The Front Line Defenders Award

On Friday 3 May, President Michael D Higgins of Ireland presented the 2013 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk to anti-slavery campaigner Biram Dah Abeid of Mauritania, founder and director of Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement, Initiative pour la Résurgence du Mouvement Abolitionniste (IRA).

Biram Dah Abeid was selected from a total of 100 nominees from 40 countries on the basis of his exceptional courage defending the rights of the more than 500,000 people who are held as slaves in Mauritania.

Speaking at the Award ceremony Front Line Defenders Executive Director Mary Lawlor said “It is entirely fitting that we honour Biram Dah Abeid's work to end slavery in Mauritania in this room dominated by the statue of Daniel O'Connell - the liberator - the man who worked to end Ireland's own version of slavery with the ending of the penal laws and Catholic emancipation. Biram Dah Abeid follows in those heroic footsteps”

Despite the legal abolition of slavery in Mauritania and the Government's refusal to acknowledge its persistence, slavery remains endemic in Mauritania, accounting for between 10% and 20% of the population. Human rights defenders who speak out and challenge the practice are targeted by those who refuse to accept change.

Biram Dah Abeid has been threatened, defamed and harassed because of his work defending human rights and against slavery in Mauritania. He has been arrested and ill-treated on several occasions and in April 2012 he was “disappeared” for several weeks into a secret, high-security government facility, without being able to contact to his family and without any legal assistance. IRA Mauritania and other human rights defenders in the country believe he would have been killed but for the international outcry. He was released in September 2012 and continues his work inside Mauritania.

Despite the constant harassment and threat of arrest Biram Dah Abeid has sworn to continue the struggle until slavery is finally eliminated in Mauritania.

Link to the full text of Biram Dah Abeid's acceptance speech in PDF format

Link to the full text of President Michael D Higgins speech in PDF format

The Finalists for the 2013 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk were:

	Mam Sonando risked his freedom to educate Cambodians about their rights.
Mansoureh Behkish is a symbol of peaceful resistance for Iran's mothers.
	David Rabelo Crespo has devoted his life to promoting respect for human rights in Colombia.
Biram Dah Abeid liberates men and women from slavery and bonded labor in Mauritania.
	Ruth Mumbi is a force for change for the poor and marginalised in Kenya.
Bahtiyor Hamraev is a pillar of support for victims of human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.

To help Front Line Defenders continue to support courageous human rights defenders around the world, like these 6 finalists, please contribute.

There will always be people who choose to work for the promotion and protection of human rights. No matter how governments try, they will never get rid of them all, and as each one falls, another is there to continue the fight against injustice. It doesn’t matter whether their work is for a few years or for life, what governments don’t understand is that you will never quench the spirit of human rights defenders. It is in their blood and in their breathing.

The Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk is a celebration of that unquenchable spirit which unites human rights defenders around the world in a movement to create more just and equal societies.