Global Citizenship for Human Rights - Human Rights Heroes

  SHIRIN EBADI (b. 1947) Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, writer, and teacher, who received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2003 for her efforts to promote democracy and human rights, especially those of women and children in Iran. She was the first Iranian and also the first f emale Peace Prize Laureate from the Islamic World . Before October of 2003, most people outside of Iran - and many people inside that country - had never heard of Shirin Ebadi. She was not a major world leader, negotiating to end wars or topple repressive dictators. She was not a high-profile diplomat, traveling the globe and fighting against poverty or injustice. Ebadi was, and is, an Iranian Muslim lawyer who has devoted her life to improving the lives of victims of human rights abuses, particularly women and children in her home country. A human right is any right considered to belong to all people, including the rights to life and liberty, self-expression, and equality before the law. Ebadi was bo...

NATALYA KHUSAINOVNA ESTEMIROVA Natalya Khusainovna Estemirova (28 February 1958 – 15 July 2009) was a Russian human rights activist and board member of the Russian human rights organization Memorial. Natalia Estemirova was one of the leading human rights defenders in the North Caucasus. Working for Civil Rights Defenders’ partner, Human Rights Centre Memorial, she investigated cases of grave human rights violations in Chechnya. In 2009 she was murdered. Her death is most likely connected to her human rights work, which many considered put her at risk. Natalia Estemirova was a graduate of the historical faculty of the university in Grozny. Until the late 1990s, she worked as a history teacher at a school in the Chechen capital. She had also worked as a correspondent for local newspapers and TV stations in Grozny before joining Memorial Human Rights Center and frequently contributed to the independent Moscow newspaper Novaya Gazeta and the news web site Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian...

  BEFAQADU (BEFAKADU) HAILU (b. 1980) Befeqadu Hailu is an Ethiopian writer, activist, and blogger. Hailu co-founded Zone 9. This blogging platform allows people to speak against human rights violations in Ethiopia. Hailu first began blogging on his personal blog, The Q Perspective, where he wrote about socio-political issues in Ethiopia. He later became one of the founding members of Zone 9, a collective of bloggers sharing commentary about political repression and social injustice in Ethiopia. Hailu was charged with terrorism because of his work promoting human rights. Due to his activities as part of the Zone 9 group, Hailu was arrested on April 25, 2014, and charged with terrorism. Specifically, he was charged with violating Article 4 of the 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation as well as various other laws. The government accused Hailu of being a leader of a terrorist enterprise and inciting violence. He has been imprisoned at four different times but has never received a ...