Five Kenyan students from Kisumu Girls High School, who developed a mobile app to help victims and potential victims of Female Genital Mutilation in dealing with the vice, have been nominated for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
The girls’ group ‘‘The restorers’’ are among the five finalists proposed for the annual Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament’s political groups and individual members.
Today (Thursday), the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents (President and political groups’ leaders) will select the final laureate. The prize itself will be awarded in a ceremony in Parliament’s hemicycle in Strasbourg on 18 December 2019.
The European Parliament awards the Sakharov Prize every year to honor exceptional individuals and organizations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.
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Other candidates from different parts of the world have also been nominated for instance, Marielle Franco, Claudelice Silva dos Santos and Chief Raoni, Brazilian human rights defenders.
Marielle Franco was a political activist, a black bisexual woman defending the human rights of young black people, women, favela residents and LGBTI people. She was brutally killed in March 2018 while in a car after delivering a speech. She and her driver were shot multiple times and killed in Rio de Janeiro. Chief Raoni on the other hand, is one of the leaders of the Kayapo people and an emblematic figure of the fight against deforestation in the Amazon. Claudelice Silva dos Santos is a human rights and environment defender, known for her stance against illegal lumbers, ranchers and charcoal producers operating in the amazon. They were all nominated by Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament and Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left.
In addition, Alexei Navalny was nominated by the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats). He is a Russian political activist and critic of corruption. In 2011, he was arrested for the first time, for his role in a rally outside the State Duma. He finished second ran in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election. In 2017, he published a report linking Prime Minister Medvedev to a wealthy property empire. This sparked anti-corruption rallies in many Russian cities and led to the arrests of over 1,000 demonstrators, Navalny included. The authorities prevented him from running in the 2018 Presidential elections. Navalny was jailed 3 times in 2018 and 2019 for violating Russia’s strict protest laws.
Being the only African group nominated for the Sakharov Prize, the restorers are a group of Kenyan students – Stacy Owino, Cynthia Otieno, Purity Achieng, Mascrine Atieno and Ivy Akinyi – who have developed, i-Cut, an app helping girls tackle female genital mutilation (FGM). The i-Cut app makes it easier for young women to seek immediate help, find a rescue center or report the procedure to the authorities. FGM is internationally recognized as a human rights violation. Over 200 million girls and women alive today were subjected to it. Each year 3 million more are at risk. They were nominated by the European Conservatives and Reformists Groups.
Ilham Tohti is an economics professor and advocate for the rights of China’s Uyghur minority. He is a proponent of dialogue and an advocate for the implementation of the regional autonomy laws in China. Tohti hosted a website criticizing the exclusion of China’s Uyghur population from the country’s development. Declared a separatist by the Chinese authorities, in 2014 he was sentenced to life in prison. Despite this, he remains a voice of moderation and reconciliation. Since 2017, over 1 million Uyghurs have been arbitrarily detained in a network of internment camps. He was nominated by Renew Europe Group and Phillip Bennion, Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Reinhard Bütikofer and 58 other Members.
The Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance and Terry Reintke, Tanja Fajon and 43 other Members nominated Jean Wyllys and Marielle Franco (posthumously). Wyllys is a Brazilian human rights defender, journalist and political activist. He received multiple awards for his reports as a journalist. In 2010, he was the first gay activist to win a seat in Congress. During his two mandates, he tabled legislative proposals on equal civil marriage, legalization of abortion, regulation of sex work, gender identity law and schools free from prejudice. In January 2019, despite his reelection, he did not take office and went into exile in Europe, because of death threats against him. Marielle Franco, a Brazilian politician, feminist and human rights defender was nominated twice. In March 2019, two former police officers were arrested and charged with the murder of Marielle Franco and the case is ongoing.
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