Denmark and OSCE-partner countries honours Human Rights Centre ZMINA and Memorial Human Rights Centre with 2022 Democracy Defender Award

Denmark is proud to announce that the 2022 Democracy Defender Award goes to the Ukrainian Human Rights Centre Zmina (Zmina) and to the Russian Memorial Human Rights Centre in recognition of their courageous and important efforts to promote human rights and democracy. The Danish ambassador René Rosager Dinesen had the honour of presenting the award to Memorial Human Rights Centre at the Award Ceremony on 4 May 2022 in Vienna. 
 
ZMINA receives this year’s award for their outstanding contribution to promoting and protecting fundamental freedoms and human rights in both non-government and government-controlled territories in Ukraine. In the wake of Russia’s military aggression on 24 February 2022, ZMINA has launched, together with 26 other Ukrainian human rights organisations, the Ukraine 5 AM Coalition, collecting and organising information on potential war crimes and crimes against humanity and offers legal assistance to victims. 
 
Memorial Human Rights Centre* receives this award for their efforts to document and provide legal assistance for ongoing human rights abuses in Russia under extremely difficult circumstances. The decision to dissolve Memorial Human Rights Centre, one of Russia’s oldest human rights organisations, constitutes an immense loss for the people of Russia and the whole of the OSCE region.
 
Denmark is among the founding members of the Democracy Defender Initiative and co-hosted the event on 4 May 2022 together with OSCE-partner countries Canada, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.
 
*This organisation is currently being liquidated in Russia.