On 31 May 2013, Russian lawyer Magamed Abubakarov received the Lawyers for Lawyers Award. The award was handed over to him by Alec Muchadehama from Zimbabwe, who received the award two years ago. Magamed Abubakarov was praised by the jury for his “exceptional courage and persistence”.
The prize is awarded to a lawyer or group of lawyers who have worked to promote the rule of law and human rights in an exceptional way and have been threatened because of this work. According to Egbert Myjer, who spoke to the recipient on behalf of the jury, the jury decided “unanimously and with pride” to grant the prize to Magamed Abubakarov, in the hope that the award will “encourage him to continue his brave and sorely needed work in a dire and dangerous situation.”
There was special mention for the numbers two and three on the jury’s short list, Shahzad Akbar from Pakistan and Olga Hamadi and Gustaf Kawer from Indonesia. For more information about the latter two lawyers, please see this press release by TAPOL, the organisation which nominated them for the award, or this short video.
The prize was presented in the presence of colleague lawyers from all over the world at the end of the seminar ‘Lawyers controlled, independence at stake?’. For this occasion Magamed Abubakarov, Alec Muchadehama, Shadi Sadr (Iran), Edre Olalia (Philippines), Ramazan Demir (Turkey) and Iratxe Urizar (Spain) had been brought together, to share their experiences and knowledge regarding the central theme with those who were present.
Lawyers for Lawyers likes to thank the law firms NautaDutilh, Kennedy Van der Laan, Van Doorne, Spigt Litigators, De Koning Vergouwen Advocaten, Boekel de Nerée and Höcker Advocaten for making the award and the seminar possible.
