The fourth Václav Havel Human Rights Prize – which honours outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights – has been awarded to Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad. The €60 000 prize was presented at a special ceremony today at the Palais de l’Europe in Strasbourg, on the opening day of the autumn plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
At the age of 21 (in 2014), Nadia Murad was kidnapped by ISIS in northern Iraq together with thousands of other women and children. She was kept in slavery and abused for three months until she managed to escape and flee to Germany. Since then, she has become a human rights activist, bringing the plight of the Yazidi community, in particular the forced sexual enslavement and human trafficking of women and children captured by ISIS, to the forefront of international attention. She was a candidate for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize; in September 2016, she was appointed as the first United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. (more...)
- Interview with Nadia Murad
- Video spot on the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize
- Video on origins of Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize
- Video on the 2016 Ceremony
See also:
Václav Havel Human Rights Prize file