Journalist, writer and activist Nurcan Baysal received this year’s Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders Under Risk. United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore handed the award to Baysal with a ceremony in Dublin Municipal Building.
“We are going through such dark times as Kurds, and as Turkey. Despite this darkness, there still are people who fight for human rights, peace and democracy – in Şırnak, in Istanbul, in Diyarbakır, in Izmir, in Cizre… There are unnamed heroes. Some of those people record human rights violations, some of them try to stop torture, some provide legal support for violence victims and some lift dead bodies off the floor… I accept this award on behalf of all those unnamed heroes and all human rights defenders in Turkey, especially in Kurdistan,” said Baysal in her speech after receiving the award.
The regional awards were granted to Soni Sori from India, to LUCHA Movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to La Resistencia Pacifica de La Mikregión de Ixquisis in Guatemala and to Hassan Bouras in Algeria.
18.05.2018
bianet.org