Amnesty International USA

2006 — Ljiljana Raicevic, Serbia and Montenegro

Raicevic was one of the first human rights defenders in her country to raise the issue of human trafficking and its negative consequences on women's human rights. In 1999, she founded the Women's Safe House, the first shelter for women in Montenegro. The shelter serves as the focal point of service delivery and advocacy work for women who are victims of family violence and human trafficking. Recognizing the need for a better protection program for female victims, Raicevic and the Women's Safe House successfully lobbied for the adoption of the Witness Protection Law by the Montenegrin Parliament.

2005 – Hawa Aden Mohamed, Somalia

Hawa Aden Mohamed has devoted her life to the betterment of Somali women in a country torn apart by civil war. Ms Mohamed is the founder of the Galkayo Education Center for Peace and Development (GECPD). The centre serves over 500 women and children in many towns and villages with medical care, vocational and income-generating trainings, support for more than 50 orphans, and the only public school for girls in the area. Since its establishment GECPD has worked for the total elimination of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which is widely practiced in Somalia.

2004 – Nebahat Akkoc, Turkey

A Kurdish teacher from Diyarbakir in Eastern Turkey, Ms Akkoc responded to her own experience of political and sexual abuse, including the murder of her husband and her arrest and torture, by founding the organization Ka-Mer (Women's Center) to advance women's rights in southeast Anatolia, Turkey. Today there are branches of Ka-Mer in five other Anatolian cities providing legal and psychological counseling for abused women. Recently Ka-Mer is offerring crisis line help, direct assistance, and intervention for women and family members impacted by Honor Killings.

2003 – Sonia Pierre, Dominican Republic

As Executive Director of Movimiento de Mujeres de Dominico-Hatianas, Inc (MUDHA), Sonia Pierre works to promote greater awareness of the deep-rooted challenges facing women and children of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic. MUDHA challenges both gender discrimination and racism in the Dominican Republic by empowering women, providing access to basic social services, and also challenging racist laws and practices that maintain people of Haitian descent in conditions of poverty.

2002 – Jeannine Mukanirwa, Democratic Republic of Congo / Canada

Jeannine Mukanirwa worked for the Promotion et Appui aux Initiatives Feminines (PAIF), a women's human rights organization in Goma to inform women of their rights, and provide concrete assistance through self-funded community-based projects. As one of the few voices in eastern Congo willing to speak out against rape and other highly sensitive issues by directly confronting military and civilian authorities, Ms Mukanirwa was threatened with death and arrested many times. In 2001 she fled to Canada, where she continues to work on behalf of PAIF.

2000 – Helen Akongo, Uganda

Former child soldiers, children who have been seized, tortured, and forced at gunpoint to become rebels in the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda, have become the life's work of Helen Akongo, who worked with GUSCO, the Gulu Support the Children Organization. Ms. Akongo's special concern is the support -- physically, emotionally and spiritually -- of the girls who have escaped and come to GUSCO from the bush, especially those who are pregnant or with children.

2000 – Giulia Tamayo Leon, Peru / Spain

Since 1997, Giulia Tamayo Leon, a prominent women's rights activist and human rights lawyer from Lima, Peru, has documented human rights abuses against low-income women in both rural and urban communities. While campaigning against cases of forced sterilization of women in Peru, Ms Tamayo and her family received death threats. Now living in exile in Spain, Ms Tamayo works for the Mardrid office of Amnesty International.

2000 – Hina Jilani, Pakistan

In 1981 Hina Jilani co-founded the first all-female law firm in Pakistan and later established a women's legal aid program for Pakistani women, including those seeking to divorce abusive husbands. As a result Ms Jilani has been the target of violent attacks, including the "honor killing" of a client in her office. In recognition of her work, she has been appointed the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders.

1999 – Sima Wali, Afghanistan / USA

Sima Wali, President of Refugee Women in Development, Inc., has been advocating for Afghan women and men for over 20 years, when she narrowly escaped from Afghanistan to resettle in Washington, DC. Since the fall of the Taliban, Ms. Wali has returned periodically to Afghanistan to carry out needs assessments and lead capacity-building trainings for local nonprofits. She also served as one of only three women delegates to the Bonn peace process in December 2001.

1999 – Adriana Portillo-Bartow, El Salvador / Guatemala / USA

Adriana Portillo-Bartow has paid dearly for her political commitment, first when she was forced to flee from El Salvador to Guatemala and then when her father, stepmother, sister, sister-in-law, and two daughters, then aged nine and eleven, were "disappeared" in 1981. Fleeing to the USA in 1985, Ms Portillo-Bartow founded the "Where Are the Children?" Project which pursues the truth about the disappeared children of Guatemala like her own daughters. Ms Portillo-Bartow currently works for Amnesty International USA in its Mid-West Office.

1998 – Beatrice Mukansinga, Rwanda

Beatrice Mukansinga founded MBWIRANDUMVA ("Speak, I am Listening") to aid women disabled, traumatized, and left without either homes or families following the genocide that killed thousands in Rwanda. MBWIRANDUMVA provides counseling, medical assistance, shelter, food, and skills to help these women heal emotionally and physically and become economically self-sufficient.

1997 – Mangala Sharma, Bhutan / Nepal / USA

To assist the thousands of refugee Bhutanese women who had been raped, tortured, and also often shunned by their families, Mangala Sharma created Bhutanese Refugees Aiding Victims of Violence (BRAVVE), which now provides counseling and training in income-producing skills in all eight Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. In 2001 Ms Sharma was granted political asylum in the USA and now works for Refugee Women's Network in Decatur, GA.