On 1 December 2023, Daouda Diallo, a human rights defender and secretary general of the Coalition Against Impunity and Community Stigmatization, was abducted by security forces in civilian clothes in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, and taken to an unknown location. See: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/12/04/mea-laureate-2022-daouda-diallo-abducted/
On 28 March, 2024 Amnesty International (Index Number: AFR 60/7830/2024) reported that he was freed on 7 March 2024.
Now in its 18th year, the Secretary of State’s IWOC Award recognizes women from around the globe who have demonstrated exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equity and equality, and the empowerment of women and girls, in all their diversity – often at great personal risk and sacrifice. The 2024 awardees and many earlier laureates can be found via the Digest link above.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power had the following to say: It has always taken bravery and stubbornness to stand up for human rights. But today the threats that human rights activists and defenders face – from threats to their families to legal retribution to imprisonment and outright violence at the hands of those who would prefer to see them silenced – those threats are grave, and sadly they are growing. In 2022, more than 400 human rights defenders were murdered, the highest number ever recorded in a single year. I am in awe of the women we are honouring today for their courage.
They refuse to back down because of a shared conviction captured by Fatima Corazon, one of the women we are recognizing today. As she puts it, courage, even in the face of danger and fear is the driving force to achieve positive change. The women we are honoring live this conviction every minute of every day. They have been unjustly imprisoned, they have been driven from their homes or trapped inside their homes, they have seen their families and their colleagues attacked, or they have received death threats and been assaulted themselves.
But they do not relent. They go on fighting, they fight for the rights of political prisoners, they organize movements to bring services to marginalized communities, they publish articles, they host rallies, and they call out injustice wherever they can. Even in the most dangerous places against all odds, they are continuing their work demonstrating incredible, inspiring courage and putting their lives on the line to defend human rights.
Benafsha Yaqoobi has dedicated her life to defending the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. A former attorney and member of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, she has helped women escape violence and visually impaired children attend school. Today, she continues to fight for the future of Afghanistan – one that respects human rights and human dignity.
Born in Isla Luis Vargas Torres, one of the most violent enclaves within Esmeraldas, Ecuador, Fátima Corozo has put her life on the line to draw hundreds of young people away from rising gang violence and help them get the education and job opportunities they need to build the futures they want for themselves.
Martha Beatriz Roque Cabello was the only woman amongst 75 people imprisoned during the black spring, Cuba’s crackdown on dissidents two decades ago, Martha was jailed for her activism. After her release, she continued to fight for the rights of political prisoners documenting fraudulent court hearings and supporting activists and their families. Unfortunately, as the Secretary relayed, the Cuban government is preventing Ms. Roque Cabello from leaving the country. So she is not here to accept the award, but let us give her a heartfelt round of applause.
As a result of Fariba Balouch’s outspoken activism for the rights of women and systematically oppressed ethnic minorities in Iran’s poorest province of Sistan and Baluchestan, Iranian authorities have threatened her life. And after she escaped to London, they detained her son and brother in a further attempt to intimidate her. Yet, Ms. Balouch believes the only way forward is resistance, and she continues to advocate for marginalized communities in Iran refusing to be silenced.
With the March 1 deadline swiftly approaching, the window to nominate for the 2024 Right Livelihood Award is closing fast! This is your opportunity to nominate individuals and organisations striving for social and environmental justice. The nomination process is open to the public— we invite you to elevate those making a significant impact through their courageous efforts. While submissions are encouraged in English, we also welcome nominations in French and Spanish via our online form. If you have questions about the nomination process, do not hesitate to contact us via email at research@rightlivelihood.org or by phone at +41 (0)22 555 0943. NOMINATE NOW
Since 1980, Right Livelihood has celebrated the courageous and the visionary with its annual awards. It’s not just an award; it’s a global recognition of those who dare to envision and take action to create long-term social change. The Right Livelihood Award defies categories. This means the Laureates work in diverse fields across the world. Spanning from journalists who have brought truth to light to entomologists safeguarding biodiversity and poets who touch hearts and minds, the Award demonstrates that impactful work can come from anyone, anywhere.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is accepting applications for the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2024 to honour a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and, or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, and especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. Deadline: 15 February 2024
For those who missed last this year’s #RightLivelihood Award Presentation on Wednesday 29 November 2023. It puts a spotlight on the importance of reconnecting to nature and our communities, calling for the systems that unite us to be built on trust and cooperation rather than suspicion and greed. For the winners, see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/09/29/right-livelihood-awards-2023/
On 29 December 2023 Akram Miknas posted a piece on gdnonline attacking the Nobel Peace Prize. It is not my role to “defend” the Peace Prize, but the misconception underlying much of the piece is such that it is worth putting the record straight:
“Wish it were feasible to revoke the Nobel Peace Prize! Especially when some individuals upon whom this supreme honour is bestowed, show, by their subsequent actions and behaviour, that they are more suited to a ‘prize’ or ‘badge’ of shame associated with war and destruction or violence and bloodshed“
The author then raises the cases of Menachem Begin, Shimon Peres, and Aung San Suu Kyi, who are seen as violators. He could have added others such as Le Duc Tho, de Klerk, Arafat and Kissinger or more recently Abiy Ahmed Ali.
…”These examples make us question the logic of bestowing the Nobel on individuals or groups for peace, when their actions are anything but peaceful! In fact, after having received this honour, they have been involved in terrible acts that have stained them with the blood of their victims.”
