Nominations for 2015 Human Rights Tulip Award Open

The Human Rights Tulip is the Dutch government’s human rights award.

Foreign minister Bert Koenders will present the prize and the bronze tulip-shaped statue to the winner on 10 December, International Human Rights Day. ‘At a time when human rights are under pressure, support for human rights defenders is more important than ever,’ said the minister. ‘Human rights defenders are struggling to improve human rights every day. They are heroes.’

The Human Rights Tulip is awarded annually to courageous organisations or individuals that promote human rights in innovative ways. The aim is to put their valuable work in the public spotlight. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs works with Hivos to select and support the winner.

The prize money is €100,000. It enables the winner to further develop or expand the scale of their human rights work, benefiting more people, in as many places as possible.

In 2014 the Human Rights Tulip was awarded to Mideast Youth, an organisation that builds online platforms to give a voice to people working to improve human rights. It is using the prize money to build a new platform that human rights defenders and their organisations can use to improve the presentation of information, work together more effectively and reach a wider audience.

The Nominations for the 2015 Human Rights Tulip are open until 15 July 2015.

Read more and submit your nomination here.