5 International human rights defenders each received a Four Freedoms Award

Five international freedom fighters each received a Four Freedoms Award for their commitment to securing freedom and defending human rights.

Presented in alternating years by the Roosevelt Institute in the US and Roosevelt Stichting in the Netherlands, FDR’s ancestral home, at a ceremony that is free, open to the public, and modeled after FDR’s historic Four Freedoms speech to Congress in 1941.

The medals are awarded each year to individuals and organizations committed to promoting the four freedoms proclaimed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941.

Walk Free’s Grace Forrest’s human rights work was honored with the Freedom from Fear Award as part of Walk Free’s work to eradicate modern slavery.

Freedom from fear, a concept created by Franklin Roosevelt to address international conflict and the arms trade, now includes a broader range of issues.

Active global conflicts, environmental degradation, the production of trillions of dollars worth of goods through exploitation, and the millions living in modern slavery. Freedom from fear is about the freedom to choose.

Change begins with small actions. It is up to the next generation of leaders to address these complex challenges and ensure that human rights have meaning everywhere.

The Freedom of Worship Award goes to Zumretay Arkin, who has been campaigning for the rights of Uighurs, Muslim people in western China, for years. Arkin draws international attention to the suppression of religious freedom and the violation of human rights of the Uyghur people.

The Freedom from Want Award recipient is Sônia Guajajara, Brazil’s first Minister for Indigenous Peoples, after a life of indigenous activism. In her new role, Guajajara continues her fight to recognize and protect indigenous lands.

Freedom of Speech found a worthy recipient in the research collective Bellingcat, which makes every effort to separate fact from fiction. The Netherlands-based investigative journalism group founder Eliot Higgins specializes in fact-checking and open-source intelligence as it investigates international conflicts. The collective has developed a distinctive approach to get closer, faster, and more accurate to the truth.

What began as an investigation into the use of weapons in the Syrian civil war., Bellingcat’s reports on the Russo-Ukrainian War (including the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17), the El Junquito raid, the Yemeni Civil War, the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, and the killing of civilians by the Cameroon Armed Forces have attracted international attention.

The International Four Freedoms Award is presented to Save Ukraine, which rescues the country’s most vulnerable from combat zones and returning Ukrainian children from Russia and occupied territories. The organization is best known for its efforts and involvement in the return of kidnapped Ukrainian children.