Sotoudeh Gets Human Rights Prize of German Judges Association

Berlin. The German Judges Association (DRB) awards its Human Rights Prize to the Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.

“Nasrin Sotoudeh has become a symbol of the Iranian civil rights movement through her courage and tireless commitment to human rights and the rule of law,” the presidents of the German Judges Association, Barbara Stockinger and Joachim Lüblinghoff, said in Berlin on Wednesday. “With the Human Rights Prize of the German Judges Association, we want to honor her highly impressive commitment in Iran and to bring Sotoudeh’s fate further to the public attention. Especially now she needs particularly wide international support.”

At the moment Sotoudeh is on hunger strike in Iranian custody to protest against the conditions of detention during the corona pandemic. Iran has released numerous detainees during the pandemic so far. But Sotoudeh and other civil rights activists remained behind bars.

57-year-old Sotoudeh is one of the most known Iranian human rights lawyers worldwide. She also defended Shirin Ebadi, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003. Most recently, Sotoudeh stood up for women who protested against the headscarf requirement. Already in 2010, she was sentenced to eleven years in prison for alleged propaganda against the system, but was released in 2013 after international protests. According to the International Society for Human Rights, she was most recently sentenced to 33 years in prison and 148 lashes.