The Martin Ennals Award, often referred to as the Nobel Prize for human rights, is to go to Zholya Parsi, a women's rights activist in Afghanistan, and imprisoned Tajik lawyer Manuchehr Kholiqnazarov.

“Two outstanding human rights defenders who have made it their life mission to protect human rights in Afghanistan and in Tajikistan will receive the Martin Ennals Award 2024 on November 21th, 2024, in Geneva, Switzerland, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Martin Ennals Award,” the Martin Ennals Foundation announced on November 19. It is not clear that either of the award winners will be permitted to journey to the award ceremony.

The award jury is made up of representatives from 10 of the world’s leading human rights NGOs, namely Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, FIDH, HURIDOCS, Bread for the World, Human Rights First, World Organisation Against Torture, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), and Front Line Defenders.

The two 2024 Laureates were selected “after much deliberation” for their “exceptional courage and determination to bring human rights at the forefront despite evolving in deeply repressive environments”, the foundation added.

Hans Thoolen, chair of the Martin Ennals award jury, said: “We are very proud to honor these two exceptional Laureates. They have paid too big a price for justice and equality to be respected in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and the international community must support their efforts instead of battling geostrategic interests in the region”.

Parsi is a teacher from Kabul. She lost her career and saw her daughters deprived of their education when the Taliban Islamist fundamentalists retook power in Afghanistan in August 2021, but subsequently founded the Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women (SMAW) to protest against the return of policies and practices against women rights and fundamental freedoms.

She displayed remarkable leadership and resilience in organising numerous public protests despite the risks involved, the foundation noted.

“The grassroots movement that is the SMAW quickly grew momentum in Kabul and other provinces, [with SMAW] now counting 180 members and having mobilized communities to resist the Taliban’s policies and practices”, it added.

Parsi was arrested in the street by armed Taliban in September last year and was detained along with her son. She was released after three months of torture and ill-treatment in custody, something “which further strengthened her resolve to resist Taliban oppression and repression”, the foundation said.

Kholiqnazarov is a Pamiri human rights lawyer from the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) of eastern Tajikistan. He is serving a 16-year prison sentence after a trial widely considered as unfair and a retaliation for his human rights work, the foundation said.

As director of the Lawyers’ Association of Pamir (LAP), he led strategic advocacy efforts in GBAO—a region set in the Pamir Mountains marked by its ethnic minority and historical tensions with the central government in Dushanbe—including by lobbying for the incorporation of international human rights standards into domestic law and practice, and by providing legal support to residents of GBAO, it added.

Through the human rights initiatives Commission 44 and Group 6, Kholiqnazarov played a key role in investigating the death of youth leader Gulbiddin Ziyobekov in November 2021 and the violent repression of subsequent mass protest in the regional capital Khorog.

“The investigation resulted in critical evidence of an unlawful killing, possibly an extrajudicial execution of the young man, and the unlawful use of force of security forces against protesters, resulting in two deaths, seventeen injured and hundreds detained. He [Kholiqnazarov] was arrested on 28 May 2022 together with two other members of Commission 44 amid a widespread crackdown on local informal leadership and residents of the GBAO,” said the foundation.

The Martin Ennals Award (MEA) was given for the first time in 1994 to recognise, promote and protect human rights defenders at risk or working in under-reported contexts.