The John Humphrey Freedom Award was presented annually by the Canadian human rights group

Rights & Democracy The International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights & Democracy), was created to be a non-partisan, independent Canadian institution. It was established by an act of the Canadian parliament in 1988 to "encourage and suppor ...

, to an organization or individual from any country or region of the world for exceptional achievement in the promotion of human rights and democratic development. It was established in 1992. The award consisted of a grant of C$25,000, as well as a speaking tour of Canadian cities to help increase awareness of the recipient’s human rights work. It was named in honor of

John Peters Humphrey John Peters Humphrey (April 30, 1905 – March 14, 1995) was a Canadian legal scholar, jurist, and human rights advocate. He is most famous as the principal author of the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Childhood, ...

, a Canadian human rights law professor who prepared the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Award winners

*2011 -

Ales Michalevic Ales (Alaksiej) Anatoljevich Michalevic ( be, Але́сь Мiхале́вiч, Aleś Michalevič, Ales Mikhalevich, born 15 May 1975 in Minsk, Byelorussian SSR) is a Belarusian public figure and politician, candidate in the 2010 Belarusian presid ...

, Belarus *2010 -

PROVEA The ''Venezuelan Education-Action Program on Human Rights'' or PROVEA ( es, Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos) is one of the most prominent Venezuelan human rights organizations. According to the United Nations Human R ...

(''Programa Venezolano de Educacion-Accion en Derechos Humanos''), Venezuela *2009 - La'Onf, the Iraqi Nonviolence Network, Iraq *2008 -

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is a not for profit human rights organization whose core objective is to foster a culture of human rights in Zimbabwe as well as encourage the growth and strengthening of human rights at all levels of Zimbabw ...

, Zimbabwe *2007 - Akbar Ganji, Iran *2006 -

Su Su Nway Su Su Nway (, ; born 1971; also known as Su Su Nwe) is a Burmese democracy activist and political prisoner. In 2005, she became the first Burmese national to successfully sue local government officials under a 1999 law on forced labour. Forc ...

, Burma *2005 - Yan Christian Warinussy, West Papua, Indonesia *2004 -

Godeliève Mukasarasi Godeliève Mukasarasi (born 1959) is a Rwandan social worker, genocide survivor, and rural development activist. She created the organization Sevota to support widowed women and their children after the genocide. In 2018 she was given an Internati ...

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

*2003 -

Kimy Pernía Domicó Kimy Pernía Domicó (1950–2001) was an indigenous leader of the Embera Katio in Colombia. He is best known for testifying before a Canadian parliamentary Sub-Committee on Human Rights and International Development in Ottawa in 1999 in which he c ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Angélica Mendoza de Ascarza Angélica Mendoza de Ascarza (b. 1 October 1929 – d. 28 August 2017) was a Peruvian Quechua people, Quechua human rights activist. She is considered to be a symbol of human rights in Peru and of Disappearances in Peru from 1980 to 2000, tho ...

, Peru *2002 -

Ayesha Imam Ayesha Imam is a Nigerian born human rights Activism, activist. She is a former Chief of the Culture, Gender and Human Rights department of the United Nations Population Fund and a founding member and pioneer national coordinating secretary of Wom ...

, Nigeria *2001 - Dr. Sima Samar, Afghanistan *2000 - Reverend

Timothy Njoya Timothy Njoya (born 7 April 1941 in Nyeri District) is a theologian, human rights activist and a retired Presbyterian Church of East Africa Minister. Njoya holds Master's and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees from Princeton University. He was ordai ...

, Kenya *1999 –

Cynthia Maung Cynthia Maung ( my, စင်သီယာမောင် ; born 6 December 1959) is a Burmese medical doctor and founder of Mae Tao Clinic that has been providing free healthcare services for internally displaced persons (IDP) and migrant work ...

and Min Ko Naing, Burma *1998 –

Palden Gyatso Palden Gyatso (1933, Panam, Tibet – 30 November 2018, Dharamshala, India, bo, དཔལ་ལྡན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ dpal ldan rgya mtsho) was a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Arrested for protesting during the Chinese invasion of Tibet, he sp ...

, Tibet *1997 – Father Javier Giraldo,

*1996 –

Sultana Kamal Sultana Kamal is a Bangladeshi lawyer and human rights activist. She serves as the executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra, a civil rights organisation. In 2006, she served as adviser in the Caretaker government of Bangladesh led by Presiden ...

, Bangladesh *1995 – Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, East Timor *1994 –

Campaign for Democracy The Campaign for Democracy (CD) is a Nigerian civil society group that advocates for greater democracy in Nigeria. The group was first organized in the early 1990s to demand an end to the country's military dictatorship. The coalition organized de ...

, Nigeria and Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, Egypt *1993 – La Plate-forme des organismes haïtiens de défense des droits humains, Haïti *1992 – Instituto de Defensa Legal, Peru

External links

Official Website
Human rights awards Canadian awards Awards established in 1992 1992 establishments in Canada