Lene Wetteland

Lene is head of our Documentation and Accountability Hub and coordinates our advocacy work. She is also focal point for Armenia.

She is thus in charge of the NHC’s documentation work and advocacy efforts, but also takes any opportunity to share her knowledge and dedication to Armenia.

In addition to many and long stays in Armenia, Lene has also extensive experience from work, studies and travel in Russia and Central Asia before she joined our team full-time in 2009.

Both in North Caucasus and Ukraine, as well as in Armenia, lacking accountability for grave crimes lie at the core of new atrocities. Together with our partners, we counter impunity. We make a difference through our work; document violations, analyse them and seek justice in the long run through international justice, and in the more short run through sanctions.

At first, she coordinated our projects in Central Asia, and spent a short period at our regional representative office in Almaty, Kazakhstan. From 2015 to the restructuring of the organisation in 2021 she has been in charge of our Russia department. Now, returning from maternity leave, she is heading our documentation and accountability work.

“We support the brave and talented activists, journalists and lawyers who fight for human rights in their countries. We stand shoulder to shoulder with them in this work and I am truly honoured and proud to be able to be part of that every day.”

Lene has studied Russian, human rights and political science in Bergen, St. Petersburg, Moscow and Bishkek, and wrote her master thesis amongst wives of labour migrants in Tajikistan. If the topic happens to be correct, she can also speak Armenian.

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