Posts Tagged ‘digest of human rights awards and laureates’

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European Bar Association gives 2023 award to three Chinese lawyers

December 5, 2023

Jailed Hong Kong, Chinese attorneys honored with human rights award

From right, jailed Hong Kong barrister Chow Hang-tung and Chinese rights attorneys Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were honored with human rights awards by the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe. Credit: Reuters, AP, Reuters

Three jailed attorneys from Hong Kong and China have been honoured with Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe human rights awards, as a Chinese court rejected appeals from two of them, upholding their original sentences for “subversion.”

For more on these CCBE human rights awards, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/A3C73F81-6FCB-4DDD-9356-61C422713949

Jailed Hong Kong barrister Chow Hang-tung, who has been behind bars since September 2021, and Chinese rights attorneys Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, who were jailed in April for attending a 2019 gathering of dissidents in the southeastern city of Xiamen, were given the awards in absentia in recognition of their work upholding human rights, the association said on its website. See: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/04/11/xu-zhiyong-and-ding-jiaxi-two-human-rights-defenders-in-china-sentenced/

The ceremony in Athens took place on Friday 24 November, the same day that a court in the eastern province of Shandong rejected appeals from Ding and Xu, who are currently serving 12- and 14-year jail terms handed down by the Linshu County People’s Court for “subversion of state power,” respectively.

Chow said in an acceptance speech sent from prison that the fight for democracy in China is part of ensuring that the law serves democratic and humanitarian values, rather than just the wishes of those willing to use force to bring others in law. See: https://www.ccbe.eu/fileadmin/speciality_distribution/public/documents/HUMAN_RIGHTS_AWARD/2023/EN_2023_HR_Speech_Chinese-Human-rights-lawyer-Hang-Tung-Chow.pdf

“The dignity of our profession … it is bound up with the dignity of the law, with whether the law reflects our autonomy or denies it,” wrote Chow, who organized now-banned annual vigils commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

“In that sense the building of democratic institutions that alone can safeguard the law’s dignity is also a lawyer’s duty, which is why all three of us receiving this prize today are jailed for working for democracy in China, a fight that may seem unrelated to our profession but is in fact, central to it,” said Chow.

She is currently awaiting trial under a security law on charges of “subversion” amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.

“It is a fight we cannot waver from, even when knowing that the laws we served would likely condemn us,” she said, describing the fight as “the highest service a lawyer can offer her fellow men.”

Rights activist Patrick Poon said the fact that Chow was honored alongside Xu and Ding shows how little difference there is now between the judicial systems in Hong Kong and mainland China, following a years-long crackdown on political opposition and public dissent in the wake of the 2019 protest movement.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-lawyers-awards-11272023160715.html

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Call for nominations Robert F. Kennedy award

December 5, 2023

The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award identifies and honours those who embody Robert F. Kennedy’s belief that the power of individual and collective moral courage can overcome injustice.
Over the past 40 years, the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award has recognized 59 outstanding activists and organizations from 32 countries. Honorees receive a cash prize of $30,000, but what sets this awards program apart is that they also receive ongoing support for their important work from RFK Human Rights—through campaigns and mobilization, strategic litigation, training and capacity-building, and other forms of critical support for their work and movements. For more on this and similar awards, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/69FD28C0-FE07-4D28-A5E2-2C8077584068

Please note, users should only submit one entry each. If you’re interested in submitting multiple nominations for consideration, or if you’d like to submit additional information beyond what’s captured in the form below, please contact advocacy@rfkhumanrights.org. Deadline: December 15, 2023

https://rfkhumanrights.org/awards/human-rights-award-submit-2024

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MEA Laureate 2022 Daouda Diallo abducted

December 4, 2023

On 1 December, 2023, at about 4 p.m., four or more unidentified men abducted Diallo, the secretary-general of the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities (Collectif contre l’Impunité et la Stigmatisation des Communautés, CISC) in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. Diallo had just left the government’s passport office after a meeting with officers to renew his passport. The CISC issued a statement the same day saying that men in civilian clothes pushed Diallo into a vehicle and drove off. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Diallo, 41, winner of the 2022 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, has long been known for denouncing abuses by government security forces and for demanding accountability.[https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/ca7f1556-8f73-4b48-b868-b93a3df9b4e1] In early November, the Burkinabe security forces used a sweeping emergency law aimed at silencing dissent and notified at least a dozen journalists, civil society activists, and opposition party members, including Diallo, that they would be conscripted to participate in government security operations across the country. Diallo spoke out against these politically motivated conscriptions.[see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/11/10/burkina-faso-emergency-law-targets-dissidents/]

On December 2, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor, raised serious concerns about Diallo’s abduction. In a December 3 statement, The People’s Coalition for the Sahel, an alliance of civil society organizations, said that “the abduction of a prominent activist in broad daylight […] demands an immediate government response,” and called on the military authorities to take action.

