News item | 01-12-2023 | 12:17
Ten candidates have been nominated for the Human Rights Tulip 2023: the prize that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs awards annually to international human rights defenders. An independent jury has selected a top 3 from the ten nominees. This year, Minister Bruins Slot will announce the winner on December 14.
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The importance of human rights
Human rights are for everyone. At least, that’s how it should be. Every person wants to be accepted. Walk safely on the street. Being able to go to work or school. But that is not self-evident everywhere. That is why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is committed to human rights worldwide. And the work of human rights defenders plays an important role in this.
What is the Human Rights Tulip?
The Human Rights Tulip is an award from the Dutch government to support human rights defenders in the work they do: highlighting, protecting and improving human rights in the world. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has presented the prize annually since 2008 around International Human Rights Day in December.
The winner of the Human Rights Tulip receives a tulip-shaped bronze statue – and an amount of 100,000 euros, with which the winner can further expand human rights work. To reach even more people, in more places.
Nominees Human Rights Tulip 2023
Based on a previous shortlist of 10 candidates, the independent jury selected a top 3. The remaining candidates have been selected on the basis of, among other things, the social impact of their work and their courage to commit themselves to promoting human rights, despite threats and setbacks. These are the top 3 nominees for the Human Rights Tulip 2023:
Claudelice dos Santos
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Claudelice dos Santos is an indigenous human rights and environmental activist from the Amazon region. She is the founder of it The Claudio e Maria Institute which focuses on the protection of indigenous land, environmental and human rights defenders by providing a safe shelter and protection house. In addition, it focuses The Claudio e Maria Institute focuses on strengthening indigenous networks, education about environmental rights and awareness about the conservation of natural ecosystems in Brazil.
Hülya Gülbahar
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Hülya Gülbahar is a feminist lawyer who has contributed to the women’s rights movement and the defense of human rights in Turkey for more than 40 years. Gülbahar directed Equality Watch Women’s Group (EŞİTİZ) and it Women’s Platform for Equality Turkey (EŞİK) op. EŞİTİZ and EŞİK focus on publishing legal analyzes of bills or amendments regarding women and LGBTIQ+ themes, awareness campaigns (including on the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence) and social mobilization of the Turkish feminist movement.
Julienne Baseke
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Julienne Baseke is a journalist and human rights defender who advocates for women’s rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As a journalist she founded the organization South Kivu Association of Women in the Media with the aim of increasing the visibility and participation of women within the media sector of the DRC. Several local media broadcasters have emerged from this initiative, such as ‘Mama Radio’. These broadcasters increase media coverage of women’s rights issues, while also acting as a protection mechanism by alerting women to gender-specific risks in certain regions of the DRC.
The jury
This year the jury includes: Marie Ricardo (director of COC Netherlands), Wilco de Jonge (director of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights), Maral Khajeh (justice & peace program coordinator), Fenna Timsi (UN youth representative on Human Rights & Security) and Rick Lawson (professor of European human rights protection, Leiden University).