On 4 April, 2025 the Miami Herald reported that Haiti-based human rights lawyer Mario Josep died in a car accident.
In a country where justice is often elusive, Mario Joseph was a fearless crusader who didn’t care whether his opponent was the Haitian government or the international community as he defended political prisoners and poor victims of human rights abuses in his Caribbean homeland. Joseph died Monday night from injuries sustained in a car accident last week as he pulled into his house. His death was confirmed by his longtime friend Brian Concannon and the Boston-based nonprofit Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. He was 62. Concannon said in a statement. “The global human rights movement has lost an inspirational leader when the notion of human rights itself is under broad attack.”
Since 1996 Joseph had served as the attorney for the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, or Bureau of International Lawyers, in Port-au-Prince. The organization represented victims of human rights violations, trained Haitian law students and worked with U.S. law schools clinics, while also closely collaborating with the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. His high-profile cases included championing the rights of 5,000 victims of waterborne-cholera who blamed the United Nations for its introduction into Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
Among Jospeh’s many accolades over the years was the Judith Lee Stronach Human Rights Award from the Center for Justice & Accountability in San Francisco, the Alexander Human Rights Award from Santa Clara University, and honorary doctorates from the University of San Francisco and Indiana University School of Law. He was also a finalist for the 2013 Martin Ennals Human Rights Defenders Award.
Comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi speaks at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival awards. Looking on (in striped sweater) is ‘Coexistence, My Ass!’ director Amber Fares. Matthew Carey
Shuster-Eliassi attended the awards ceremony in the Greek port city, along with director Amber Fares and fellow members of the production. The comedian, whose one-woman show became the basis for the documentary, acknowledged her parents who were on hand for the event.
“My first political teacher, my father, is up there [in the balcony]. The first memory I have of my father is him going in and out of Israeli military prison for refusing to serve in the occupied Palestinian Territories,” Shuster-Eliassi noted. “Our activism and how we demonstrate equality, and freedom, and liberation is not just in one protest or one activity or one thing or one joke. It’s demonstrating what we envision the alternative is with your body, with your languages… using our privilege to make sure that my Palestinian friends will be free.”
“Two weeks ago, a Palestinian comedian, a colleague of mine, made jokes in Israel and the police showed up in at his home and took him and arrested him for telling jokes,” Shuster-Eliassi said. “And I’m here because there is still a little crack of freedom of speech that I get because of my privilege as an Israeli Jew.”
On a more humorous note, Shuster-Eliassi also brought up the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “When I changed from political activism into comedy, it was because I heard that in The Ukraine, a Jewish comedian wrote a sitcom about becoming the president and he became the president!” she said. “So, I thought if I want to take my political career seriously, I need to start writing jokes because I know that when you’re laughing, you’re listening.”
Winning the Golden Alexander automatically qualifies Coexistence, My Ass! for consideration as Best Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards. In addition to the Golden Alexander, Fares’s film also won the Human Rights in Motion Award, presented by the Council of Europe.
While in Geneva the 23rd FIFDH announced its winners:
The documentary The Brink of Dreams by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir and the crime-drama Santosh by Sandhya Suri have received the Grand Prizes at the Geneva-based human rights gathering
The Brink of Dreams by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir (left) and Santosh by Sandhya Suri
The 23rd Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) has concluded its 7-16 March run, drawing in over 31,000 attendees and hosting experts to dissect current affairs, move beyond shock and inspire collective action. Showcasing global films that highlight human rights, the festival reaffirmed its status as a key event for audiences and professionals alike, fostering dialogue on pressing geopolitical and social challenges.
At the closing ceremony, Laila Alonso Huarte and Laura Longobardi, the festival’s co-editorial directors, mentioned: “We’re proud to see that the winning films are not only powerful and innovative in cinematic terms, but also warrant international support given the filmmakers’ commitment to and courage in confronting the many social, political and economic challenges in their countries.”
In the International Documentary Competition, the jury awarded the Geneva Grand Prix, valued at CHF 10,000 (€10,300) and sponsored by the city of Geneva, to The Brink of Dreams [+] by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir. Highlighting their decision, the jury stated, “This poignant film follows the aspirations of five young Egyptian women seeking freedom – a freedom threatened by traditions and restrictions imposed in their village. Rich in cinematic creativity, it tackles sensitive issues such as forced marriage and sexual harassment, exposing how women’s rights remain precarious in the region.”
