Martin Ennals Award Ceremony

Laureates,
Excellencies, colleagues and friends,

I am honoured to be invited to address you tonight. The Martin Ennals Award has for many years shone light on the brave individuals who work to defend, protect and promote human rights for all. I would like to thank the organisers and the jury members for your efforts to reinforce their voices.

This award stands for the courageous battles hard-fought by human rights defenders across the world. The three laureates we honour tonight have actively chosen courage over convenience. They have swum against the current with the sole intention of exposing truth about discrimination, oppression, injustice, and violence.

They have given – and continue to give – human rights a true meaning.

Dr Dauda Diallo fearlessly works to expose human rights abuses and to combat impunity in Burkina Faso. Pham Doang Trang is a Vietnamese journalist and staunch advocate of environmental rights, transparency, expression and press freedom. And Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja is a leading figure in the Bahrain human rights movement, fighting tirelessly for equality and against discrimination of minorities.

But they pay a heavy price: all three have experienced persistent threats and intimidation. As you know, both Pham Doang Trang and Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja are currently in long-term detention, separated from their loved ones and deprived of their rights to work for positive change in their countries.

Too often, detention of human rights defenders represents a brutal and unacceptable act of revenge. Retaliation for doing something fundamentally human – seeking to shape a better future for all.

Human rights defenders all around the world frequently work in perilous circumstances. They are often falsely vilified as traitors, propagandists and terrorists. In 2021, the UN recorded 320 deadly attacks against human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists in 35 countries. Over half of defenders killed or disappeared across the world were leaders of peasant communities and land and environmental defenders.¹

Every day, numerous other human rights defenders are harassed, intimidated, arbitrarily detained and imprisoned and physically attacked and humiliated.

Speaking out enables people to effect change when they – and the people they represent - face discrimination, violence and injustice.

Criticism and debate do not constitute terrorism, security threats, plots or propaganda; they are tools to identify grievances and make for better policies.

My Office is committed to protect and expand the space for the millions of legitimate voices who use human rights as a tool to improve the world we live in, especially those who are often overheard and left behind – minorities, migrants, people with disabilities, older people, LGBTIQ people, women and girls, to name but a few.

We know that meaningful, safe and inclusive participation is a real game-changer. Together, we need to ensure this is the norm, not the exception. Together, we must respond more firmly to attacks against civic space and human rights defenders, and to say no to impunity.

While there are a growing number of effective initiatives to improve protection for human rights defenders, it is never going to be sufficient. We need all Governments to recognize and value the role of activists and activism and respect and protect their rights. 

As the human rights community, we need to amplify pressure to ensure their security, their ability to work and participate, and their freedom.

Dear friends,

They stand up for us. We must stand up for them.

Today, let us acknowledge their immense sacrifices to preserve our human rights. Let us continue to be inspired by their exceptional courage, and to act with pride – and with urgency - to protect their space to speak.

Thank you for the work that you do.