2022 Hrant Dink Award granted to Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, Shaharzad Akbar

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This year's International Hrant Dink Award has been granted to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV/HRFT) and Shaharzad Akbar, a human rights advocate from Afghanistan.

The award ceremony was held yesterday evening (September 15) at the 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory in İstanbul, and was broadcast online.

The HRFT received the award because of its "invaluable contribution to the building of a world free from torture and ill-treatment, and the protection of human dignity," the foundation said in a statement.

And Akbar was granted the award for his struggle against gender discrimination and efforts to mobilize the international community, it added.

The award named after the journalist assassinated in 2007 was granted for the first time in 2009.

"Keep the little flame alive"

Albie Sachs, a lawyer and human rights activist from South Africa, who was the keynote speaker of the ceremony, said, "These award ceremonies are not simply to single out individuals who have done something special and notable in respect of human rights, it is to keep alive that little flame that burns so brightly in the deepest darkness."

Speaking on behalf of the TİHV, Metin Bakkalcı said, "We are strengthening our work with the aim of creating an environment where torture and other gross/serious human rights violations, which is our special field of work, will come to an end.

"Our main goal is to realise the dream of a world without torture and to create an environment where there is no need for institutions like ours and thus to end our own existence."

Call for solidarity

In her acceptance speech, laureate Shaharzad Akbar said, "We are also calling on the global feminist movement and the human rights movement, to stand in solidarity with the Afghan people. To not normalize Taliban's misogyny... To amplify the voices and demands of the Afghan women on the ground for "bread, work, freedom" and the full range of their human rights..."

"Inspirations"

The "Inspirations," which salutes people and organizations in Türkiye and around the world who inspire humanity with their actions, who take risks and forge new paths, was screened at the ceremony.

This year's Inspirations include individuals and initiatives from Mexico to Afghanistan, from the US to Poland, from Russia to Brazil, who inspire people and humanity with their actions on numerous issues such as human rights, sexism, economic inequality, the climate crisis and war.

Previous laureates

The International Hrant Dink Award was previously presented to investigative journalist Maria Ressa, women's rights activist and lawyer Canan Arın in 2021; human rights activist Osman Kavala and women's rights activist Mozn Hassan in 2020; Nebahat Akkoç, the founder of KAMER, who has been working to raise awareness about women's human rights for many years, and Agnes Kharshiing, who has been fighting for the rights and environmental rights of the poor, women, children and disadvantaged people in the region where she lives in India in 2019, human rights defender Murat Çelikkan and human rights organizations Mwatana were awarded in 2018; lawyer Eren Keskin who is bringing human rights violations to the agenda of both Turkey and international community by taking all the risks for years, and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who draws attention to the inequalities and human rights violations all over the world in 2017; Theresa Kachindamoto, chief of the tribe working on children's human rights and education rights in Malawi, and to the Diyarbakır Bar Association fighting for human rights and the rule of law in 2016; women's rights advocate Samar Badawi from Saudi Arabia, and KAOS GL fighting for LGBT rights and equality in Turkey 2015; Şebnem Korur Fincancı, forensic expert and human rights advocate, and activist Angie Zelter 2014; to human rights advocate Nataša Kandić and Turkey's longest continuing act of civil disobedience who are searching for their lost loved ones Saturday Mothers / People 2013; writer İsmail Beşikçi and human rights organization International 'Memorial' Community in 2012, journalist, writer Ahmet Altan and journalist, human rights defender Lydia Cacho in 2011; Turkey Conscientious Objection Movement and jurist Baltasar Garzón in 2010; journalist-writer Alper Görmüş, and journalist-writer Amira Hass in 2009.

(EMK/VK)