Here is the full list of award winners at the 23rd FIFDH:
International Documentary Competition
Geneva Grand Prix The Brink of Dreams [+] – Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir (Egypt/France/Denmark/Qatar/Saudi Arabia)
FIFDH Gilda Vieira de Mello Prize Khartoum [+] – Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Phil Cox (Sudan/UK/Germany/Qatar)
Fiction Grand Award Santosh [+] – Sandhya Suri (UK/Germany/France/India) Special Mentions Cosmos – Germinal Roaux (Switzerland/France/Mexico) Sugar Island [+] – Johanné Gómez Terrero (Dominican Republic/Spain)
Youth Jury Prize – Fiction In the Land of Brothers [+] – Raha Amirfazli, Alireza Ghasemi (Iran/France/Netherlands)
Focus Competition
Vision for Human Rights Award There Is Another Way – Stephen Apkon (USA/Palestine/Israel)
Special Jury – In Hospitals/Convergences Award Flying Hands [+] – Paula Iglesias, Marta Gómez (Spain)
Special Jury – In Correctional Facilities/La Brenaz Jury Award Life Is Beautiful [+] – Mohamed Jabaly (Norway/Palestine)
Champ-Dollon Jury Award Riverboom – Claude Baechtold (Switzerland)
You can save a draft of your work if you would like to finish filling out the form at a later date.
We will follow-up with nominators about their submission by email. Please be sure the email address used to create your Submittable Account is one that you check regularly.
Please note: Each individual may only submit one nomination per year. Organisations may submit multiple nominations.
Please reach out to Submittable’s Customer Support team with any technical questions at support@submittable.com
For further information, please visit our website and for any questions directly relating to process or information required, please contact our research team by email at research@rightlivelihood.org.
The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders honors individuals and organizations who have shown exceptional commitment to defending human rights, despite the risks involved. The Martin Ennals Award aims to support the tireless struggles of these activists.[For more on the award and its laureates, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/043F9D13-640A-412C-90E8-99952CA56DCE]
To qualify for the Award 2025, the nominees must:
Be currently active in the promotion and protection of human rights
Not employ or advocate violence
Not be self-nominated
Be in need of protection
We encourage nominations of activists under 30 years of age to reflect the growing number of young persons joining the human rights movements in their countries. Post-humous nominations are not eligible. The deadline for nominations is open ended for now. Nominees must also read and acknowledge the Martin Ennals Foundation Ethical Guidelines.
Nominate your human rights champion now by filling out the nomination form (available in ENGLISH, FRENCH) and send it to info@martinennalsaward.org.
The Martin Ennals Award is a unique collaboration between ten of the world’s leading human rights organizations, who form the independent Jury that selects winners of the Award. In the first half of each year, a nomination cycle takes place over several months, at the end of which the winners of the Martin Ennals Award — or Laureates — are selected by the Jury. The names of the Laureates will be publicly announced to the public shortly before the ceremony. Mark your calendar for the Award Ceremony 2025 which will take place in the third trimester of the year in Geneva.
Learn more about the nomination process and our ethical guidelines here:
Each year the Rafto award goes to a person or an organization who stands up for human rights and democracy. Please make a nomination. Annual deadline is 1 February.
Each year we announce the recipient of the Rafto Prize in the end of September at a press conference at the Rafto House in Bergen. The announcement is live streamed on our website and on Facebook.
Questions?
For questions regarding nominations, please contact the Secretary of the Committee, Liv Unni Stuhaug, livunni.stuhaug@rafto.no
On 4 December 2024, Aytan Farhadova in OC media reported that human rights defender Rufat Safarov was detained in Azerbaijan a week before he was set to be awarded the Human Rights Defender of the Year award by US State Secretary Antony Blinken. That day, Safarov’s lawyer, Elchin Sadigov, posted on Facebook that Safarov was accused of hooliganism and fraud resulting in major damage.
Sadigov later posted a message written by Safarov, in which he explained that he was planning to visit the US two days after receiving his visa in order to accept the Global Human Rights Defender Award from Blinken. [not totally clear which award is referred to – ed]
‘So I was awarded as a strong human rights defender of the year. Because the United States initially nominated me, I express my deep gratitude to [Mark] Libby, the US Ambassador in Azerbaijan, and Mr Blinken, US Secretary of State, who supported my candidacy.’
State Department’s Deputy Spokesperson, Vedant Patel, during a press briefing on Tuesday, said: We’re deeply concerned by reports that human rights defender Rufat Safarov has been detained in Azerbaijan’, Patel said, adding that they were ‘closely monitoring the case.’
Frank Schwabe, the head of the German delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), criticised Safaravo’s arrest, saying that PACE will ‘respond to this in January’.
Safarov, a former prosecutor’s office official who spoke out against human rights abuses by the government, was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of bribery, fraud, and human rights violations in 2016. He was released from prison alongside almost 400 others after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev issued an amnesty to mark Novruz in 2019.
The top awards for the 2024 International Contest for Minority Artists were presented to five award winners — Bianca Broxton, Joel Pérez Hernández, Francis Estrada, Laowu Kuang and youth laureate Jayatu Chakma — during a special ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland.