“Burkina Faso authorities should urgently and impartially investigate the abduction of Daouda Diallo and release him if he is in government custody,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “We are deeply concerned for Diallo’s safety and the safety of everyone working to improve respect for human rights in Burkina Faso.”

Since it took power in an October 2022 coup, Burkina Faso’s military junta has increasingly cracked down on peaceful dissent and the media, shrinking the civic space in the country. National and international journalists, as well as civil society members, face increasing harassment, threats, and arbitrary arrests. On December 2, the military authorities announced the suspension of “all distribution methods” of the French newspaper Le Monde daily, claiming an article published on Le Monde’s website on December 1 about a deadly attack by an Islamist armed group on a military base in Djibo, Sahel region, on November 26, was “biased.”

On 4 December the Martin Ennals Foundation and several other NGOs addressed an urgent letter to the Représentant Permanent de Burkina Faso at the UN in Geneva.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/04/burkina-faso-prominent-rights-activist-abducted

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/burkina-faso-rights-defender-abducted-concerns-grow-alleged-105328313

https://www.voanews.com/a/burkina-faso-rights-defender-abducted/7381667.html

https://www.barrons.com/news/ngos-call-for-release-of-burkinabe-rights-defender-4d2b4f83

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Polish refugee worker and Kurdish defender receive Paul Grüninger award 2023

November 21, 2023

The Paul Grüninger Foundation awarded Polish refugee worker Paula Weremiuk and Kurdish politician Ayşe Gökkan, who is in prison in Turkey, the 2023 Grüninger Recognition Prize for Humanity and Courage 2023. [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/845EA081-C3DB-705C-E6FC-1BA88858803E]

The award ceremony took place on at the Palace Cultural Center in St. Gallen.

Paula Weremiuk from Narewka on the Polish-Belarusian border works as a teacher during the day and as a refugee aid worker in the Bialowieza forest at night. According to the Paul Grüninger Foundation, a refugee drama of enormous proportions has been taking place there since 2021.

Paula Weremiuk searches for people in need in the inaccessible areas of Bialowieza, providing them with clothing, food, sleeping bags and the most basic necessities, writes the Paul Grüninger Foundation. The Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenka is forcing thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa across the border to Poland, where they are met with strong political rejection.

At the border, in the primeval forest of Bialowieza, there is often brutal violence, abuse, rape and repeated deaths. The refugees, including women and small children, are helplessly abandoned to their fate in the inaccessible terrain and are chased back and forth across the border by the authorities. Refugee helpers are being harassed and criminalized, the press release continues.

Ayşe Gökkan’s award was accepted by her lawyer, Berfin Gökkan. The lawyer read out a letter from Ayşe Gökkan written in Kurdish: “I greet you with the warmth of the sun and the enthusiasm of Jin-Jiyan-Azadî. As a member of the Movement of Free Women, I accept this award on behalf of thousands of struggling Kurdish women. There are many fighting women in prison in Turkey.”

The foundation justified the awarding of the recognition prize of 10,000 francs to the Kurdish feminist and human rights defender Ayşe Gökkan for her civil society commitment and her criminalization:

“Ayşe Gökkan has particularly distinguished herself as a journalist and as an activist for women’s rights. For almost forty years, she has been writing newspaper columns against racial and gender discrimination, speaking at national and international podiums and seminars, leading workshops on the topic of gender inequality and taking part in peaceful demonstrations in this context.

From 2009 to 2014, Ayşe Gökkan was mayor of the Kurdish city of Nusaybin, which lies on the border between Turkey and Syria. When Turkey began to build a wall against refugees between Nusaybin and the neighbouring Syrian town of Qamishlo, the mayor protested against this “wall of shame” with, among other things, a sit-in strike.

Because of her civil society commitment, Ayşe Gökkan has been arrested in Turkey more than eighty times, subjected to more than two hundred investigations and, in 2021, sentenced to more than 26 in a grotesque court case based on the statements of a single “secret witness” for membership in a “terrorist organization”.

