The seventeenth International Hrant Dink Award laureates were announced during the ceremony which took place on Monday, September 15 at İstanbul Lütfi Kırdar International Convention and Exhibition Centre. The award is granted to Bülent Şık from Turkey, who plays an important role in providing public access to vital information by sharing about technical issues such as food safety in a clear and concise way; who demonstrates scientific integrity, an insistence on defending the public interest, and the courage to take risks; and who has a vision of information not as an instrument of power but as the shared right of society; and to Helena Maleno Garzón from Spain, who has dedicated her life to making visible the invisible violence of borders and defending migrants’ right to life, and who has worked courageously for years to make heard the voices of thousands struggling for survival on migration routes.
The award ceremony was narrated by Hazal Türesan. The ceremony was held at at İstanbul Lütfi Kırdar International Convention and Exhibition Centre. At the ceremony, Rakel Dink, President of the Hrant Dink Foundation, delivered a welcome message to the audience on behalf of the foundation. Rakel Dink greeted the audience with the words “The rule of law is a necessity for us all. Where law is absent, insecurity reigns. Unrest, chaos, anxiety, dismay — these take hold. Violence and bullying, anger, resentment, and hatred grow. No one knows whose hand is in whose pocket. It is true: we all need justice—as much as we need water and air. If the strong are not just, then the weak suffer the most.”.
On behalf of the International Hrant Dink Award Committee, Ayşe Kadıoğlu gave a speech highlighting once again the spirit of solidarity in the ceremony with the following words, “We came here this evening to embrace the light, to draw strength and courage from one another. We came here to affirm that we are not done yet, that we are still alive, that our story is not over. We are here to applaud those who do not give up on human connection."
Please click here to read the full speech of Rakel Dink.
Please click here to read the full speech of Ayşe Kadığlu.
In his speech Bülent Şık stated that “When a country’s air is poisoned, its waters contaminated, its soil saturated with heavy metals — and when all this is known yet ignored — there can be no justice, no equality, no dignified life. In such a landscape, not only nature is poisoned, but also the bonds between human beings.”
Please click here to read the full acceptance speech of Bülent Şık.
In her acceptance speech, Helena Maleno Garzón stated “We are here to confront a racism that underpins the ideology behind death and suffering. We are here to honour the 31,258 people whose deaths our organisation, Caminando Fronteras, has documented along the borders of Spain and Africa from 2018 to the present, and the thousands who lose their lives each day in borderlands. Their memory sustains us. For their sake, we cannot surrender to despair or fear. Dignity is the way forward when the roots of life and solidarity are under attack on so many fronts.”
Please click here to read the full acceptance speech of Helena Maleno Garzón.
‘Inspirations’, which honors people and organizations in Turkey and around the world who inspire humanity with their actions while raising hope was screened at the ceremony. This year’s Inspirations featured individuals and initiatives from Peru to France, from the Congo to Serbia, and from New Zealand to Hungary that have been inspiring through their work in areas such as human rights, justice, the fight against sexism, economic injustice and poverty, ecological advocacy, and anti-war movement.
At the ceremony, Zelişah on duduk, Ari Hergel on guitar, Sevan İnyapan on kanun, and Sevan Karabetoğlu on dhol accompanied Sibil's vocals in Sayat Nova's song "Nazani". Zhanna Davtyan Arman Peshtmaljyan and Stepan Ter-Ghevondyan from our close neighbor Armenia participated in the ceremony with the song ‘Amran Gisher’ recorded for this evening. Selin Sümbültepe and Erkan Zeki Ar joined the night with their performance of “Akantüs / Hatay'a Ağıt”, which Sümbültepe wrote for Hatay, the city where she was born, filmed at the 23.5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory. Gevende was with us on stage with the songs Ağlaya Ağlaya, Beboyi Yerki and Sanki. The song “Ahparig”, written and composed by Hüsnü Arkan for Hrant Dink, was performed for the first time this evening, with Ceylan Ertem accompanying Hüsnü Arkan on stage. Additionally, the music video of the Ahparig song, adapted by Ümit Kıvanç with footage from his film “Memory Too Low For Words”, met with the audience for the first time.
Every year, one of the indispensable moments of the International Hrant Dink Award ceremony is the original videos produced for the ceremony. Ümit Kıvanç conceived the concept of the videos that have been prepared since 2009, while Mahir Günşiray and Eric Nazarian provided the voice-overs that brought life to the spirit of the videos.
The jury of this year’s award includes 2024 International Hrant Dink Award laureate Mor Çatı Women’s Shelter Foundation, 2024 International Hrant Dink Award laureate Rugiatu Neneh Turay, lawyer and academic Aslı Bâli, political scientist, academic, and author Fatmagül Berktay, human rights lawyer Ara Ghazarian, human rights lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck, historian and political scientist, academic Reşat Kasaba, orchestra conductor Cem Mansur, journalist and author Zeynep Oral, theater and film actress, voice-over artist Tilbe Saran and president of the Hrant Dink Foundation Rakel Dink.
The International Hrant Dink Award was previously presented to long-standing feminist organisation whic has been working for many years to combat violence against women Mor Çatı Women's Shelter Foundation and women's rights defender Ragiatu Neneh Turay struggling spanning years against female gender mutilation of women and girls in Sierra Leone in 2024, independent radio station Açık Radyo, human rights and environmental rights defender José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective from Colombia in 2023, women’s rights defender Shaharzad Akbar, human rights organisation Human Rights Foundation of Turkey in 2022, investigative journalist Maria Ressa, women’s rights activist and lawyer Canan Arın in 2021, human rights activist Osman Kavala and women’s rights activist Mozn Hassan in 2020, Nebahat Akkoç, the founder of KAMER, who has been working to raise awareness about women's rights for many years, and Agnes Kharshiing, who has been fighting for the rights and environmental rights of the poor, women, children and disadvantaged people in the region where she lives in India in 2019, human rights defender Murat Çelikkan and human rights organization Mwatana in 2018, lawyer Eren Keskin who is bringing human rights violations to the agenda of both Turkey and the international community, and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who draws attention to the inequalities and human rights violations all over the world in 2017, Theresa Kachindamoto, chief of the tribe working on children's human rights and education rights in Malawi, and to the Diyarbakır Bar Association struggling for human rights and the rule of law in 2016, women's rights advocate Samar Badawi from Saudi Arabia, and KAOS GL struggling for LGBT rights and equality in Turkey in 2015, Şebnem Korur Fincancı, forensic expert and human rights advocate, and activist Angie Zelter in 2014, to human rights advocate Nataša Kandić and Turkey’s longest continuing act of civil disobedience who are searching for their lost loved ones Saturday Mothers/People in 2013, writer İsmail Beşikçi and human rights organization International 'Memorial' Community in 2012, journalist, writer Ahmet Altan and journalist, human rights defender Lydia Cacho in 2011, Turkey Conscientious Objection Movement and jurist Baltasar Garzón in 2010, journalist-writer Alper Görmüş, and journalist-writer Amira Hass in 2009.
Please click here to see the 2025 International Hrant Dink Award Booklet.