UN Human Rights partnered with civil society organizations, Freemuse, Minority Rights Group International, the City of Geneva, the Centre des Arts of the International School of Geneva, and with the support of the Loterie Romande. The theme, Memory in the Present, celebrates the creativity and cultural expression of minority artists whose artwork explores themes relating to memory and memorialization around the globe.
“Naturally, such collective identities will largely be grounded in a collective memory of events, generating or perpetuating values or traditions that shape the way persons belonging to a minority feel bound together by common experiences,” said Nicolas Levrat, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues. “Such memories often define how and why these past experiences shared by persons belonging to a given minority (or by previous generations) make them singular, different from other groups.”
The contest serves as a platform for minority artists human rights defenders who play a key role worldwide to build bridges of understanding, dialogue and empathy through creative and artistic means. It celebrates minority artists who have made significant contributions to raise awareness, inspire action, and foster deeper understanding of human rights across diverse communities.
Bianca Broxton is an American interdisciplinary artist who focuses on raising awareness of health inequalities among minority women in the United States. She frames historical narratives and memories around the marginalized voices using sculptures and collages to portray minorities with dignity and a focus on restorative justice.
“My experience as a Black woman drives me to tell the histories of those who have faced systemic oppression and to portray them positively. I refuse to have my subjects seen only as victims of systemic injustice,” she said.
Laowu Kuang is a visual artist belonging to the Tibetan minority in China. Through a vivid interplay of colors and textures displayed on large canvases, his artwork navigates themes of memory and memorialization in contemporary China, through traditional Tibetan symbols and motifs.
“In contrast to Western painting, with its excessive color scale, and Han Chinese painting, with its muted and elegant concept of applying colors, Tibetan painting has a strong and intense contrast of colors,” he said. “The stone carvings of Tibetan folk art are a perfect combination of religion and nature, which is a communication and dialogue between human beings and gods, between heaven and earth.”
Joel Pérez Hernández is a visual and plastic artist from the Maya Tseltal people, born in the Lacandón jungle of Chiapas, Mexico. Hernández has dedicated years to studying traditional techniques and motifs with elder artisans and creators of his community.
“Much knowledge is asleep in our mountains, voices are trapped in the rivers, colors sleep under the stones, and in our collective memory, as well,” he said. “My people nourish me and motivate me to awaken all that; that is what I include in my works. I find no need to sign my pieces, because my people, my family, my friends make up the essence of each one of them.”
Born in the Philippines, Francis Estrada is a visual artist and educator, currently residing in the United States. Estrada’s artwork focuses on culture, history, and perception, and questions the influence of historical photographs, mass media, political propaganda, and personal archives on social narratives and collective memory.
“My art is a tool through which I confront how our understandings of culture are mediated, and the methods through which history and memory are created and perpetuated,” he said. “I think of my work as partial narratives for the viewers to complete based on their own experiences and associations.”
Youth laureate Jayatu Chakma is an artist belonging to the Chakma Indigenous community of the Chittagong Hill Tracts region in Bangladesh. His artwork features ink, acrylic, watercolor, and natural elements like mud and colors from leaves, as a way to reflect on the life of his community in relation with forced displacement and the loss of their lands.
“Chittagong Hill Tracts is a part of Bangladesh which represents a culture of variation in terms of people and landscape,” he said. “But there are stories hidden behind the decorated valleys of Chittagong Hill Tracts: my artworks are influenced by the stories of being displaced, losing belongings and relatives. I want to create artworks that show a different side of Chittagong Hill Tracts, besides its natural beauty and cultural diversity that we see on TV.”
Walter Ngano, on Friday, 29 November 2024, wrote about three nationals in Kenya being honoured as Human Rights Defenders, illustrating again how awards can function at the national level.
Three Kenyan activists were feted at an awards ceremony on Friday, November 29, recognizing them for their commitment to protecting human rights. Boniface Mwangi, Hanifa Adan, and Hussein Khalid were awarded the Human Rights Defender of the Year award during the Human Rights Defenders (HRD) Awards. The event was held at the Royal Danish Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.
The three, who are prominent activists in Kenya, were jointly awarded the prize, which is under the Working Group on Human Rights Defenders in Kenya, which brings together Civic Society Organizations and development partners concerned with the protection of HRDs.
The three were honoured for the role they played in the June-August Gen Z protests that were witnessed in Kenya in 2024. Together, they managed to lead Kenyans in advocating for the withdrawal of the Finance Bill, 2024.
Hussein was honoured for his contribution to ensuring access to justice for survivors and families of victims of rights violations. Hanifa, on the other hand, was awarded for her dedication to the promotion of public integrity in Kenya.
The aim of the ceremony is to honour and publicly recognise the important work of HRDs in Kenya by giving out awards to men and women who have demonstrated courage and impact in the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
While speaking after winning the award, Hanifa Adan expressed her joy at winning the award and dedicated the award to Kenyans who lost their lives in the June-August Gen Z protests witnessed in 2024. The award was her fourth in 2024.
