Award Recipients

photo: Seth Sidney Berry/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

OFRANEH coordinator Miriam Miranda

photo: Avispa Midia

2023 award recipient

OFRANEH

OFRANEH’s work in Honduras includes defending the self-determination and traditional ways of life of the Garífuna people; protecting their rights; and endeavoring to prevent displacement by tourist developments, retirement communities, African Palm plantations, Special Economic Zones, mining and hydroelectric projects, and drug cartels. OFRANEH members have been harassed, threatened, persecuted, kidnapped, disappeared and murdered, often as a result of defending their lands in the context of land grabs and disputes over ancestral territories.

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Mirvari Gahramanli, OWRPO Founder and Chairperson

photo credit: REUTERS / Alamy

photo credit: Nikolai Ignatiev / Alamy

OWRPO seminar for women workers to discuss labor rights and gender laws

Oil platform fire; 30 workers reportedly lost their lives - Azerbaijan (photo credit: Wikipedia)

photo credit: Bruce Brander / Science Photo Library

2022 award recipient

Oil Workers’ Rights Protection Organization

OWRPO, founded in 1996 by a group of oil workers, addresses the human rights impacts of oil and gas companies in Azerbaijan. It defends the rights of oil and gas industry workers, and seeks public monitoring of large-scale oil and gas projects. It also works for transparent and fair spending of oil and gas revenues for the benefit of society, calling for more to be invested in Azerbaijan's “human capital” (including education and health).

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afrewatch logo

photo credit: Marcus Bleasdale

photo credit: Larry C. Price

photo credit: Gwenn Dubourthoumieu

photo credit: Gwenn Dubourthoumieu

photo credit: Erberto Zani / Alamy

2021 award recipient

AFREWATCH

AFREWATCH, headquartered in Lubumbashi (southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo), advocates for the fair, equitable and transparent development of natural resources in Africa for the benefit of all.  It calls on companies and governments to include the needs of local communities in their planning, priorities and operations, and to integrate those communities into the management of natural resources.  AFREWATCH seeks to safeguard human rights and protect the environment by holding companies and governments accountable. 

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Migrant Workers Rights Network staff explaining to migrant workers their rights - Chon Buri province, Thailand. Photo: MWRN

A truck brings migrant workers in Thailand home to their shipping container village from a construction site. Photo: Akira Kodaka

Migrant Workers Rights Network training session for local migrant leaders, about access to the state grievance mechanism – Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province, Thailand. Photo: MWRN

Thai Union seafood company workers attend a training session led by Migrant Workers Rights Network – Samut Sakhon province, Thailand. Photo: Thai Union/Thawatchai Pundech

Burmese migrants peel shrimp in a processing plant in Thailand. Photo: Thierry Falise/International Labour Organization

Workshop for women migrant leaders organized by Migrant Workers Rights Network, to raise awareness about labor rights and gender equality issues – Samut Sakhon province, Thailand. Photo: MWRN

2020 award recipient

Migrant Workers Rights Network

Migrant Workers Rights Network is a grassroots member-based association that works to protect the rights of migrant workers who live and work in Thailand, the majority being from Myanmar. The organization was founded in 2009 by nine Myanmar migrant leaders after seeing extensive exploitation and abuse of migrant workers in Thai factories, the seafood industry, agriculture, and construction. They decided that empowerment of migrants is the best way for migrant workers to protect themselves.

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Cover of Al-Haq’s 2013 report on discriminatory appropriation of water in the occupied West Bank by Mekorot, the national water company of Israel Photo: Al-Haq

In 2015 Al-Haq called on the Dutch Government to prevent the export of dogs by Dutch firms to the Israeli security forces, given their use to attack and intimidate Palestinian civilians. Photo: IMEMC

HeidelbergCement’s Nahal Raba Quarry in the West Bank. Al-Haq has raised concerns on the grounds that this multinational’s quarries in Occupied Palestinian Territory expropriate natural resources in contravention of international law. Photo: Kerem Navot

Construction of Jerusalem Light Rail with lines running through Occupied Palestinian Territory to connect with Israeli settlements. Al-Haq and others called on companies to pull out of the project because it violates international law; Australian, Canadian, French and German firms withdrew. Photo: Al-Haq

Al-Haq has raised concerns that Airbnb violates international law when it lists properties in Israeli settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory. Photo: Mondoweiss

2019 award recipient

Al-Haq

Al-Haq, the independent Palestinian human rights organization based in Ramallah (West Bank), has done ground-breaking work drawing attention to how certain companies operating in Occupied Palestinian Territory are involved in human rights abuses and breaches of international humanitarian law. Al-Haq has also contributed to the treaty on business and human rights being drafted at the United Nations, and helped other NGOs in the Middle East develop their work on human rights concerns relating to business.

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2018 award recipient

Justiça nos Trilhos

Justiça nos Trilhos is an organization working closely with local communities in remote parts of Brazil – including indigenous peoples, peasants, and Afro-descendants – to address human rights and environmental abuses by mining and steel companies, in particular the multinational Vale.

More information All 2018 nominees