Dutch Ambassador Honors Pakistani Human Rights Defender Sakib Jirani | News Article

Islamabad, December 8, 2022: Mrs Henny de Vries, Ambassador of the Netherlands to Pakistan, has presented lawyer and human rights advocate Saqib Jillani with the 2022 Embassy Human Rights Tulip Award for outstanding work in promoting human rights and defending human rights defenders. did. The ceremony was held today.

The Embassy Tulip Award is the Dutch government’s annual award for outstanding and courageous human rights defenders. Through this award, the Netherlands helps human rights defenders stay active and share their stories.

“Human rights are always about people. People protected by human rights. But there are also people who are selflessly working to defend, protect and develop human rights,” said Ambassador de Vries. rice field. “Mr Jilani is a remarkable example of a brave human rights defender working to bring about equal rights for all.”

As an attorney, Mr. Jilani has represented women, religious minorities and civil society organizations in cases related to human rights violations. Since 2018, he has defended women in long-drawn and hotly contested #MeToo-related defamation cases. It raised fundamental questions about the right to report sexual harassment, freedom of speech, and whether defamation laws can be used as tools to silence victims of sexual harassment.

He petitioned the Supreme Court of Pakistan on behalf of prominent civil society organizations, leading to the establishment of a commission to enforce minority rights rulings. Since 2019, he has also addressed issues such as religious tolerance in the curriculum, reconstruction of minority places of worship, allocation of special jobs for minorities in government services, and many other issues related to preventing discrimination against minorities. I’ve been working on it.

Supporting human rights defenders is one of the Netherlands’ human rights priorities. “The Dutch government sees human rights as an essential requirement for the stability of a rules-based democratic order. We need good people.”

The award includes funding for projects promoting human rights.