Lawyers for Lawyers Award

The Lawyers for Lawyers Award aims to honour lawyers who have made significant contributions to the protection of the rule of law and human rights in challenging environments. Through the Award, Lawyers for Lawyers generates public recognition for their work. The prize is a special token as well as a donation of €10.000. Former laureates are: Alec Muchadehama from Zimbabwe (2011), Magamed Abubakarov from the Russian Federation (2013), Jorge Molano from Colombia (2015), Sirikan Charoensiri from Thailand (2017), Selçuk Kozağaçlı from Turkey (2019), and Maksim Znak and Liudmila Kazak from Belarus (2021).

Award laureates 2021

Maksim Znak & Liudmila Kazak

Belarusian lawyers Maksim Znak and Liudmila Kazak have received the Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2021. The Award was presented at a ceremony co-hosted by Lawyers for Lawyers and the Amsterdam Bar Association in the Rode Hoed in Amsterdam on 18 November 2021.

Jury remarks: “By awarding Maksim Znak and Liudmila Kazak the Lawyers for Lawyers Award, the jury wants to highlight the important work of both lawyers who bravely represented Belarusian human rights defenders and opposition leaders and are paying a high price for their work. With this Award, the jury also wants to raise awareness of other Belarusian lawyers who have been subjected to pressure, harassment and intimidation in connection to their professional activities especially in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential elections”.

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Award laureate 2019

Selçuk Kozağaçlı

Selçuk Kozağaçlı is a lawyer from Turkey. He is well-known for working on the “Soma Mine” disaster, the worst mine disaster in Turkey’s history, in which 301 miners were killed. He is also president of the ÇHD, an association which focuses on the right to life and advocates for the prevention of all types of attacks on fundamental rights and human dignity. On 20 March 2019, Selçuk Kozağaçlı was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison in connection to his work as a lawyer. He was awarded the Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2019.

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Award laureate 2017

Sirikan Charoensiri

Sirikan Charoensi is co-founder of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), a lawyer collective that was established shortly after the 2014 military coup in Thailand. Charoensiri provides legal support in high-profile human right cases on a pro-bono basis.

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Award laureate 2015

Jorge Eliécer Molano Rodríguez

Jorge Molano is a Colombian lawyer who defends human rights. Because of that reason, both he and his family were threatened, his and house and computer were broken into and his telephone was tapped.

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Award laureate 2013

Magamed Abubakarov

Magamed Abubakarov is an ethnical Chechen who mainly practices in cases that are politically sensitive in the Russian Federation. Because of his activities he is threatened on a regular basis and had to flee the Russian Federation twice. In 2011, he was hit by a car, shattering his legs and resulting in a revalidation period of a year. The authorities refused to investigate the incident.

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Award laureate 2011

Alec Muchadehama

Alec Muchadehama defends various human rights activists, members of the opposition and civilians in Zimbabwe. Because of his activities he is constantly threatened, in many cases by the government. He has been put under surveillance, physically threatened, arrested and put on trial. After a kidnapping attempt, he was forced to go into hiding in an embassy.

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