Chinese rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, an independent Turkmen photojournalist and a prominent Saudi women’s rights activist were among the three finalists for the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights, which was announced on January 18. Yu’s wife, Xu Yan, tweeted on the same day that it was “the best gift and blessing” for him as he lost his freedom for three years.
The Martin Ennals Human Rights Prize is named after the first secretary-general of Amnesty International, who died in 1991. This year’s final winner will be announced at an online awards ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, on Feb. 11, the prize foundation said in a message Monday.
The nominee, Turkmenistani photojournalist Soltan Achilova, 71, was highlighted by the foundation for her work as an independent journalist documenting the daily lives of Turkmen and social issues such as human rights violations in “one of the world’s most closed countries with the least freedom of expression.
Another nominee was Saudi women’s rights activist Loujan al-Hathloul, who was sentenced to a heavy prison term by the authorities but was quickly released. She is better known to the outside world than Ashilova, and her actions are strongly supported by the international community. Prior to her arrest in 2018, she was active in promoting Saudi women’s right to drive and was one of the leading figures in lifting the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia and opposing the oppressive male guardianship system.
Lawyer Yu Wensheng, 54, is the third nominee to be shortlisted for the award, according to reports that he gave up his work as a commercial lawyer before his arrest to defend fellow lawyers arrested in the “709 arrests,” said a statement from the award foundation, adding that “Yu has been held for nearly three years now, and his right hand was broken while he was imprisoned. broken while in captivity, and his health is deteriorating.”
As previously reported, Yu was arrested in 2018 for opposing the “709” arrests and advocating constitutional reform, and in 2020 he was sentenced to four years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power,” and his wife, Xu Yan, continues to campaign for him and fears he will be tortured. The European Union, the United States, Germany and many other countries have called on the Chinese authorities to release Yu Wensheng. After learning of Yu’s nomination, Xu Yan tweeted that she was happy for him, saying, “This is an encouragement to all human rights lawyers and defenders who persevere and work hard in spite of difficult circumstances.”
The Martin Ennals Prize, known as the “Nobel Prize for Human Rights,” carries a prize of 30,000-50,000 Swiss francs (2.6 to 46,000 euros) and is awarded annually by a jury composed of representatives from ten of the most important international human rights organizations. In 2016, Chinese Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, associate professor at the Central University for Nationalities, was awarded the Martin Ennas Prize.
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