Bahrain Mirror: Human rights defender and prisoner of conscience, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, won the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

Al-Khawaja is one of three winners for 2022, the award committee said on its website. 

"Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja sustained his dedication to human rights during ten long years in prison."

Al-Khawaja is considered one of the first initiators of the human rights movement in Bahrain, and he is a leader in the movement for greater freedoms and democracy in the Gulf region. He was imprisoned in 2011 and declared hunger strikes to demand the rights of detainees.

Al-Khawaja was sentenced to "life imprisonment for organizing peaceful protests that urged the authorities to respect human rights."

Winners receive a reward ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 Swiss francs ($21,830 to $32,750). 

For the first time, the award will be awarded in participation, and the three winners will share the award in a ceremony organized in presence in Geneva on the second of next June.

Pam Duan Trang, a prominent Vietnamese writer, and Daouda Diallo, who documents abuses in Burkina Faso, were the two others who won the award along with Al-Khawaja.

Arabic Version