share information on human rights defenders, with special focus on human rights awards and laureates
has announced that the finalists for its 2016 award are human rights defenders from Azerbaijan, Burma/Myanmar, Colombia, Honduras, Palestine, and Tanzania. For more information on the annual Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk: http://www.brandsaviors.com/thedigest/award/front-line-defenders-award.
The 6 finalists for 2016 are Read the rest of this entry »
Every year, the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award celebrates individuals and groups who speak out for justice. The 2016, award will be shared between world-renowned musician Angélique Kidjo from Benin and three African youth activist groups: Y’en a marre from Senegal, Le Balai Citoyen from Burkina Faso and LUCHA from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Angélique Kidjo. Credit: Pierre Marie Ziimmerman.Grammy-winning artist Kidjo fled her homeland Benin in the 1980s after being pressured to perform for the country’s repressive regime. In a 40-year-career spawning 12 albums, she has been a prominent campaigner for freedom of expression and for the education of girls in Africa, as well as against female genital mutilation.
The New-York based Human Rights Foundation announced on 5 May 2016 that the laureates of the 2016 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent are:
Six environmental activists from around the world received the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize at a ceremony in San Francisco on 18 April 2016. This prize does not always go to human rights defenders in the traditional sense of the word, but several well-known ones are among the recipients such as the recently killed Berta Carceres [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/exceptional-response-from-ngo-world-on-killing-of-berta-caceres/]. This year’s winners are: Read the rest of this entry »
The UN Refugee Agency is inviting further nominations for the Nansen Refugee Award 2016 until 25 April 2016. For more information on this humanitarian award for an individual or group who has gone beyond the call of duty to assist refugees, internally displaced or stateless persons, see: http://www.brandsaviors.com/thedigest/award/nansen-medal.
Nominations made during this additional period will join nominations from the previous round which closed on 8 February 2016. The winner will be announced in September 2016. Anyone can submit a candidate for the Nansen Refugee Award at www.unhcr.org/nansen.
Source: UNHCR – UNHCR reopens Nansen Refugee Award nominations for 2016
for last year see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/nansen-refugee-award-to-afghan-refugee-teacher/
Human Rights First announced that nominations are now open for the 2016 Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty Award. The 2016 award will go to an individual or organization outside of the United States who has demonstrated an exceptional commitment to human rights advocacy in areas such as human trafficking, religious freedom, LGBT rights, refugee protection, and defense of civil society, among others. The winner will be selected by a distinguished jury and will receive a trip to the United States to engage in advocacy and a $25,000 prize. Nominations at http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/call-nominations-2016-roger-n-baldwin-medal-liberty-award are due by 10 March 2016. 
For more information on the award: http://www.brandsaviors.com/thedigest/award/roger-n-baldwin-medal-liberty. For further questions about the award or the nomination process, please contact Rebecca Sheff at sheffr@humanrightsfirst.org or (202) 888-7599.
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One Month Until 1 March Nomination Deadline
Just one month remains to nominate candidates for the 2016 Right Livelihood Awards. Deadline: 1 March 2016!
For more on the award see: http://www.brandsaviors.com/thedigest/award/right-livelihood-awards and/or check out the video to learn more. Anyone – excluding Right Livelihood Award Jury and staff members – can propose anyone (individuals or organisations), apart from themselves, close relatives or their own organisations to be considered for a Right Livelihood Award. Proposals must not be publicised, except to the candidate and possible referees. Read more about the nomination requirements and procedures.
for earlier posts on this award: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/right-livelihood-award/
Calls of nomination for two major human rights awards are now open:
The 
Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk was established in 2005. The Award seeks to focus international attention on the human rights defender’s work, thus contributing to the recipient’s personal security, and a cash prize of Euro 15,000 is awarded to the Award recipient and his/her organisation in an effort to support the continuation of this important work. If you would like to nominate a human rights defender for the Twelfth Annual Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk (2016), please click on the following link to access a secure online nomination form: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/secure/nomination.php (English). Age deadline is Friday 19 February 2016.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in partnership with the Vaclav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation, has today issued a call for nominations for the 2016 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, which will be awarded on 10 October in Strasbourg. The Prize aims to reward outstanding civil society action in defending human rights in Europe and beyond. Candidates should have made a real difference to the human rights situation of a given group, been instrumental in uncovering systemic violations on a large scale, or have successfully mobilised public opinion or the international community for a given cause. The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize consists of a sum of €60,000. The deadline is 30 April 2016. More details can be found at http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/News/News-View-EN.asp?newsid=5976&lang=2&cat=37.
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For more on these and other awards see True Heroes’ awards Digest:
http://www.brandsaviors.com/thedigest/award/front-line-defenders-award
http://www.brandsaviors.com/thedigest/award/václav-havel-prize-human-rights
On 7 January 2016 it was announced that Israeli journalist Gideon Levy and Palestinian pastor Mitri Raheb have won the 2015 Olof Palme human rights prize. Levy, a journalist at the left-leaning Israeli daily Haaretz, and Raheb, a preacher and pastor in the Lutheran church in Bethlehem, were honoured for their “courageous and indefatigable fight against occupation and violence, and for a future Middle East characterised by peaceful coexistence and equality for all,” the Olof Palme Memorial Fund said in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »
The Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, whose flogging sentence caused a global outcry, is awarded the 2015 Sakharov human rights prize. Mr Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes in Saudi Arabia for “insulting Islam”[https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/the-middle-ages-are-back-10-years-prison-1000-lashes-for-saudi-human-rights-defender/].
European Parliament President Martin Schulz urged Saudi King Salman “to free him, so he can accept the prize“. Mr Badawi’s wife Ensaf Haidar, now living Canada with their children, told AFP news agency that award was a “message of hope and courage”.
For more on the prize: http://www.brandsaviors.com/thedigest/award/sakharov-prize-freedom-thought.
[Earlier this year Badawi also won the Pen Pinter Prize and the Moral Courage Award].
Badawi was one of three nominees for this year’s prize along with assassinated Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and the Venezuelan opposition movement Mesa de la Unidad Democratica.
Source: Saudi blogger Raif Badawi awarded Sakharov human rights prize – BBC News
On 7 October, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights announced that Ms. Natalia Taubina, a leading human rights defender from Russia, has been selected as the laureate of the 2015 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, now in its 32nd year. “..I know my father would be proud of her work” said Kerry Kennedy, President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. “This award is not just a recognition, it is an opportunity to work hand in hand with human rights defenders to protect the rights and freedoms of the Russian people.”
Natalia is the Director of the Public Verdict Foundation in Russia and is being recognized for her work to hold law enforcement agents accountable for human rights violations and support victims of torture in Russia. The Public Verdict Foundation litigates on behalf of citizens wrongfully arrested, beaten, tortured, and illegally detained by police. In 2014, the Russian government categorized the foundation as a “foreign agent”to publicly invalidate, shame, and render inoperable organizations with international ties. Natalia’s organization has resolutely fought this label in court and is committed to protecting human rights despite the government’s attempt to shut down civil society groups.
“This recognition of our work is especially important today when civil society in Russia is under unprecedented pressure. The climate in which we now operate is hostile like never before. But victims of abuse in Russia need us, and we are not going to abandon them” said Natalia Taubina.
Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy will present Natalia with the 2015 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in Washington, D.C., in a ceremony on 19 November.
About the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award see their website or http://www.brandsaviors.com/thedigest/award/robert-f-kennedy-human-rights-award
For more info: cronin@rfkhumanrights.org
Source: | Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 