The Alison Des Forges Awards for Extraordinary Activism, HRW

Human Rights Watch Annual Dinner 2011
Honoring those who speak out where there is silence

Each year Human Rights Watch honors individuals who have put their lives and safety at risk in the name of defending human rights. Join us at the Voices for Justice Annual Dinner where we will present these human rights defenders strong with The Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism, our highest honor.

This year’s Voices for Justice Annual Dinners will be held in Amsterdam, Beirut, Chicago, Geneva, Hamburg, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Oslo, Paris, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Toronto, and Zurich throughout November and early December. We hope you will come celebrate these remarkable individuals and support the important global work of Human Rights Watch.

Meet the 2011 Defenders

Defender    © YOUM 7

Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and a prominent voice both before and since the January 2011 uprising in Egypt

Follow Hossam on Twitter: @hossambahgat
Defender    © Reuters Sihem Bensedrine, a Tunisian journalist and activist who heads the Arab Working Group for Media Monitoring and serves as a spokesperson for the National Council for Liberties in Tunisia
Defender    © Migrant Care Anis Hidayah, executive director of Migrant Care, a leading Indonesian organization working to protect the rights of millions of migrant workers
Defender    © US Embassy Public Affair s Section, Harare Farai Maguwu, director of the Center for Research and Development in eastern Zimbabwe and a leading voice against the abuses taking place in the Marange diamond fields
Defender    © 2009 Patricia Williams Elena Milashina, an investigative journalist for Russia´s leading independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta
Defender    © Private Consuelo Morales, director of Citizens in Support of Human Rights, based in Monterrey, which brings abuses in Mexico’s “war on drugs” to light

Defender    ©Arash Ashourinia

Sussan Tahmasebi, a civil and women´s rights activist from Iran and founding member of the One Million Signatures Campaign to support women’s rights