Lidia Yusupova is a Chechen human rights advocate and journalist. She writes for the website Caucasian Knot and the Chechen independent magazine DOSH. She previously worked from 2000 to 2007 as a lawyer and coordinator of the Grozny office of human rights organization Memorial. Memorial is one of very few such organisations that continue to operate in Chechnya. The incidents that Yusupova and her fellow co-workers in Memorial have documented are serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Russian federal and Chechen security forces, committed without fear of legal consequences. During the First Chechen War (December 1994-August 1996), she witnessed the tragedy of war, and suffered the loss of several friends, neighbours, colleagues, and family members. During the Second Chechen War, which began in 2000, she decided to devote her life to human rights, using her legal expertise and personal experience during both wars to help others that were entangled in the bloody conflict. She was awarded the 2004 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in Geneva, Switzerland and the 2005 Rafto Prize for Human Rights “in recognition of her brave and unrelenting efforts to document human rights violations and act as a spokeswoman for the forgotten victims of the war in Chechnya”. In 2006 she was a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was born in Grozny, Chechnya in 1961.
venerdì 23 aprile - ore 16.00
Lidia Yusupova is a Chechen human rights advocate and journalist. She writes for the website Caucasian Knot and the Chechen independent magazine DOSH. She previously worked from 2000 to 2007 as a lawyer and coordinator of the Grozny office of human rights organization Memorial. Memorial is one of very few such organisations that continue to operate in Chechnya. The incidents that Yusupova and her fellow co-workers in Memorial have documented are serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Russian federal and Chechen security forces, committed without fear of legal consequences. During the First Chechen War (December 1994-August 1996), she witnessed the tragedy of war, and suffered the loss of several friends, neighbours, colleagues, and family members. During the Second Chechen War, which began in 2000, she decided to devote her life to human rights, using her legal expertise and personal experience during both wars to help others that were entangled in the bloody conflict. She was awarded the 2004 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in Geneva, Switzerland and the 2005 Rafto Prize for Human Rights “in recognition of her brave and unrelenting efforts to document human rights violations and act as a spokeswoman for the forgotten victims of the war in Chechnya”. In 2006 she was a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was born in Grozny, Chechnya in 1961.