Mario Joseph, who has been referred to as “Haiti’s most prominent human rights lawyer”, has led the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti since 1996.
The Joint Mobile Group seeks accountability for human rights abuses in Chechnya, notably enforced disappearances, torture in custody, and extra-judicial executions.
Mona was raised in a family of human rights defenders. Her father Ahmed Seif El Islam is a respected Human Rights Lawyer who spent five years in prison under the Mubarak regime.
Lidia Yusupova - 2004
         "You should not allow fear to approach you, it paralyses you."
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On 7 April 2004, at a ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, Lidia received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders for her "tireless efforts in a situation of war and extreme danger." The ceremony was broadcast live on Swiss television as special edition of Zigzag Café.
Lidia Yusupova was born in Grozny on 15 September 1961 to a Russian mother and a Chechen father and studied literature at the Karachevo-Cherkeski Institute. She soon earned a law degree from the Chechen University of Grozny where she later became a lecturer.
Between 1994 and 1996, Lidia experienced the atrocities of the First Chechen War, and what she saw had a lasting effect on Yusupova's character - she witnessed the loss of many friends, colleagues and family members.
It was during the following Chechen war in 2000 that she began to devote herself to human rights. Throughout the conflict, Yusupova tirelessly documented cases of serious human rights violations committed by the Russian as well as the Chechen security forces. She not only received families at her office but undertook hazardous trips to investigate the sites of disappearances in an effort to confront the military. Subsequently her office was ransacked and staff continuously threatened.
In spite of the increasingly marginalized position of Chechen human rights groups, Lidia's extensive collection of victims' testimonies enabled "Memorial" to bring several lawsuits against the Russian government and Chechen authorities on allegations of wide-scale executions, disappearances, rapes and torture in Chechnya.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has since made 13 rulings against the Russian government on Chechen cases.
Yusupova's organization, Memorial, is one of few human rights organization still operating in the Chechen Republic, where widespread feelings of despair dominate the public psyche, as the Russian government continues to treat it as a counterpoint to its "war on terror".
Yusupova's reputation as one of the most courageous women in Europe was further enhanced when in 2004 the Martin Ennals Award film on her work was used by the Spanish television network TVE International in a series on Courageous Woman and broadcast worldwide.
In November 2005 she received the Norwegian Rafto Prize for human rights work in "recognition of her brave and unrelenting efforts to document human rights violations and act as a spokeswoman for the forgotten victims of war in Chechnya."
In 2007 she was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.
Since 2009, she has been active as both a journalist and blogger focusing on issues related to human rights in North Caucasus.
In July 2009, Natalya Estemirova, a colleague of Lidia's, fellow journalist and human rights activist, was abducted and killed in Grozny. Yusupova was also close friends with Russian journalist and human rights activist, Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated in October 2006. Following international outcry over her murder, her case remains unsolved.
Despite of the loss, over of the years, of many friends, family members and colleagues, Lidia Yusupova continues to be a relentless advocate for human rights in the North Caucasus.
NEWS ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
Search: Lidia Yusupova (Caucasian Knot)
Lidia Yusupova (Wikipedia)
Lidia Yusupova - Russia / Chechnya (World People's Blog) 9 February 2006Lidia Yusupova (Better World Heroes)
Dissident Voices (Time Magazine) 26 November 2006Chechnya's Last Witness (The First Post) 16 August 2007
2005: Lidia Yusupova (Rafto Foundation Human Rights Award)
Lidia Yusupova: CV (Rafto Foundation Human Rights Award)Lidia Yusupova: Related links and reports (Rafto Foundation Human Rights Award)
Memorial human rights activist Lidia Yusupova on the "virus" of fear (European Parliament) 14 April 2010
2005 Rafto Prize to Chechnyan Human Rights Advoate Ms Lida Yusupova (Human Rights House) 22 September 2005
The blog of the Rafto laureate from Chechnya (Human Rights House) 10 March 2010
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| The City of Geneva |
| The Jury consists of 10 leading Human Rights NGO’s |
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| The Panel of Regional NGOs support the Jury with their in depth Regional knowledge |
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