Huda El-Sarari or Hoda El-Sarari; Hoda Al Sarari (; born c. 1978) is a human rights lawyer from

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

who was awarded the

Martin Ennals Award The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, sometimes called "the Nobel Prize for human rights", is an annual prize for human rights defenders. It was created in 1993 to honour and protect individuals around the world who demonstrate except ...

. She exposed that foreign governments were operating prisons in Yemen. 260 people were released from unlawful imprisonment.

Life

She graduated law and then took a masters in Women's Studies at

Aden University The University of Aden is the first Yemeni university beside Sana'a university at the same year founded in the Republic of Yemen. History The foundation of the College of Education in 1970 and Nasser’s College for Agricultural Sciences in 1972 w ...

completing in 2011. She went to work challenging human rights abuses. She worked with the Yemeni Women’s Union, the Adala Foundation for Rights and Freedoms and the National Committee to Investigate Allegations of Human Rights Violations. In 2015 she contacted

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

and

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

after she found that people were being detained and mistreated in jails organised by foreigners in Yemen. She was in time able to supply them with details of 250 men and boys who were imprisoned. She was contacted by mothers in 2016 who wanted to know where their sons were as they had just gone missing. She used the Yemeni courts but no information could be produced. Using social media she managed to unearth the truth that there were prisons in Yemen that the judicial system was unaware of. In 2017 the story was revealed by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

using much of her research to substantiate the story. Over 2,000 people are still missing, but she managed to form the "Union of Mothers of Abductees" and 260 prisoners were released. In 2019 her son, Mohsen, was wounded and died in hospital and after this she left her country. She believes that many Europeans and Americans do not realise that their governments are backing the UAE which funds human rights abuses. She was nominated for the

Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, sometimes called "the Nobel Prize for human rights", is an annual prize for human rights defenders. It was created in 1993 to honour and protect individuals around the world who demonstrate except ...

together with

Sizani Ngubane Sizani Ngubane was a South African activist who worked for rural women's rights. She was the founder of the Rural Women's Movement (RWM) which originated in her peace-building efforts in the final years of minority-rule wherein she brought women ...

, of South Africa, and Norma Librada Ledezma. She became the 2020 laureate in Geneva in February 2020.

Awards

* Aurora Prize in 2019 * Martin Ennals Award in 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarari, Huda Women lawyers 1970s births Living people Yemeni Muslims Yemeni human rights activists Yemeni lawyers