The ICJ is pleased to announce that the 2011 winner of the Martin Ennals award is Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera.
Kasha Jacqueline is a co-founder and Executive Director of Freedom and Roam Uganda, an LGBT rights organization in Uganda. Kasha is a bold and courageous human rights defender. She regularly appears on television and radio programs in Uganda and is outspoken in her defense of human rights. Kasha has been at the forefront of the civil society
campaign against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which would impose the death penalty for certain acts of “aggravated homosexuality” and also criminalizes freedom of expression and association concerning promotion
of homosexuality. Kasha was one of the three petitioners in the case against Rolling Stone, a Ugandan newspaper that had published photographs and addresses of “Uganda’s Top Homos” and urged readers to “hang them.” In January 2011, the High Court of Uganda at Kampala found that the newspaper had violated the petitioners’ rights to respect for
human dignity and privacy and issued an injunction.
The ICJ has tremendous respect for Kasha and her colleagues and will
continue to work with and support them in their efforts against injustice.
The Chairman of the Jury of the MEA, Hans Thoolen, describes the
laureate as “an exceptional woman of a rare courage, fighting under
death threat for human dignity and the rights of homosexuals and marginalised people in Africa.”
The Ceremony of the Martin Ennals Award will take place in the Victoria Hall of Geneva later this
year.
HRCP Blog 