission and Court.

The Institute is a member of the Nordic Federation of Institutes of Human Rights.

The Institute’s aims, through its Human Rights Programme, are to focus on the role of human rights in the development process, with emphasis on policy issues emerging in North-South relations. It concentrates on human rights in foreign policy, in conflict and conflict resolution, in processes of democratisation, on the development of democracy, and the the state legitimisation and institutionalisation of conflicts.

Current research projects include: ‘political liberalisation and democratic reform in Asia and Africa’, ‘Aid as a tool for the promotion of human rights and democracy’, ‘Islam and reproductive rights, a faulty connection?’, ‘Humanitarian presence and the prevention of conflicts’.