She is a victim of the criminalization of the political opposition in Turkey. Ayşe Gökkan is in prison, her sentence has not yet been confirmed by the Turkish Court of Cassation, and proceedings are also pending before the European Court of Human Rights.”

https://anfenglish.com/women/jailed-kurdish-politiciangokkan-awarded-paul-gruninger-foundation-s-recognition-prize-70380

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Call for nominations of the 2024 Front Line Defenders Award for human rights defenders

November 2, 2023

Front Line Defenders is currently accepting nominations for the 2024 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk:

award banner

For more on the annual Front Line Defenders Award and its laureates see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/2E90A0F4-6DFE-497B-8C08-56F4E831B47D

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 recognize all five as the 2024 Front Line Defenders Award Laureates.

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;
  • a security grant to improve their security measures;
  • 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-organized 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

For last year’s see:https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/06/05/front-line-defenders-award-2023-goes-to-front-line-defenders/

If you would like to nominate a HRD for the 2024 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, please follow this link to the secure online nomination form.

2024 Front Line Defenders Award – Nomination Form

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/call-nominations-2024-front-line-defenders-award-human-rights-defenders-risk

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EU’s Lorenzo Natali Media Prize 2023 to 3 Venezuelan journalists

October 21, 2023

The winners of this year’s edition of the Lorenzo Natali Media Prize, awarded by the European Commission, were announced on 11 October at a ceremony hosted at the Solvay Library in Brussels.

The winners of the International Prize are:

Three Venezuelan journalists Carmen Victoria Inojosa, Claudia Smolansky and a third whose name cannot be disclosed for security reasons, were awarded the International Prize for their compelling article ‘Así funcionan las casas clandestinas de la Dgcim en Caracas‘ published in Armando.info. Their work exposed the harrowing reality of systematic persecution in Venezuela, targeting political opponents and their families with alarming impunity.

For more on this award see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/D49ECF35-4B42-444D-B4FA-F7ACE2BF65BC

Lorenzo Natali Media Prize website

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_4881

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Sakharov Prize 2023: finalists announced

October 18, 2023

On 18 October, 2023 European Parliament published the names of the finalists of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. For more on this and other awards, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/BDE3E41A-8706-42F1-A6C5-ECBBC4CDB449. The finalists were chosen in a vote by the foreign affairs and development committees on 12 October.

The 2023 Sakharov Prize finalists are:

  • 19 October: Parliament President Roberta Metsola and the political group leaders decide on the winner  
  • 13 December: the Sakharov Prize award ceremony takes place in Strasbourg.

2023 Sakharov Prize: finalists chosen

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Finally recognition for Turkish human rights defender Osman Kavala

October 12, 2023
2023 Václav Havel Prize awarded to imprisoned Turkish human rights defender Osman Kavala

The eleventh Václav Havel Human Rights Prize has been awarded to imprisoned Turkish human rights defender, philanthropist and civil society activist Osman Kavala.

The 60,000-euro prize was presented at a special ceremony on the opening day of the autumn plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg on 9 October 2023. For more on the award and its laureates, see https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/7A8B4A4A-0521-AA58-2BF0-DD1B71A25C8D

Mr Kavala, a supporter of numerous civil society organisations in Türkiye for many years, has been in prison continuously since 2017 following his arrest for his alleged links to the Gezi Park protests.

In a 2019 ruling, the European Court of Human Rights ordered his immediate release, finding his detention violated his rights and pursued an ulterior purpose, “namely to reduce him to silence as a human rights defender”, and could dissuade other human rights defenders. In 2022 the Court’s Grand Chamber confirmed that Türkiye has failed to fulfil its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2022/07/27/kavala-ruling-of-european-court-of-human-rights-infringement-procedure-against-turkey/]

In a letter written from prison, read out by his wife Ayşe, Mr Kavala said he was honoured by the decision, and dedicated the Prize to his fellow citizens unlawfully kept in prison. He said the award reminded him of the words of Václav Havel, writing to his wife Olga from prison in 1980: “The most important thing of all is not to lose hope. This does not mean closing one’s eyes to the horrors of the world. In fact, only those who have not lost faith and hope can see the horrors of the world with genuine clarity.”

