This year’s International Hrant Dink Award has been granted to women’s rights activist and lawyer Canan Arın from Turkey and investigative journalist Maria Ressa from the Philippines.
International Hrant Dink Award is presented every year to individuals, organizations or groups that work for a free and just world free from discrimination, racism and violence, who take personal risks for achieving those ideals, who break the stereotypes and use the language of peace and by doing so give inspiration and hope to others.
The 13th International Hrant Dink Award has been presented at an online ceremony streamed on the Hrant Dink Foundation accounts.
This year’s awards have been granted to women’s rights activist and lawyer Canan Arın, who persistently continues defending gender equality and her struggle against gender based violence in Turkey and investigative journalist Maria Ressa, who defends press freedom in the Philippines under difficult political conditions and high personal risks.
‘Women’s resistance is our only source of hope’
“Amid all the atrocities, amid this horrible picture, women’s resistance and solidarity remains our only source of hope and courage” said Canan Arın, women’s rights activist and lawyer in her acceptance speech.
‘We are not naïve or foolish’
Laureate Maria Ressa with her message from the Philippines briefly stated the following: “To journalists and activists who continue to fight: We have to stay the course. Sometimes, people say that you are naïve or foolish. People say that about us. We are not.”
Jury
This year’s jury is composed of 2020 laureate human rights activist Osman Kavala, women’s rights activist Mozn Hassan, director Emin Alper, writer Tanıl Bora, director Robert Guediguian, lawyer Viviana Krsticevic, child rights activist Molly Melching, writer and diplomat Şafak Pavey, political scientist Füsun Üstel and President of the Hrant Dink Foundation Rakel Dink.
About Canan Arın
She offered pro bono services to women who needed legal aid in violence against women and divorce cases. In 1990, along with thirteen other women, she co-founded the Purple Roof Women’s Shelter Foundation (Mor Çatı Kadın Sığınağı Vakfı) to combat violence against women and strengthen solidarity and assistance among women. In 1997, she took part in the founding of the Association for Supporting and Training of Women Candidates (KA.DER), campaigning for greater participation and representation of women in politics.
She has been one of the founders of the Istanbul Bar Association Women Rights’ Enforcement Centre. She organised numerous training seminars for lawyers taking up cases of violence against women in an effort to inform them about the male violence against women and how they should communicate with women throughout the proceedings. In the early 1990s, when she was in the US, inspired by the UN designation of November 25th as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, she paved the way for and led the efforts of holding meetings on this very date in Turkey, first at Mor Çatı and later across the country.
In 2011, during her speech at a training seminar entitled “Violence against Women and Women’s Rights’ Law” organised by the Antalya Bar Association, while explaining how early marriage was a common phenomenon in Turkey throughout its history, in order to better illustrate her point, she referred to the marriages of the Prophet Mohammed as well as the Turkish president of the time. A group of male lawyers, who did not take part in this seminar, filed a criminal complaint against her; she stood trial on charges of “publicly degrading religious values, insulting the Prophet of Islam and the President, and inciting the public”, facing up to 5 years in prison. In 2012, she was detained by the police in Antep at the crack of dawn. She was released after being questioned on the alleged charges. The lawsuit initiated against her ended neither in conviction or sentence, nor in acquittal. The criminal proceedings were suspended.
In 2012, she greatly contributed to Turkey’s bid to become the first country to ratify the Istanbul Convention; she defied Turkey’s decision to pull out of the Convention in early 2021. She draws attention to the fact that the judicial system’s violation of women’s rights is one of the reasons for increasing violence against women in Turkey.
About Maria Ressa
She was born in 1963 in Manila. She lost her father when she was one year old. At 10, she moved to the US with her family. She obtained her undergraduate degree in molecular biology and theatre, and her Bachelor of Arts in English from Princeton University. In 1986, following the ousting of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, she returned to the Philippines and researched about political theatre at the University of the Philippines Diliman.
In 1987, she started working as a journalist at the state-run television; soon after, she co-founded an independent production company. She worked for CNN as an investigative reporter for 18 years, focusing on terrorism in Southeast Asia. As bureau chief, she opened CNN’s Manila bureau and later its Jakarta bureau. She came home to the Philippines in 2005, to lead its largest news group, which she did for 6 years.
In 2012, along with three women journalists, she co-founded Rappler, the top digital only news site in the country currently employing about 100 journalists. In 2015, in her interview with Rodrigo Duterte during the presidential election campaign, she made him confess his killing of three people in the 1980s in Davao while he was the mayor of the city. Together with her colleagues at Rappler, she exposed the extrajudicial killings and human rights violations in Duterte’s “war on corruption”. She came under government pressure, while investigating the “troll army” mobilised after Duterte’s election as the president in 2016.
She faced a number of lawsuits and stood trial on charges of tax evasion and foreign ownership violations in the media among others, all requiring prison sentences. During these proceedings, the court issued 10 detention orders, in eight of which she was released on bail. In February 2019 she was detained on charges of “cyber libel”, which was seen by the international community as a politically-motivated act. Most recently, in August 2021, the charges brought against her due to her news coverage of Duterte was dismissed by the court. Numerous lawsuits against her are still pending. As a leading journalist of the Philippines, her struggle against disinformation, fake news, and silencing of the independent media also received international acclaim.
She published two books on Al Qaida’s acts of terror in Southeast Asia. She lectured at Princeton University as well as the University of the Philippines, teaching politics and media in Southeast Asia as well as broadcast journalism. She was named Time Magazine’s 2018 Person of the Year along with journalists from around the world combating fake news. She has been one of the leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders. She was awarded numerous international prizes.
She is a fearless advocate of press freedom while operating under difficult political circumstances and taking personal risks; and persevering in bringing to public attention the unlawful practices of the government and its rights violations during the war on drugs, despite the countless threats she received due to her news reports. She continues to work meticulously as an “investigative reporter.”
About International Hrant Dink Award
International Hrant Dink Award is presented every year to individuals, organizations or groups that work for a free and just world free from discrimination, racism and violence, who take personal risks for achieving those ideals, who break the stereotypes and use the language of peace and by doing so give inspiration and hope to others. By means of this Award, the Hrant Dink Foundation aims to remind all those who struggle for these ideals that their voices are heard, their works are visible, they are not alone, and also to encourage everyone to fight for their ideals.
Each year the award is granted to two individuals; one from Turkey and one from abroad. In addition to the award itself, after an annual scanning and reviewing process, the Award Committee makes a selection of individuals, institutions, organisations and initiatives that pursue activities in line with the principles of Hrant Dink Award and announces their names to the public during the award ceremony under the title of “Sparks” or “Inspirations”.