In 2025, the Martin Ennals Foundation will hold the 31st edition of the Martin Ennals Award, a prestigious distinction awarded to the most outstanding human rights defenders by a Jury composed of ten leading organisations of the human rights movement.
The Award was created in 1994 to recognize, promote and protect human rights defenders at risk or from under-reported contexts. It culminates every year in a public ceremony in Geneva, co-hosted with the City of Geneva. Over the years, the Award has offered defenders a platform to issues that are of global concern and the connections to steer the movement for human rights and larger freedoms.
The Jury has recognized 57 defenders in the past 30 years, from 40 countries and from all walks of life: lawyers, journalists, academics, medical practitioners, religious practitioners, housewives, students and grassroots activists. Their voices have illustrated some of the most important human rights demands of the past decades: free and fair justice for violations committed by security forces; access to information and freedom of expression to denounce repressive practices and authorities; the fight against gender discrimination and the importance of women’s full and equal participation in society; the essential role of civil society in conflict and post conflict resolution; the role of businesses in exploiting natural resources against the rights to land of indigenous people; or the role of global powers in the violations of the right to life of migrants.
The 2025 Martin Ennals Award continues this legacy will again honor outstanding human rights defenders who have made it their life mission to protect human rights in their communities and countries despite evolving in deeply repressive environments.
Ana Paula Gomes de Oliveira (Laureate): In May 2014, Ana Paula Oliveira tragically lost her son Johnatha, a 19-year-old black man in Manguinhos, a favela of Rio de Janeiro, when he was fatally shot by police on his way home from his girlfriend’s house. Ever since, Ana Paula’s turned her grief and indignation into a powerful quest for justice against police violence. She co-founded the collective Mothers of Manguinhos as a front for resistance and advocacy, but also as a network of emotional support and solidarity between women who share stories of similar loss. These women, in their majority Black, many of whom have lost children and other family members to violent actions by law enforcement officials, came together to demand rights and denounce violence in the favelas, especially police violence that disproportionately affects poor Black youth. The collective fights for truth, memory, justice, freedom and, for the guarantee of the human rights of Black, poor, and peripheral lives.
“When we are born black and raised in the favelas, we are targeted by a racist system that is also reinforced by public security policies based on death and imprisonment.” Ana Paula Oliveira told the Martin Ennals Foundation.
According to the UN, killings by police have more than doubled in the last ten years in Brazil, with more than 6000 killings every year over the past six years. Black people, overwhelmingly men, are three times more likely to be killed by police than others, and represent a shocking rate of 82,7% of the killings by police in 2023.
Read more about Ana Paula Gomes de Oliveira!
Aloikin Praise Opoloje (Finalist) is a 26-year-old Ugandan student who has become a leading voice against corruption, social injustice, and human rights abuses in Uganda. Inspired by the dire living and educational conditions in her home district of Palisa, she has mobilised thousands through social media and organised major peaceful protests, including the March to Parliament and the Nude Protest against government mismanagement, which prompted official accountability for the Kiteezi landfill tragedy. Despite repeated arrests in 2024 and ongoing legal charges, Aloikin went on to create the WeThePeople movement, which informs young Ugandans about their civic rights and non-violent resistance.
Read more about Aloikin Praise Opoloje!
Saadia Mosbah (Finalist) is a leading Tunisian human rights activist and co-founder of Mnemty (“My Dream” in Arabic), the main organization dedicated to the fight against racism and racial discrimination in Tunisia. She has spearheaded initiatives through education, awareness raising and legislative advocacy, which have led to the 2016 national debate on systemic racism, the adoption of the Anti-Racism Law No. 50 (2018), and the declaration of 23 January as the National Day for the Abolition of Slavery for Tunisia (since 2019). Her work has also focused on combatting prejudice against migrant and promoting migrant and refugee rights. Despite her legitimate activism, Saadia Mosbah and Mnemty have faced intense smear campaigns. She was arrested on 6 May 2024 on false accusations of financial crimes and remains since in pre-trial detention without a set trial date.
Read more about Saadia Mosbah!
Saadia Mosbah Picture licence: CR IssamBarhoumi CC BY-SA 4.0
Get to know the 2025 Laureate by watching our traditional Award ceremony which will take place on Wednesday 26 November in the Salle communale de Plainpalais, Rue de Carouge 52, Geneva.