“I feel honoured to have won the Human Rights Defender of the Year Award. It’s such an honour, and this is my fourth award this year. I dedicate this award to each and every comrade that we lost during the Gen Z protests,” Hanifa noted.
Hussein Khalid while receiving his award expressed his surprise at being feted but acknowledged the role of activism in the country this year. “I am really shocked by this, but when I look back, it is because of the so many days and sleepless nights we spent doing post-mortems and autopsies for the comrades that we lost in the protests,” Khalid stated. The activist went ahead to request a moment’s silence for the deceased.
Front Line Defenders is currently accepting nominations for the 2025 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk:
The annual Front Line Defenders Award was established in 2005 to honour the work of HRDs who are courageously making outstanding contributions to the promotion and protection of the human rights of others, at great personal risk to themselves. The Award focuses national and international attention on the HRDs work, providing them with a greater national and international platform to speak about and advocate for their work.
For each region of the world (Africa; Americas; Asia-Pacific; Europe & Central Asia; and Middle East & North Africa) there will be one winner selected and Front Line Defenders will recognise all five as the 2025 Front Line Defenders Award Laureates. For more on this award and its laureates, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/2E90A0F4-6DFE-497B-8C08-56F4E831B47D.
The nomination process is open for anyone to submit a nomination of a human rights defender, collective, organisation or community working on any human rights issue and facing significant risk due to their work or operating in an environment that itself is characterised as insecure. The purpose of the Award is to give visibility to HRDs who are not normally acknowledged or recognised at the international level. At the same time, the Award should not bring additional risk for which the HRD is not prepared. In addition to the Award, winners will receive:
a modest financial prize aimed at improving the HRD’s protection;
collaboration with Front Line Defenders for media work in recognition of the Award;
advocacy by Front Line Defenders related to the Award and the work of the winners;
an event co-organised by the HRD, local partners and Front Line Defenders to give visibility to the Award in the winners’ countries (as determined and guided by the winners);
the Global Laureates will attend a ceremony in Dublin at a date to be determined;
ongoing security consultation with Front Line Defenders.
If you would like to nominate a HRD for the 2025 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, please follow this link to the secure online nomination form:
As the person, group or organisation making the nomination, you will be consulted by Front Line Defenders to verify the information submitted and possibly for additional information. Please complete all parts of the nomination form to the best of your ability. 2025 Front Line Defenders Award – Nomination Form
Please submit nominations via the online form. If there are any problems using the form, or if you have any questions, please contact: award@frontlinedefenders.org
Deadline for nominations: 10 January 2025
Please note:
Incomplete nominations will not be considered. Please complete the nomination form in full and provide all of the information requested.
Nominations can be submitted by organisations or individuals.
Individual nominees may not play a prominent role in a political party and must be currently active in human rights work (the Front Line Defenders Award is not intended to recognise a historical or posthumous contribution).
Nominees should be active human rights defenders.
Self-nomination is not permitted.
The number of nominations a HRD or organisation receives is not considered when evaluating the nominees.
All nominations must be accompanied by 2 references.
The 2024 Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award (ADHRA) will be awarded to Odhikar in recognition of “the civil and political rights advocacy they have carried out and expanded in Bangladesh for three decades, despite challenges such as harassment, imprisonment, and surveillance,” TFD said in a press release.
It is hoped that the award will “encourage their work and those in the same field” so they “realize their efforts and perseverance have not gone unnoticed,” said the TFD, a nonprofit organization funded by Taiwan’s government.
Founded in 1994, the group has “deepened democracy and human rights in Bangladesh” through research, advocacy, and training, as well as government oversight efforts, the foundation said.
Odhikar, which means “rights” in Bengali, was founded by human rights activist Adilur Rahman Khan, who currently serves as the group’s secretary.
According to its website, Odhikar’s principal objectives include raising awareness of human rights and its various abuses, and promoting a vibrant democratic system through election monitoring in Bangladesh.
The Bengali group has issued annual reports since 1996 that document human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, involuntary disappearances and other violations, the TFD said.
The TFD also highlighted Odhikar’s role in urging the Bengali government to ratify the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court in 2010, which subsequently led the country to contribute to investigations into the persecution of the Rohingya people.
TFD’s award ceremony will be held in Taipei on Dec. 10, the foundation said, adding that the award winner would receive a trophy and a grant of US$100,000.
![Mga Nalimutan [The Forgotten], inspired by a photography taken by Joe Galvez New York City, United States, 2017.](https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/styles/hero_5_image_desktop/public/2024-11/minority-artists-award-memory-in-present-2024-972x700.jpg?itok=oQgPdm-9)
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 