Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated on 7 October, 2006. credit: twitter
In 2015, Svetlana Alexievich received the Nobel Prize in Literature for her body of work primarily centred around oral histories of victims of wars and catastrophes. Alexievich has been relentlessly exposing the injustices in post-Soviet Union Russia and other regions facing the threat of Russian aggression. Alexievich has repeatedly criticised the Russian annexation of Crimea as well as Ukraine’s growing nationalism, which has rendered her vulnerable to threats from both Russian and Ukrainian nationalists.
Svetlena Alexievich. credit: reuters
Responding to the RAW in WAR’s decision to honour her, Alexievich said: “My friends and I, we are all trying to resist the all-consuming grey gloom that surrounds us today, but our efforts are not visible!! But in order to remain true to ourselves, we continue to do our little bit all the same. Thank you for your support.”
The awards will be presented to the winners in March 2019 in London at RAW in WAR’s ‘Refusing to be Silenced’ event, which is part of the 2019 Women of the World Festival at the London’s Southbank Centre.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 
Nepram is the founder of the Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network which has helped more than 20,000 female survivors of gun violence rebuild their lives and strive for justice. Binalakshmi Nepram is a writer from the Manipur. A human rights defender on the Indo-Myanmar border, she believes that returning to India would endanger her life. She fears that she could meet the same fate as Gauri Lankesh, a well-known journalist and co-winner of the 2017 Anna Politkovskaya Award. Last year Lankesh was gunned down in Bengaluru for speaking out against religious extremism and violence in India.[see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/10/06/gauri-lankesh-and-gulalai-ismail-win-2017-anna-politkovskaya-award/]