…..Indeed, many of these Nobel Peace Prize laureates, are, in reality, perpetrators of war crimes. As far back as 2012 I published a piece ‘Nobel Prize is for Peace not necessarily Human Rights‘ which states that the Prize is a PEACE prize and was in certain cases awarded ‘merely’ because they stopped violating human rights. See: https://www.comminit.com/content/nobel-prize-peace-not-necessarily-human-rights
The author makes the sensible point of asking for a critical reassessment of the award selection process: “One key criterion should be that recipients must refrain from intertwining human rights advocacy with political activities. Failure to adhere to this condition should warrant the withdrawal of the award in the future. This measure ensures that the accolade is granted solely based on an individual’s commitment to human rights without any influence from political affiliations or perspectives.”
The author’s call to “to establish alternative awards that are …specifically designed to champion the causes of the vulnerable. It should recognise individuals who are committed to tirelessly working for peace, justice and the promotion of humane values within societies. These awards should gain appreciation and support from individuals and organisations dedicated to fostering positive change in oppressed communities.” is fine but hardly necessary as there are at least 200 such awards, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest.
It is a pleasure to join you to honour the achievements of human rights defenders across the globe. Three quarters of a century ago, in a world decimated by war, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed that: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a clarion call to act in accordance with a fundamental truth: that each of us is an equal member of a single human family.
Seventy-five years on, the world must recall that wisdom. And it must act on it. Because human rights are under attack around the world. Conflicts are raging, with appalling consequences for civilians as we are dramatically witnessing every single day with immense death and suffering in Gaza after the horrors of the 7 October attacks. Inequalities are deepening. Hunger and poverty are rising. Women’s rights are stalling, and in some cases, going into reverse. Civic space and media freedom is being rolled back.
New threats are blossoming – from catastrophic climate disasters, to artificial intelligence, which holds the potential for immense possibility, but also for immense peril. And age-old hatreds are resurging with a vengeance – from racism, to xenophobia, and religious intolerance. People are being violently targeted solely for their religion, their ethnicity or who they love.
But across the world, human rights defenders are lights in the darkness.
They are changing lives:
Fighting, educating, and holding power to account, to make human rights a living, breathing reality. This is deeply dangerous work. Last year, almost 450 human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists were killed. Forty percent more than the previous year. Thirty-three vanished without a trace – a staggering three hundred percent increase from 2021.
In this context, today’s Human Rights Prize is all the more important. This prize has recognized the achievements of human rights defenders since 1968. It has honored luminaries such as Nelson Mandela, Malala Yusafzai and the International Committee of the Red Cross. See: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/74A3B502-F3DF-4DDB-8D6F-672C03B4A008.
Julienne Lusenge from the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
Julio Pereyra from Uruguay;
The Amman Center for Human Rights Studies;
The Human Rights Center “Viasna”, working in Belarus;
And the Global Coalition of civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, social movements and local communities for “the universal recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment”.
Congratulations to you all. And thank you for everything you are doing. I would also like to pay tribute tonight to the thousands of unsung human rights defenders around the world.
Leaders of all kinds must take inspiration from you – our prize recipients today –and defend all human rights – political, civil, social, economic, and cultural.
The world needs leaders of countries, corporations, political parties, religious and civil organizations and beyond, to speak out against antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, attacks on minority Christian communities, and all forms of hate and abuse. It needs them to protect human rights defenders, and bring those who threaten them to justice.
It needs them to embrace our common norms and values, to act on them, and be guided by the spirit of humanity and dignity embodied by the Universal Declaration – to prevent conflict, protect the planet and heal divides.
And to place human rights at the front and centre of efforts to update our international institutions at the Summit of the Future next September.
..
As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we need leaders of all kinds to embrace their role as human rights defenders too.
On 14 December 2023, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the 2023 Human Rights Tulip has been awarded to Hülya Gülbahar, a feminist attorney from Türkiye and founder of the Equality Watch Women’s Group (EŞİTİZ) and the Women’s Platform for Equality Türkiye (EŞİK). Minister of Foreign Affairs Hanke Bruins Slot presented the prize on 14 December at a ceremony in the Peace Palace.
In her speech, Ms Bruins Slot said: ‘Human rights are among the most important resources we have at our disposal to tackle the major problems of our time, such as war, poverty and climate change. ..The nominees for the Human Rights Tulip understand this at a profound level. Through their tireless efforts, these human rights defenders make a real difference for people and society.’
EŞİTİZ and EŞİK publish legal analyses of legislative bills and amendments on feminist and LGBTIQ+ issues, conduct awareness-raising campaigns (for example on the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence) and promote social mobilisation by the Turkish feminist movement.
‘For more than 40 years,’ Ms Bruins Slot said, ‘Hülya Gülbahar has been defending women’s rights and fighting injustice in Türkiye. She does so using her extensive legal expertise and through her influential network, comprised primarily of women, which is too extensive to ignore. And she has been very successful at it.
Other finalists
The two other finalists for the 2023 Human Rights Tulip were:
Julienne Baseke is a journalist and human rights defender who fights for women’s rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As a journalist, Ms Baseke founded the South Kivu Women’s Media Association (AFEM), which aims to enhance women’s visibility and participation in the DRC media.
Claudelice dos Santos is a human rights and environmental activist in the Amazon region. She is the founder of the Zé Claudio e Maria Institute, whose shelter and protection house provides a safe haven for indigenous land, environmental and human rights defenders.
Cities of Rights – 75th UDHR Anniversary: The city of Utrecht wants to be city of human rights
Mohammadi Narges is one of the most recognised Human Rights Defenders in the world. She has received 8 major human rights awards according to THF’s digest of human rights awards but no media outlets got it right…
More on the toolkit (available on website) to create workshops for youth about filmmaking and human rights.
HURIDOCS 40th anniversary
More on ISHR‘s #Right2DefendRights campaign for the 25th anniversary of the UN Declaration on HRDs .
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 