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	Yanar Mohammed, Defender of women''s rights in war-torn Iraq, Laureate 2016 by Rafto Foundation   Yanar Mohammed, Defender of women''s rights in war-torn Iraq, Laureate 2016 has been awarded the Rafto Human Rights Award for her work on behalf of women and minorities in war-torn Iraq.   A great deal of abuse is inflicted on women and minorities in many conflicts around the world today. Sexual violence is often part of battle plans, and Iraq is just one of many places where women’s rights are sacrificed for political and military objectives.   Yanar Mohammed works on three fronts to secure the rights of vulnerable groups. She works with local organisations throughout Iraq to teach classes on human rights, and as a journalist she spreads the word about rights and democracy. She lobbies for human rights in Iraq and internationally, building networks and alliances in the struggle against violence, human trafficking and sex slavery. And Mohammed and the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) provide protection for victims of abuse committed by militia groups and others.   Mohammed speaks out publicly and fearlessly on behalf of human rights and equality. She challenges the authorities to do more for Iraqi women and is not afraid to point to violations of fundamental human rights locally and internationally.   By awarding Yanar Mohammed the Rafto Prize for 2016, the Rafto Foundation wishes to highlight the serious human rights violations occurring in Iraq, the lack of legal protection that affects women and vulnerable groups in particular, and the crucial importance of providing protection to human rights defenders.   Human rights violations are committed by many different parties. IS is one group that has come in for attention, but rights violations are also committed by the Iraqi authorities and groups supported by the international community.   Human rights and women’s rights cannot be set aside in conflict; they must be protected. Responsibility for securing basic human rights and enabling organisations to provide assistance to victims of violations lies with the Iraqi authorities.   We call on the international community to raise human rights issues, and especially issues of women’s rights, in their exchanges with the Iraqi government. These issues must also be taken into consideration when deciding which groups are to receive military support and training, and such groups must be required to respect human rights. In this work, agencies and states must seek the advice of Iraqi women’s organisations. Women must never again be sacrificed in the pursuit of military victory in the short term. Visit the related web page
	The Global Movement against Torture by World Organisation against Torture (OMCT)   December 2015   Their safety is constantly threatened. Repressive Governments can, unpunished and at any time, kill, silence or make them the next torture victims. But they do not move from their countries.   They work in highly politicized environments, often amid open conflict and in countries where decades of violence, repression, corruption or persecution leave little hope for short-term change. But they still believe their work has meaning and will bear fruit.   They are driven and educated lawyers, teachers, or human resource specialists who could earn a good living for themselves. Instead they work for little money and big headaches to defend the marginalized and oppressed.   Their job is painstaking and slow, yielding infinitesimal results over decades. But they keep their eyes set on the horizon.   When they are not jailed, for lack of other means of stopping their dissident work, funding restrictions strangle their organizations.   They get little money are hardly any attention from the general public, when they are not altogether discredited by authorities.   These are the dedicated women and men of all ages from many countries fighting to eradicate torture often at a high personal cost and who do not usually make the headlines though they should.   The 10 defenders the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) has celebrated daily in its #10HRD10Dec online campaign during the last 10 days up today – the United Nations International Day of Human Rights – are but a sample of the global movement against torture united through the SOS Torture network of over 200 like minded organizations.   Around the world, there are many other people like Yavuz Binbay from Turkey, Olga Sadovskaya from the Russian Federation, Justin Bahirwe from Benin, Nigina Bakhrieva from Tajikistan, Emma Bolshia Bravo from Bolivia, Salah Abu Khazam from Libya, Vilma Núñez de Escorcia form Nicaragua, Norbert Fanou-Ako form Benin, Hassan Ali Faiz from Afghanistan, Paul Mambrasar from Indonesia.   Today, and every other day of the year, the World Organisation against Torture encourages citizens, donors and States to support and spread the word about their achievements and the many challenges of their work so that rule of law with its logical lot of freedom of expression, equality, and redress can come true everywhere.   This profiling of these often silent yet worthy and impactful struggles around the world could not culminate in a better fashion than with the release yesterday on probation of Azerbaijani human rights defender and World Organisation against Torture Assembly member Leyla Yunus after more than a year of arbitrary detention. This eloquently demonstrates the effectiveness of the invaluable work of human rights defenders and anti-torture activists and serves as a reminder of how we should keep protecting them.   http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/links/2015/12/d23491/ http://www.omct.org/international-campaigns/campaign-prohibition-torture/manifesto/ http://www.omct.org/ http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/kyrgyzstan-enlists-hundreds-doctors-its-fight-against-torture http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/topics/torture http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53642#.VwmWhEd1BhE http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Torture/SRTorture/Pages/SRTortureIndex.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cat/pages/catindex.aspx Visit the related web page
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