On 2 October 2012 the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) was presented in Geneva. The goal of the MEA is to extend recognition and protective publicity to those who are currently involved in front line work for the promotion and protection of human rights.
This year, Nasrin Sotoudeh was one of the three nominees. This Iranian human rights lawyer is serving a long prison sentence for propagating against the regime in the Evin prison, one of the largest prisons in Iran. On the night of the Award ceremony, a statement by Nasrin was read out.
In the statement, it said inter alia:
Like many among you, the passion for justice has been with me from my childhood. It has grown and developed within me, as I have. In my youth, I realised that studying the Law and becoming a lawyer would allow me to fulfil this passion.
Despite all its difficulties, being a lawyer and defending the rights of children, women and those whose rights have been violated for seeking freedom, makes the dream of having justice possible.
Without justice, even relative justice, life becomes unbearable. I have, in my own way, tried to realise that relative justice.
