Award

This year’s Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award goes to Mariia Sulialina, head of the Ukrainian human rights organisation Almenda. She gives voice to the Ukrainian children in the occupied t...

The influential Venezuelan legal organisation Foro Penal has been awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2023. Thanks to their tireless work, thousands of arbitrarily detained protesters,...

LGBTI+ activists and human rights defenders Frank Mugisha from Uganda and Xheni Karaj from Albania are awarded the Civil Rights Defenders of the Year Award 2022.  Despite threats, harassment, and...

The Russian human rights and media project OVD-Info is awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2021. OVD-Info is a lifeline for the thousands of people who suffer from political perse...

Human rights defender and democracy activist Naw Ohn Hla has been awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2020. She is a leading voice for human rights in Burma – a country where the milit...

Hungarian human rights lawyer Márta Pardavi has been awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2019. As an outspoken critic of the Hungarian government and its policies, Márta is often smear...

Turkish human rights defender Murat Çelikkan has been awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2018. Murat Çelikkan is a journalist by profession, and one of the most tenacious voices for h...

Human rights defender Edmund Yakani from South Sudan is the recipient of the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2017. Despite the many risks to his own security, he continues to strive to ensure ...

Human rights lawyer Intigam Aliyev is the Civil Rights Defender of the Year 2016. Recently released from prison, he is one of several human rights defenders in Azerbaijan who has been detained for the...

Vietnamese blogger and human rights defender Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh is the 2015 Civil Rights Defender of the Year. She is Coordinator for the Vietnamese Bloggers Network and well known for her use of s...