Front Line Defenders
Crimean Tatar Lawyer Wins 2017 Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk
Defending human rights activists and political prisoners is some of the most dangerous work a lawyer can do in Crimea. After years taking on these risky cases, Crimean Tatar lawyer Emil Kurbedinov was today awarded a top international prize for human rights activists. Front Line Defenders named Emil the 2017 Laureate of its annual Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.
"When we defend political prisoners and persecuted activists, we are going against a system in which there’s no hope of a fair trial. Winning an acquittal for my clients is almost impossible – but what I can do is show them that despite the risks, I will not abandon them." - Emil Kurbedinov
2017 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk
From gag laws to emergency laws, from inspections against human rights groups to the active erosion of LGBTI and migrant rights, the space in which civil society and human rights defenders can operate in Europe, as in the rest of the world, is shrinking.
Opinion piece by Jan Jarab, Representative for Mexico of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
In terms of the safety of journalists and human rights defenders, the first four months of 2017 have been chilling: at least five murders of journalists, two defenders and two escorts of beneficiaries of the National Protection Mechanism. But the nightmare seems endless. In recent days, in less than a week, two new victims have been addeed to the list - a leading figure in the movement of families of disappeared people of Tamaulipas, Miriam Rodríguez, and prominent journalist Javier Valdez, in the capital of Sinaloa.