Responding to the awarding of the 2023 Václav Havel Prize to Turkish prisoner of conscience, Osman Kavala, by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe, Dinushika Dissanayake, said:

“While we celebrate the fact that Osman Kavala has been recognised with this top human rights award, the fact that he cannot be in Strasbourg to collect it in person is heartbreaking. Instead, having already been in jail for almost six years, he is languishing behind bars in Türkiye on a politically-motivated life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Rather predictably: in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said it was unacceptable for the CoE to award a “so-called” human rights prize to a convict, whose verdict of conviction was approved by one of Türkiye’s top courts.

A group of nine nongovernmental organizations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said the prosecution of rights defender and businessman Osman Kavala and four codefendants in connection with mass protests a decade ago was unfair and essentially a political show trial from the beginning, calling for an urgent international response.

Rights groups say conviction of Kavala, 4 others requires urgent int’l response

[https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/diplomacy/turkiye-slams-coe-for-awarding-convict-with-human-rights-prize]

https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/2023-v%C3%A1clav-havel-prize-awarded-to-imprisoned-turkish-human-rights-defender-osman-kavala

PACE urges Turkey to uphold Strasbourg court rulings, release Osman Kavala

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Jailed Iranian human rights defender Narges Mohammadi wins Nobel Peace Prize 2023

October 6, 2023

On 6 October, 2023, it was announced that imprisoned HRD Narges Mohammadi, who has campaigned for women’s rights, democracy and against the death penalty in Iran for years, has won the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

Mohammadi, 51, 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 [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/07C20809-99E2-BDC0-FDC3-E217FF91C126], but no media outlets got it right.

“This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran with with its undisputed leader, Nargis Mohammadi,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who announced the prize in Oslo.

Mohammadi’s most recent incarceration began when she was detained in 2021 after she attended a memorial for a person killed in nationwide 2019 protests sparked by an increase in gasoline prices. She’s been held at Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, whose inmates include those with Western ties and political prisoners. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/09/30/iran-shameful-sentences-for-narges-mohammadi-issa-saharkhiz-arash-sadeghi-no-detente-in-human-rights/

Reiss-Andersen said Mohammadi has been imprisoned 13 times and convicted five times. In total, she has been sentenced to 31 years in prison.

She is the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian woman, after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi won the award in 2003. [see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/laureates/DCF78E6F-7015-4794-B6D9-1192BB84568C]

From behind bars, Mohammadi contributed an opinion piece for The New York Times. “What the government may not understand is that the more of us they lock up, the stronger we become,” she wrote.

https://apnews.com/article/nobel-peace-prize-oslo-776ca1bcf0fde827ad90af8a069907eb

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-06/nobel-peace-prize-2023-awarded-to-narges-mohammadi/102946290

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/2023-nobel-peace-prize-1.6984334

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/06/middleeast/iran-narges-mohammadi-womens-rights-mime-intl-cmd/index.html

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/narges-mohammadi

https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2023-10-06/un-expert-iran-is-unlawfully-detaining-human-rights-activists-including-new-nobel-peace-laureate

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231007-nobel-winner-mohammadi-celebrates-prize-in-her-cell-family

and of course: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202310071010,

“The worthiest symbol of world peace was Qassem Soleimani,” declared the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic. Soleimani was a notorious military and intelligence operative who created and nursed various militant groups in the Middle East until he was killed in a US drone strike in 2020.

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Violinist Gidon Kremer to receive the Beethoven Prize for Human Rights

October 4, 2023

The 2023 Beethoven Prize for human rights has been awarded to the Latvian violinist and ensemble leader Gidon Kremer. Kremer, 76, has been outspoken in his opposition to Russia’s wars of aggression in Chechnya and Ukraine. He has also played in jails and other places of despair.

The award will be presented to Kremer in an award ceremony and concert held in Bonn, Germany, on November 19, 2023.

For decades, Kremer, 76, has long held concerts and made statements against political grievances and injustice. He has organized concerts for Ukraine, a concert in Moscow for the victims of the Chechen war, and collaborated with theater director Kirill Serebrennikov, who was persecuted in Russia.

Further, his Gidon Kremer Foundation promotes emerging artists through instrument loans, scholarships, and performance opportunities, as well as supports the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica, which he founded in 1997, in bringing performances to socially disadvantaged people and hosting concerts in developing countries.

For more on this award, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/c05408e0-e598-11e7-a009-858a33846a9e

“I try to set my independent judgments to music every now and then, whether with the violin or with words, whether with a letter or a gesture — it’s important to me, to ensure justice,” he said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk Kultur in 2021.

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