Global/Africa: Human Rights Watch Awards

Human Rights Watch's highest honor in 2005, the Human Rights Defender Award, will go to three courageous human rights activists from around the globe whose efforts illustrate major human rights challenges in the world today. The three honorees for this year illustrate the limits of freedom of expression in the Middle East, the massive "ethnic cleansing" and injustice in Darfur, Sudan, and the plight of HIV/AIDS affected women in Africa. Human Rights Watch's global rights defender awardees for 2005 are: Omid Memarian, a journalist and web-blogger from Iran, Salih Mahmoud Osman, a lawyer and human rights activist from Darfur, and Beatrice Were, an advocate for the rights of women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Uganda.