• Martin Ennals Award is one of the world’s most prestigious human rights prizes.
• Parvez is the founder of the widely respected Indian-occupied Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society.
• The 45-year-old was inspired to become a nonviolent activist at the age of 13.

Jailed Kashmiri rights activist Khurram Parvez has won the Martin Ennals Award, one of the world’s most prestigious human rights prizes, along with two other campaigners from Chad and Venezuela, with the jury hailing their “courage”.

Delphine Djiraibe, one of Chad’s first female lawyers, and Feliciano Reyna, a rights activist, and advocate for LGBTQ people in Venezuela, are the other two award winners.

“The common denominator among the 2023 laureates… is their courage, passion, and determination to bring the voice of the voiceless to the international arena, despite ongoing, sometimes life-threatening, challenges,” prize jury chairman Hans Thoolen said in a statement on Thursday.

“We are particularly proud to honor these three exceptional laureates who have each dedicated over 30 years of their lives to building movements that brought about justice for victims or delivered medicines to the marginalized,” he said. “In their communities, they have made human rights a reality for thousands of people.”

However, Parvez, the founder of the widely respected Indian-occupied Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, will most likely be unable to attend the ceremony. Since November 2021, he has been detained by India under a strict “terrorism” law that effectively allows people to be held indefinitely without trial.

According to the prize organizers, the 45-year-old was inspired to become a nonviolent activist at the age of 13 after witnessing his grandfather being shot during a protest in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Parvez was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in May.

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