On 10 December 2025, the international Human Rights Day, France and Germany are recognizing 14 laureates of the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law.
Since 2016, to mark Human Rights Day, France and Germany have honoured figures who campaign for human rights with exceptional courage and commitment. The Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law recognizes the essential contribution made by civil society worldwide to respect for human dignity and the protection of freedom and justice.
Through their commitment, these prizewinners give a voice to those whose rights are often ignored. Many of them risk their freedom, often their lives, amid the rise in authoritarian tendencies in the world, which challenge human rights and democratic structures. Several laureates have been and remain exposed to state and transnational repression.
This year’s prizewinners include:
- Ms Sumaya Islam (Bangladesh)
- Ms Kristina Ljevak Bajramović (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- Ms Andréia Coutinho (Brazil)
- Ms Nelly Godelive Mbang Mbangu (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
- Ms Lela Tsiskarishvili (Georgia)
- Mr Ismael Moreno Coto (Honduras)
- Ms Dwi Rubiyanti Kholifah (Indonesia)
- Ms Yanar Mohammed (Iraq)
- Ms Fathiya Ali Abdo Maamari (Yemen)
- Mr Pirbhu Satyani (Pakistan)
- Ms Laura Miti (Zambia)
- Mme Maja Stojanović (Serbia)
- Caesar (Mr Farid al-Madhan) (Syria)
On 10 December 2025, M. Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and Mr Gunther Krichbaum, Minister of State for Europe of the Federal Republic of Germany, presented the prize to Mr Farid al-Madhan, known under the pseudonym Caesar, who, in the “Caesar report” of 2014, documented acts of torture, arbitrary executions and inhuman treatment inflicted on thousands of detainees in Syrian prisons, through more than 55,000 photographs.
