The award is considered the oldest and one of the most prestigious international honors given to a lawyer
ISLAMABAD:
Lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, received the prestigious Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize in recognition of their work in favor of human rights and marginalized communities, we learned on Tuesday.
Imaan and Chattha are currently serving prison terms after a district and sessions court in Islamabad convicted them earlier this year in a case linked to controversial social media posts and sentenced each of them to 17 years in prison.
According to a press release published on June 13 by the Medico-Legal Union for the Protection of Human Rights (UFDU), this award is considered the oldest and one of the most prestigious international distinctions awarded to a lawyer.
Created in memory of Ludovic Trarieux, French lawyer and founder of the League for the Defense of Human and Citizen Rights in 1898, the prize is awarded each year to a lawyer who has made an exceptional contribution to the defense of human rights, the rule of law and the fight against racism and all forms of intolerance through his professional commitment.
The awards ceremony took place in the Parlamentino Hall of the National Council of Lawyers in Rome. Among those present, lawyer Antonino Galletti, coordinator of the Commission on European and International Law at the National Bar Council.
The statement noted that in recent years, Imaan and Chattha have carried out their work “against a backdrop of increasing pressure on lawyers and human rights defenders in Pakistan, according to international organizations and observers.”
