The Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize, or Ludovic Trarieux Award, is an international human rights award given annually to a lawyer for contributions to the defence of human rights.
The Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize, or Ludovic Trarieux Award, is an international human rights award given annually to a lawyer for contributions to the defence of human rights.
The Prize was inaugurated in Bordeaux in 1984 by French lawyer Bertrand Favreau, to recognise lawyers of any Bar or nationality whose work furthered the defence of human rights, the supremacy of law, or resistance to intolerance and racism. The prize is awarded after consultation with international NGOs and humanitarian organizations. It commemorates the memory of the French lawyer, Ludovic Trarieux (1840–1904), who in the midst of the Dreyfus Affair, in France, in 1898, founded the Ligue des droits de l'homme (LDH), "Human Rights League"). The first prize was awarded, on 29 March 1985, to South African leader Nelson Mandela, during his imprisonment. His daughter, Zenani Mandela Dlamini, received the award on Mandela's behalf on 27 April 1985. It was the first award given to Mandela in France, and the first internationally to have been awarded to him by lawyers.
Since 2003, the Prize has been awarded jointly by several institutions: the Human Rights Institute of The Bar of Bordeaux, the Human Rights Institute of the Bar of Paris, the Human Rights Institute of The Bar of Brussels, l'Unione forense per la tutela dei diritti dell'uomo (from Rome), the Bar of Amsterdam, Geneva and Luxemburg, the Berlin Bar Association, the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) and the European Bar Human Rights Institute (IDHAE), an organization representing human rights lawyers across Europe.
During the last decades, the Prize was presented by Robert Badinter (1998), Guy Canivet (2002), Dean Spielmann (2006), Emma Bonino (2008), Viviane Reding (2011, etc. The 17th Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize 2012 was awarded to Muharrem Erbey (Turkey, in jail since December 2009, and presented to his wife, Burçin Erbey, in Berlin by German minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger on 30 November 2012. [1]
The 18th Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize 2013 was presented to Vadim Kuramshin, [2] a human rights lawyer similarly imprisoned in Kazakhstan. [3]
Nominations are assessed by a panel of 21 lawyers, in consultation with NGOs and bar associations around the world.
Since 2016, the Jury awards annually the "Special Mention of the Jury" to a bar that has illustrated by its action, its work or its sufferings the defense of human rights The following is the list of distinguished bars:
Digna Ochoa was a human rights lawyer in Mexico. During her career, Ochoa had represented some of Mexico's poorest constituents against government interests. On October 19, 2001, Ochoa was shot dead by unknown assailants at her office in Mexico City. Mexican state authorities initially declared her death a suicide, however amongst objections from human rights activists the investigation into her death was reopened in 2005. In 2021, Mexico admitted wrongdoing in the investigation of Ochoa's death.
Karinna Akopovna Moskalenko is Russia's leading human rights lawyer, and a member of Moscow Helsinki Group who defended, amongst others, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Garry Kasparov and Alexander Litvinenko. She won the first ever case against Russian Federation heard in public hearings of the European Court of Human Rights.
Parvez Imroz is a Kashmiri human rights lawyer and a civil rights activist in Srinagar, the summer capital of the Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Jacques Ludovic Trarieux was a French Republican statesman, lawyer, prominent Dreyfusard, and pioneer of international human rights.
Bertrand Favreau is a French lawyer born in Bordeaux in 1947.
Selahattin Demirtaş is a Turkish politician and author of Kurdish origin. He was the co-leader of the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), serving alongside Figen Yüksekdağ from 2014 to 2018. Selahattin Demirtaş announced that he left politics after the May 2023 elections.
Nasrin Sotoudeh is a human rights lawyer in Iran. She has represented imprisoned Iranian opposition activists and politicians following the disputed June 2009 Iranian presidential elections and prisoners sentenced to death for crimes committed when they were minors. Her clients have included journalist Isa Saharkhiz, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, and Heshmat Tabarzadi. She has also represented women arrested for appearing in public without a hijab, which is a punishable offense in Iran. Nasrin Sotoudeh was the subject of Nasrin, a 2020 documentary filmed in secret in Iran about Sotoudeh's "ongoing battles for the rights of women, children and minorities." In 2021, she was named as of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World. She was released on a medical furlough in July 2021.
Cù Huy Hà Vũ is a Vietnamese legal scholar. A government critic and a dissident, he was taken into custody in 2010 on charges of "propaganda against the state" and "plotting to overthrow the communist government of Vietnam". On 4 April 2011, Vũ was sentenced to 7 years in prison for "spreading anti-state propaganda", drawing protests from human rights groups, the Roman Catholic Church, and the international community.
Fathi Terbil, also romanized as Fatih Turbel, is a Libyan lawyer and human rights activist and member of the National Transitional Council representing Libyan youth. He represents the relatives of over 1,000 prisoners killed by Libyan security forces in Abu Salim Prison in 1996. He is also the Youth and Sports Minister for the Interim Government.
Beatrice Mtetwa is a Swazi was born 1957 and naturalised Zimbabwean lawyer who has been internationally recognized for her defense of journalists and press freedom. The New York Times described her in 2008 as "Zimbabwe's top human rights lawyer".
Sezgin Tanrıkulu is a Turkish human rights lawyer known for his defense of the rights of Kurdish citizens. He is currently serving as an MP in the Turkish Grand Assembly with the Republican People's Party (CHP).
René de Jesús Gómez Manzano is a Cuban dissident known for his essay "The Homeland Belongs to All", which he co-wrote with Marta Beatriz Roque, Vladimiro Roca, and Felix Bonne, as well as his repeated imprisonment by the Cuban government. Amnesty International has named him to be a prisoner of conscience three times.
Mohammed Abdullah Al-Rukn is an Emirati lawyer and political activist who was born on 26 September 1962.
The Istanbul Bar Association is a voluntary bar association based in Istanbul, Turkey. At 60,000 members it is one of the most crowded bar associations in the world. It is a member of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations.
Waleed Sami Abulkhair is a Saudi Arabian lawyer and human rights activist, and the head of the Monitor of Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (MHRSA) organization. He is the first activist to be prosecuted by the Terrorism Law. He was arrested on 15 April 2014, and was sent to al-Ha'ir Prison while awaiting prosecution. On 6 July 2014, Abulkhair was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Specialized Criminal Court, and a travel ban for another 15 years, in addition to a fine of 200,000 riyals (US$53,333). On 12 January 2015, the case returned to the Court of Appeals, after which the judge requested increasing the previous sentence, because Abulkhair refused to apologize. Thus, the judgment was tightened to 15-year executed. In response, Abulkhair prayed for God's victory and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Specialized Criminal Court. Abulkhair is incarcerated in the Dhahban Central Prison in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a facility used to hold high-profile political prisoners, as well as members of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
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.
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.
Amirsalar Davoudi is an Iranian human rights lawyer born on 21 June 1981. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and 111 lashes for his human rights work.
The Diyarbakır Bar Association is an organization of lawyers established in the year 1927. It is one of the 81 members of the Turkish Bars Association. Several of its leaders were prosecuted and one of its presidents was assassinated. The current president is Cihan Aydın and it is constituted by about 1500 lawyers.
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