Oct 15, 2020 | News |
After several rounds of deliberation, an independent jury of human rights experts decided on three candidates out of a shortlist of 13 candidates as the 3 final nominees:
Lilit Martirosyan
Lilit Martirosyan is Armenia’s first registered transgender woman. She is a LGBT activist who has been committed to equal rights for all, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, since 2009. Martirosyan is the founder and current president of the Right Side Human Rights Defender NGO, founded in 2016. The NGO is run by and for trans people and sex workers in Armenia and the South Caucasus.
The Sudanese Professionals Association
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) is an umbrella association of 17 different Sudanese trade unions. The organization started in October 2012, though was not officially registered until October 2016 due to government crackdowns on trade unions.
In December 2018, the group called for the introduction of a minimum wage and participated in protests in the city of Atbara against the rising cost of living. In 2019 SPA was a driving force behind the Sudanese revolution.
TZK’AT Network of Ancestral of Community Feminism
The TZK’AT Network of Ancestral Healers of Community Feminism from Ixmulew is an organisation of indigenous women defending life, women’s rights, natural resources and territory, in different regions of Guatemala. The organisation was formed by 10 women human rights defenders in October 2015 with the aim of mentoring and supporting each other. All of them have suffered persecution, stigmatisation, death threats, territorial displacement, criminalisation and sexual violence.
This year’s jury was chaired by Eduard Nazarski and included the following jury members:
- Eduard Nazarski: former director of Amnesty International The Netherlands
- Adriana van Dooijeweert: President at Netherlands Institute for Human Rights
- Zohra Moosa: Executive Director at MamaCash
- Danielle Hirsch: Director of Both ENDS
- Antoine Buyse, Professor of Human Rights and Director at the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights
- Ernst Hirsch Ballin: member of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (AIV), chair of the human rights committee
What’s next?
The winner of the Human Rights Tulip 2020 will be chosen by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stef Blok and will be announced at the end of November. The winner will receive the Human Rights Tulip during an award ceremony on International Human Rights Day on 10 December.
For more on this and similar awards for HRDs, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/award/D749DB0F-1B84-4BE1-938B-0230D4E22144
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 
December 11, 2020 at 17:39
[…] ‘This year,’ said Mr Blok, ‘the three candidates shortlisted for the Human Rights Tulip 2020 were an indigenous women’s rights advocate from Guatemala [on behalf of a network of female healers], a doctor from Sudan [on behalf of an association of trade unions] and a transgender woman from Armenia. They all share a common dedication to promoting human dignity and equality, and work to defend other people’s fundamental rights. They have demonstrated the true meaning of hope, and shown that human rights are for everyone. Regardless of who you are, where you’re from or how much money you have. [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2020/10/15/final-three-nominees-human-rights-tulip-2020/%5D […]