On Friday 26 October 2018 the President of the UN General Assembly announced – in a rather summary and informal tweet:
“Today I announced the 2018 winners of the @UN Human Rights Prize. I am proud to recognise the contributions of individuals & organizations that promote & protect human rights @RebecaGyumi @Asma_Jahangir Joênia Wapichana @FrontLineHRD Your work is an inspiration to us all #UN4ALL“.
This is the tenth time that these awards were since the prize was established in 1968, coinciding this year with the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 20th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. For more on this award: http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/united-nations-prizes-in-the-field-of-human-rights
It is probably for that reason that one of the winners is the outstanding Ireland based NGO Front Line Defenders (regularly quoted in the blog, see e.g. https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/front-line-ngo/). The Director Andrew Anderson promptly replies with: “Profoundly honoured that @FrontLineHRD has been named as one of 4 winners of the UN Human Rights Prize. We dedicate this to the courageous & dedicated human rights defenders we work to support.”
Three other winners of the prize are
- Brazilian Joênia Wapichana (officially Joênia Batista de Carvalho) the first indigenous lawyer in Brazil and a member of the Wapixana tribe of northern Brazil. After taking a land dispute to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Wapixana (or Wapichana) became the first indigenous lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court of Brazil. She is the current president of the National Commission for the Defense of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She was elected federal deputy for Sustainability Network representing the state of Roraima, in the 2018 general election.
- (posthumously) Ms Asma Jahangir from Pakistan [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2018/02/11/asma-jahangir-one-of-the-worlds-most-outstanding-human-rights-defenders-dies-at-age-66/]
- Tanzanian Rebeca Gyumi, who is the director and founder of the Msichana Initiative. The organisation advocates for the rights of women and girls, claiming that the persistence of child marriage is a threat to an already vulnerable group in society. In that context see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/tag/girls-not-brides/
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https://www.newstalk.com/Irish-organisation-wins-United-Nations-Human-Rights-Prize
https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/high-court-tanzania-child-marriage/
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 