The United Nations Prizes in the Field of Human Rights were instituted by United Nations General Assembly in 1966. They are intended to "honour and commend people and organizations which have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in other United Nations human rights instruments".
Irwin Cotler, PC, OC, OQ is a retired Canadian politician who was Member of Parliament for Mount Royal from 1999 to 2015. He served as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 until the Liberal government of Paul Martin lost power following the 2006 federal election. He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a by-election in November 1999, winning 92% of votes cast.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists—including senior judges, attorneys and academics—who work to develop national and international human rights standards through the law. Commissioners are known for their experience, knowledge and fundamental commitment to human rights. The composition of the Commission aims to reflect the geographical diversity of the world and its many legal systems.
Suzanne Mubarak is the widow of Egyptian former president Hosni Mubarak and was the First Lady of Egypt during her husband's presidential tenure from 14 October 1981 to 11 February 2011. She has served as Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, and founded the Cairo Child Museum in collaboration with the British Museum. Born to an Egyptian father and a British mother, she is a sociologist by education.
Khaled Abou el Fadl is the Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law where he has taught courses on International Human Rights, Islamic jurisprudence, National Security Law, Law and Terrorism, Islam and Human Rights, Political Asylum, and Political Crimes and Legal Systems. He is also the founder of the Usuli Institute, a non-profit public charity dedicated to research and education to promote humanistic interpretations of Islam, as well as the Chair of the Islamic Studies Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has lectured on and taught Islamic law in the United States and Europe in academic and non-academic environments since approximately 1990.
Sri Lankabhimanya Christopher Gregory Weeramantry, AM was a Sri Lankan lawyer who was a Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from 1991 to 2000, serving as its vice-president from 1997 to 2000. Weeramantry was a judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka from 1967 to 1972. He also served as an emeritus professor at Monash University and as the president of the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms.
The UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights, created in 1978 as the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education to mark the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, serves to honour the efforts of organizations or individuals that have made an exemplary contribution to the advancement of knowledge on human rights and building a universal culture of human rights. It was renamed on 5 May 2008 under the terms of a memorandum of understanding with Mayor of Bilbao Iñaki Azkuna whereby the municipality of Bilbao agreed to fund the prize for a period of three years.
The UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy recognizes the activities of outstanding individuals, governments or governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in literacy serving rural adults and out-of-school youth, particularly women and girls. The Prize was established in 2005 through the support of the Government of the People's Republic of China in honour of the great Chinese scholar Confucius. It is part of the International Literacy Prizes, which UNESCO awards every year in recognition of excellence and inspiring experiences in the field of literacy throughout the world. The Confucius Prize offers two awards of US$20,000 each, a medal and a diploma, as well as a study visit to literacy project sites in China.
The Freedom to Create Prize was established in 2008 to foster prosperity in the developing world by investing in the creative foundations of society. The Freedom to Create Prize was awarded from 2008 to 2011 to support and recognise artists who strive for social change in places where there is no "freedom to create".
The main blasphemy law in Egypt is Article 98(f) of the Egyptian Penal Code. It penalizes: "whoever exploits and uses the religion in advocating and propagating by talk or in writing, or by any other method, extremist thoughts with the aim of instigating sedition and division or disdaining and contempting any of the heavenly religions or the sects belonging thereto, or prejudicing national unity or social peace."
Frank La Rue is a Guatemalan labor and human rights law expert and served as UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, from August 2008 to August 2014. Along with American Human Rights attorneys, Anna Gallagher and Wallie Mason, Mr. La Rue is the founder of the Center for Legal Action for Human Rights (CALDH) and has been involved in the promotion of human rights for over 25 years. He was nominated for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize by Mairead Corrigan, Northern Irish peace activist and 1976 laureate. Mr La Rue was previously the Executive Director of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Europe. He has also served as Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO.
Mahienour El-Masry is an Egyptian human rights lawyer and political activist from Alexandria, who has been engaged on the activist scene in the coastal city since the mid 2000s, and was arrested on 22 September 2019. El-Masry was released in July 2021.
University of Oslo's Human Rights Award honours individuals who have made important contributions in different fields. The award was launched in 1986 and since then, it is awarded every year to notable people from different walks of life. Those years when the award was not distributed are 1997, 1999, 2003, and 2004.
Wang Yu is a Chinese human rights lawyer. She was arrested by Chinese authorities in 2015 when China initiated the 709 Crackdown against human rights attorneys. She was charged with inciting subversion of state power which is a serious offense in China carrying a life sentence. She was awarded an International Women of Courage Award in 2021.
Sara Hossain is a leading Bangladeshi lawyer. She is a barrister in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. Hossain is the honorary executive director of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), a major legal aid provider. Hossain has been at the forefront of advocating for women's rights in Bangladeshi courts and played a key role in drafting legal reforms to protect women. She was the plaintiff's lawyer in the landmark case of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLW) v. Bangladesh, in which the Supreme Court supported the judicial practice of referring to international human rights law in the absence of domestic legislation. She is known for her role in challenging fatwa violence when a fatwa is issued to mete out punishment to women and girls. Hossain co-edited 'Honour': Crimes, Paradigms and Violence Against Women with Lynn Welchman.
Mahmoud Abu Zeid, also known as Shawkan, an Egyptian photojournalist, was arrested for taking photos of the Rabaa massacre in Cairo, Egypt and imprisoned during the post-coup unrest by the Egyptian government since 2013, where he faced the death penalty. By September 2018 he had been sentenced to a five-year prison term and was expected to be released shortly thereafter; he was released on 4 March 2019.
Deirdre Frances O'Connor is an Australian lawyer, academic, former Judge of the Federal Court, President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and President of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.
Aliaa R. Rafea is an Egyptian writer, spiritual activist, and professor of Sociology at Faculty of Women for Arts at Ain Shams University. She is the founder and president of the Human Foundation.
Dr. Aly Sadek Abou-Heif Giving a speech on the occasion of the ceremony for the award of the 1981 Unesco Prize for the Teaching of Human Rights
Dr. Abou-Heif receiving the 1981 Unesco Prize for the Teaching of Human Rights
