Following an initiative of Salman Rushdie, The International Parliament of Writers (IPW) in 1994 established an international network of cities of asylum for persecuted writers, now cities of refuge.  In 1995, the Norwegian city of Stavanger declared itself a city of refuge.  Stavanger was joined by Kristiansand in 1999 and by Oslo in 2001.  9 Norwegian cities are today member of the cities of refuge network ICORN and a total of more than 50 cities in Europe and in USA, Canada and  Latin-America are members of the network.