Annual Award & Annual Lecture
Front Line Defenders Annual Award
Ana Mirian Romero from Honduras received the 2016 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, in recognition of the extreme threats she faces fighting for the land and rivers of her community.
Ana Mirian is a Lenca woman and a member of both Movimiento Indígena Lenca de La Paz Honduras, MILPAH, (Lenca Indigenous Movement of La Paz) and Consejo Indígena San Isidro Labrador (San Isidro Labrador Indigenous Council). She has fought for legal recognition of her community’s indigenous land, and against the installation of the Los Encinos hydro-electric dam which would destroy their livelihoods. As a result, she, her family and the other members of MILPAH are now targets of repeated attacks by police, military and armed civilians connected to the hydroelectric company. Her children were forced to leave school due to repeated harassment, and in early 2016 her home was burned to the ground.
Read About the Award Ceremony and the Other Finalists
Front Line Defenders Annual Lecture
Philosopher Professor Jan Sokol spoke to the topic Dictatorship to Democracy - The Role of Human Rights Defenders for the 2016 Annual Lecture, recounting his experience of the Czechoslovakian transition to democracy (1989 – 1990) and discussing the appropriateness and efficiency of a "dissident" position.
The Annual Front Line Defenders Lecture was established in 2013 to provoke discussion and debate about the range of issues affecting human rights defenders as they work tirelessly to bring about changes and build robust civil societies. The lecture is broadly accessible to a general audience with an interest in philosophy, law, human rights or politics. The Annual Lecture is presented in partnership with Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin.
Click Here to Watch Professor Sokol's Lecture
