The Human Rights Defenders Tulip is an annual award for individuals who have shown exceptional moral courage in protecting and promoting the rights of his or her fellow citizens. The award was established by the Netherlands government in 2007,[1] and presented for the first time on 10 December 2008. The purpose of the award is to honour human rights defenders, "lifting them out of anonymity in order to give them extra protection".
The prize consists of a statuette, a sum of €10,000, and the prizewinner can obtain up to €100,000 funding for his/her work.[2]
The 2008 prize winner [3] was Justine Masika Bihamba from Goma in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her organisation, Women's Synergy for the Victims of Sexual Violence (Synergie des femmes pour les Victimes des violences Sexuelles – SFVS) has since 2002 been fighting the massive use of sexual violence in the armed conflict in the east of the DRC.
The 2009 prize winner [4] was Shadi Sadr from Tehran, Iran, a women's rights activist and campaigner against stoning as an execution method.