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Wednesday, 13 December 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Sri Lankan human rights defender Shreen Abdul Saroor is a recipient of the Franco German Human Rights Award 2017.
In 2017, the prize is being awarded for the second time to 15 committed human rights defenders from around the world who have done outstanding work in their respective countries to uphold human rights and the rule of law.
Minister of Finance and Mass Media Mangala Samaraweera congratulating Saroor for her achievement praised her work in helping the marginalised and vulnerable women in the north and east.
“You had the courage to use your personal adversity to help the most vulnerable. What you did and continue to do, stands not only as a contribution to the citizens of Sri Lanka, but to all of humanity,” the Minister said in a Twitter post.
At the Franco-German Council of Ministers in April 2016, Germany and France announced the launch of an annual international Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law.
All prize winners will receive a diploma and a medal designed by artist Anna Martha Napp that was chosen by a Franco-German jury. The medal symbolises their active commitment to the defence of human rights.
According to the brief biography posted with the award announcement, Shreen Abdul Saroor, born in 1969, is the founder of the Mannar Women’s Development Federation and a founding member of the Women’s Action Network, a collective of 11 women’s groups that work mainly in the north and east of Sri Lanka.
Both organisations focus on combating gender-based violence, while also highlighting violations of women’s economic, social and cultural rights.
Although the war in Sri Lanka ended in 2009, war widows and female-headed households still face many hardships. Shreen Abdul Saroor gives these women a voice through advocacy and lobbying and also supports them in their search for missing family members.
The challenges faced by Shreen Abdul Saroor in her own experience, when she and members of her community were forcibly displaced from the north by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1990, laid the foundation for her activism, which besides her emphasis on women’s rights and empowerment also focuses on reconciling Tamil and Muslim displaced communities, work for which she has been internationally recognised.
