Human Rights Awards(PHOTO/Defenders Coalition)
Do you know a human rights defender who is helping people and deserves recognition?
A coalition of human rights organisations has opened nominations for this year’s Human Rights Defender Award for outstanding rights activists. Launched in 2016, the award will be presented in November or December.
The honours are presented in five categories: Upcoming Human Rights Defender of the Year, Human Rights Defender of the Year Award, Munir Mazrui Lifetime Achievement Award, Global Solidarity Award and the Popular Vote Award.
The award spotlights courageous individuals who, often at great personal risk, stand up for the rights of others.
The award is organised by the Working Group on Human Rights Defenders, a network of diplomatic missions and civil society organisations concerned with protecting human rights defenders (HRDs) and Kenya’s broader human rights landscape in Kenya. The Defenders Coalition remains the main anchor of the process and the award.
The award is especially timely when young activists — particularly from Gen Z — are rising up to demand better governance, police accountability, and an end to abuse of public resources.
Many of these voices are met with violent repression: brutal crackdowns, enforced disappearances, and life-altering injuries sustained during protests.
For them, recognition isn’t about prestige — it’s about protection, legitimacy, and encouragement to keep going.
The Working Group on HRDs convenes every two months to share information, coordinate and, when needed, decide on joint action related to the protection of HRDs and their working environment.
The Working Group on HRDs has two co-chairs — Defenders Coalition as the permanent chair and a rotational co-chair from the foreign missions.
The award honours the work of HRDs in promoting and protecting human rights, highlighting their work and their challenges and encourages Kenya’s up-and-coming HRDs. The award also aims to enhance the safety and protection of all HRDs by raising their profile and emphasising the importance of their work.
The Defenders Coalition says the award is critical at a time when human rights activists face enhanced, surveillance and trumped-up charges and need a higher profile and more safety.
“Advocating for the respect of Human Rights is a high-risk undertaking. Groups and individuals walking this road are often the targets for reprisals by authorities and private groups who use different forms of repression to silence them.
In awarding the ultimate outstanding activist, the panel looks for someone whose work has demonstrable impact on the community, as well as someone who consistently promotes human rights, especially those of marginalised and vulnerable groups.
The ceremony is attended by human rights defenders, CSOs, the UN, government agencies, representatives from international missions and the media covering the event.
