Finalists for 2013 Front Line Defenders Award for human rights defenders at risk

The selection of the finalists for the 2013 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk has now taken place and the overall winner will be chosen by an independent jury of cross-party Ministers, Parliamentarians and Members of the European Parliament. Having read the 90 nominations- and seen the quality and dedicated commitment of the human rights defenders – it is clear that so many would be a worthy finalist or winner and how impossible the task for the decision makers is. To all who were nominated, let me say on behalf or Front Line Defenders how much you inspire us and how much we value your unrelenting work for the rights of others. If you need support at any time, please contact us.

The finalists are:-

Bahtiyor Hamraev, the head of the Djizak regional branch of the Human Rights Society of Uzbekistan has been a dedicated human rights defender for the last 15 years. Despite being attacked and threatened many times and despite the arrest of his son to punish his father for his human rights work, Bahtiyor has refused to leave the country and tried to make a difference in one of the worst human rights situations in the region. He is an outstandingly brave and principled human being. Sadly, Hamraev is suffering from terminal cancer, yet he continues to steadfastly carry out his work.

71 year old Mam Sonando has devoted his life to helping the poor and disenfranchised of Cambodia,fighting for their rights. He is a journalist and the Director of one of only three independent radio stations in Cambodia. Sonando was arrested and imprisoned in early July 2012, shortly after he returned to Cambodia from a trip abroad. Even though he knew he would be arrested and detained, he returned voluntarily to answer to the charges against him and to protest his innocence. Despite there being absolutely no evidence he was found guilty on 1 October 2012 and sentenced to 20 years

Biram Dah Ould Abeid has been threatened, defamed and harassed because of his work for human rights and against slavery in Mauritania. He has been arrested and ill-treated on several occasions and in April 2012 he was “disappeared” for several weeks into a secret, high-security government facility, without being able to contact to his family and without any legal assistance. It is believed he would have been killed but for the international outcry. He was released in September 2012 but has chosen to continue his work inside Mauritania.

Mansoureh Behkish of Iran, is co-founder of Mothers of Khavaran and Mothers of Laleh Park. She has faced continuous harassment, confiscation of her passport and violation of her right to travel, three terms of imprisonment and the execution or forced disappearance of her sister, brother-in-law and four brothers. As a HRD for over 3 decades, she seeks to help the mothers, sisters and wives of the thousands imprisoned or executed by the Islamic Republic authorities, seek justice through legal and humanitarian channels.

Ruth Mumbi is a passionate community mobiliser, and is the founder and current National Coordinator of Bunge la Wamama, a movement that conducts strong advocacy and campaigning on issues of social justice and accountability in different parts of Kenya and in particular women’s rights. She was born and still lives in Kiamaiko, a Nairobi slum and she began her involvement in community mobilisation initiatives in the late 1990s, when she was barely 16 years of age. She has been humiliated, intimidated, arrested and subjected to death threats but continues undeterred and unpaid as a volunteer.

David Rabelo Crespo from CREDHOS, Colombia has worked for 35 years in the defence of human rights. He has worked for the poorest people to have equal access and opportunities;the rights of farm workers who were being evicted off their land and worker’s rights. He has defended the lives of others in neighbourhoods stigmatised by armed incidents. David Rabelo Crespo has been stigmatised, subjected to death threats and 4 assasination attempts. He is serving a sentence of 18 years and 3 months after an unfair trial in which no credible evidence was presented against him.

The name of the winner of the 2013 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk will be announced at a ceremony in Dublin later in the year.

https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/21487