2024 Human Rights Defender Award Recipients Announced

Today, the U.S. Department of State announced the winners of the Secretary of State's Human Rights Defender Award. The award honors eight courageous individuals promoting and defending human rights and fundamental freedoms around the world. The awardees have demonstrated leadership, courage, and impact in their work. Among them are advocates for transparency and accountability, the rights of members of vulnerable communities and marginalized populations, the release of individuals unjustly detained, and labor rights. Each award recipient is a testament to the bravery and tenacity of human rights defenders throughout the world, who often do this work at great personal risk. Notably, one of this year's honorees, Rufat Safarov of Azerbaijan, was unjustly detained by Azerbaijani authorities on December 3, 2024, and remains in detention. We call for his immediate release.

Earlier today, the U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken hosted a ceremony in partnership with the McCain Institute to recognize the awardees, shedding light on their inspiring stories and the critical work they continue to pursue against great odds.

The 2024 awardees are:

Mary Ann Abunda (Kuwait)

Mary Ann Abunda is an advocate for the rights of migrant workers in Kuwait. As a victim of migrant worker abuse and exploitation herself, Ms. Abunda has led grassroots advocacy campaigns and helped to establish networks and resources for migrant workers, including access to legal aid, counseling and shelter. Through work with government and civil society stakeholders, Ms. Abunda played a key role in the passage of the 2015 Domestic Workers' Law and the development of best practices and networks for migrant workers globally.

Amparo Carvajal (Bolivia)

Amparo Carvajal has been a human rights defender in Bolivia for more than 50 years and is the co-founder and president of the Permanent Human Rights Assembly of Bolivia (APDHB). Ms. Carvajal, who was born in Spain, arrived in Bolivia in 1971, and founded APDHB in 1976 as a volunteer organization to monitor and advocate for human rights under the dictatorship of Hugo Banzer. Under her leadership, APDHB continues to provide support and pro-bono services to victims and survivors of human rights violations and their families. Following the raid and occupation of APDHB headquarters in June 2023, Ms. Carvajal, spent 51 days in vigil outside the building in protest. Despite her age (85) and health condition, she continues to fight for the defense and promotion of human rights in Bolivia.

Aida Dzhumanazarova (Kyrgyz Republic)

Aida Dzhumanazarova is the country director and legal consultant for the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) in the Kyrgyz Republic. With a career spanning over a decade, she has been instrumental in promoting an enabling environment and empowering civil society in her country. Since she joined ICNL in 2011, Ms. Dzhumanazarova has provided technical assistance in drafting enabling laws and provided educational and legal support to civil society organizations (CSOs) in the country. She contributed to many advocacy campaigns against the deterioration of the legal environment for CSOs in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Mang Hre Lian (Burma)

Mang Hre Lian has spent his career working to promote human rights, religious freedom, media freedom and youth political participation in Burma. As program manager, he has led various projects within the Chin Human Rights Organization, the only locally led human rights organization from Burma with United Nations Economic and Social Council Special Consultative Status, including election monitoring, human rights documentation, awareness promotion and outreach. In 2008, Mr. Lian founded what later became the Chin Media Network to provide training and support to journalists and media organizations in western Burma.

Thulani Maseko (Eswatini) (Posthumous)

Thulani Maseko was a lawyer and an advocate for civil rights and a peaceful democratic transition in Eswatini. He was murdered by an unknown assailant in 2023. Mr. Maseko spent his career advocating for democracy and human rights, including serving as the head of the Swaziland Student Representative Council and founding the Lawyers for Human Rights Association. Maseko was a State Department Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow in 2010, receiving a master's degree in international legal studies from American University. As an attorney, he also defended the president of the People's United Democratic Movement in 2008, successfully sued the government to enforce provisions of the 2005 constitution guaranteeing a right to free education and brought suit challenging the constitutionality of King Mswati III's unilateral decision to change the country's name from Swaziland to Eswatini. Mr. Maseko was convicted of sedition in 2014 for an article criticizing the government's lack of adherence to the rule of law. In the wake of Eswatini's 2021 civil unrest, he founded the Multi-Stakeholders Forum to coordinate a peaceful engagement between civil society and the government of Eswatini, calling for an inclusive national dialogue on the reform of Eswatini's political system.

Ebenezer Peegah (Ghana)

Ebenezer Peegah is a dedicated human rights activist and pioneer for LGBTQI+ equality in Ghana. He is the founder and Executive Director of Rightify Ghana, an NGO dedicated to advancing the rights of sexual and gender minorities. Mr. Peegah has been at the forefront of numerous advocacy campaigns. He has briefed Parliamentary committees on anti-LGBTQI+ violence and worked closely with civil society organizations throughout the country to implement support mechanisms for at-risk members of the community.

Juana Ruiz (Colombia)

Juana Alicia Ruiz is an artist, teacher, social leader, and head of ASVIDAS, an organization dedicated to advocating for survivors of gender-based violence in Colombia. Following paramilitary killings in her home village of Mampujan in 2000, Ms. Ruiz founded ASVIDAS in 2003 as an outgrowth of a local quilting group, which she and others in her community used to reconstruct events. She also founded the Museum of Art and Memory of Mampujan to acknowledge and commemorate the violence and displacement her community faced. Based on Ruiz's advocacy, in 2010 a Colombian court recognized the culpability of government-affiliated paramilitaries.

Rufat Safarov (Azerbaijan)

Rufat Safarov is the head of Defense Line, a civil society organization that documents and reports on politically motivated arrests and prosecutions, government corruption, and allegations of torture. He is one of the few full-time human rights defenders in Azerbaijan. In 2016, shortly after raising concerns about Azerbaijan's justice system and resigning from his position at the Prosecutor General's Office, Mr. Safarov was arrested and served three years of a nine-year sentence. He was pardoned in 2019, but later arrested again for one month for participating in a demonstration. Mr. Safarov holds a master's degree in law from Baku State University.

For questions on the Secretary of State's Human Rights Defender Award, please contact [email protected].

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