Rights & Democracy presents the John Humphrey Freedom Award each year to an organization or individual from any country or region of the world, including Canada, for exceptional achievement in the promotion of human rights and democratic development. The Award consists of a grant of $25,000, as well as a speaking tour of Canadian cities to help increase awareness of the recipient’s human rights work.
It is named in honour of the Canadian John Peters Humphrey, a human rights law professor who prepared the first draft of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The winner will be selected by an international jury composed of five members of Rights & Democracy's Board of Directors:
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Professor of Political Sociology at the American University in Cairo and Secretary General of the Egyptian Independent Commission for Electoral Review.
Peter Li, Faculty Member of the Department of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan, and Chair of the Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration‘s economic domain.
Sofia Macher, Coordinator, Governance and Human Rights, Instituto de Defensa Legal and Former Member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Peru.
Vitit Muntarbhorn, Professor of Law at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, and Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the Commission on Human Rights.
Janice Stein, Director of the Munk Centre for International Relations, University of Toronto, and Chairperson of Rights & Democracy's Board of Directors.
1992 – Instituto de Defensa Legal ( Peru )
1993 – La Plate-forme des organismes haïtiens de défense des droits humains (Haïti).
1994 – Campaign for Democracy ( Nigeria ) and Egyptian Organization for Human Rights ( Egypt )
1995 – Bishop Carlos F. X. Belo ( East Timor )
1996 – Sultana Kamal ( Bangladesh )
1997 – Father Javier Giraldo ( Colombia)
1998 – Palden Gyatso ( Tibet )
1999 – Cynthia Maung and Min Ko Naing ( Burma )
2000 – Reverend Timothy Njoya ( Kenya )
2001 – Sima Samar ( Afghanistan )
2002 – Ayesha Imam ( Nigeria )
2003 – Kimy Pernía Domicó ( Colombia ) and Angélica Mendoza de Ascarza ( Peru )
2004 – Godeliève Mukasarasi ( Rwanda )
2005 – Yan Christian Warinussy ( West Papua )