UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan’s renowned social activist and an outspoken critic of the country’s powerful military establishment Asma Jahangir was posthumously honoured by the UN with a prestigious human rights award.
Jahangir, who fought against religious extremism and for the rights of oppressed minorities in Pakistan, died of cardiac arrest at the age of 66 in February.
She was honored with the 2018 United Nations Human Rights Prize, an award given every five years since 1968. Jahangir’s daughter Munizae Jahangir received the award on her behalf from President of the UN General Assembly Mar a Fernanda Espinosa at a special ceremony here Tuesday.
Among others who won the award include girls’ education rights activist Rebeca Gyumi of Tanzania, Brazil’s first indigenous woman lawyer Joenia Batista de Carvalho and Front Line Defenders from Ireland, working to protect human rights defenders at risk. PTI
