ZMINA and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee nominated for the Human Rights Tulip 2020
NHC congratulates Kyiv-based NGO ZMINA and Minsk-based NGO Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) with their nomination for the Human Rights Tulip Award 2020. Our partners at ZMINA and the BHC are among this year’s 13 nominees for the Human Rights Tulip award. The Human Rights Tulip is an annual prize awarded to courageous individuals or organizations around the world that seek to promote human rights in an innovative way. The prize is meant to support human rights defenders and organizations, boost the visibility of their work and inspire others. The prize includes a monetary award of €100.000, to help the winner broaden the scope of his or her work and benefit a greater number of people in as many places as possible.
This year, in order to combat this effect on civil society, and encourage human rights defenders and anti-corruption activists to remain active, the NHC, in partnership with ZMINA Human Rights Centre, are implementing a project entitled “Increasing the Role and Protection of Human Rights Defenders in Ukraine”, with financial support from the European Union. This project aims to stimulate public demand for defence of human rights in Ukraine, which will help to remove obstacles for independent civil society and the Ukrainian society as a whole.
The Belarusian Helsinki Committee has been a long-standing partner of the NHC and, together with NHC, is also a member of the Civic Solidarity Platform and of the European Platform for Democratic Elections. Their current work is mainly focused on such areas as business and human rights; human rights-based approach; promotion of the use of international human rights mechanisms by non-human rights organisations; research and promotion of special equality and anti-discrimination legislation and prohibition of death penalty in Belarus. The BHC is also one of the leaders of the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections Campaign in Belarus, aimed at providing independent election observation during the 2020 presidential elections and evaluating the elections from the standpoint of international standards of free and democratic elections, as well as informing Belarusian citizens and international community about the outcomes of elections and their legitimacy.
Best of luck to ZMINA and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee as well as all the other nominees. The winner will be announced on 10 December.
