The eighteenth International Hrant Dink Award laureates were announced during the ceremony which took place on Tuesday, September 15 at Harbiye Muhsin Ertuğrul Stage. The award is granted to Süheyla Doğan from Turkey, who For refusing to give up defending the Kazdağları region and all its natural and cultural resources, striving to improve women’s human rights, vocally challenging state-sponsored ecocide projects, and promoting the right to coexist with nature; and to Raji Sourani from Palestine, for his continuous work under conditions that render the legal documentation of human rights violations and the pursuit of accountability nearly impossible; for speaking truth to power without ever bowing to threats, pressures or sanctions; for holding to the rule of law, justice and dignity for victims as the guiding principles of his professional and moral path; and for demonstrating to us that the law can still conquer impunity.
The award ceremony was narrated by Şebnem Hassanisoughi. 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 “No matter how hopeless, exhausting or disheartening it may sometimes feel, we will continue to say: peace, peace, peace. We want peace. Every effort, every endeavour made in the pursuit of peace and justice is precious. It is also a dignified undertaking for those who commit themselves to it. True peace, of course, requires courage—the courage to face the truth and to confront what lies deep beneath the surface.” Please click here to read the full speech of Rakel Dink.
As an invited speaker by the International Hrant Dink Award Committee, Tûba Çandar gave a speech highlighting once again the spirit of solidarity in the ceremony with the following words, “Because the journalist Hrant Dink was also a healer… He worked with his hands. When he spoke to people, he could not help but reach out and touch them. And everyone he touched would undergo a change, a transformation. Because he carried within him enough love and warmth for everyone, and he shared this gift bestowed upon him with an utterly spontaneous, almost unrestrained naturalness. Like every healer, as he healed us, he too was healed. Because we, Turks and Armenians, had fallen ill some hundred years ago…Because of all that was inflicted and all that was endured on these lands…The path to healing would be through reaching out and touching one another. Through speaking while reaching out to one another…Through conversation, we would understand each other, accept each other, and face our past.” Please click here to read the full speech of Tûba Çandar.
In her speech Süheyla Doğan stated that “We keep growing our hope…We know that we have no other choice but to hope, and we know that better days will ultimately come… And just as I have done until now, from this day forward, I will continue my struggle for a life that is more egalitarian, just, secular, and ecological with all that I am, with my faith, my love, and my hope.”
Please click here to read the full acceptance speech of Süheyla Doğan.
In his acceptance speech, Raji Sourani stated “The award belongs to the victims and survivors who have trusted and cooperated with us with their testimonies, often recounting the most painful moments of their lives because they still believe that truth matters and that one day justice will be achieved and prevail. It belongs to all segments of the Palestinian society, including journalists, doctors, humanitarian workers, and rescue teams, who refused to allow the pain and suffering of their people to be erased or normalized. And it belongs to every person, in Palestine and beyond, who continues to insist that international law must protect everyone equally regardless of their nationality, color, or race.”
Please click here to read the full acceptance speech of Raji Sourani.
The 2026 'Inspirations' were presented in a video commemorating those who have illuminated humanity through their work in Turkey and across the world, honoring people and communities who offer hope. This year's 'Inspirations' included people and initiatives spanning a geography from South Africa to India, Greenland to Palestine, Albania to the United States, and Bulgaria to Nepal — where youth led the way in filling public squares — inspiring through their work on resistance to femicide, racism and discrimination, the search for truth for the forcibly disappeared, ecological rights advocacy, reckoning with colonial and war crimes, labor and migrant rights, and youth-led struggles for democracy.
Şebnem Hassanisoughi hosted this special evening, while Maral Ayvaz, Ari Barokas, Anna Sara Poghosyan, Raffi Hayra, and Sasa Serap performed their music on stage.
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.
2026 JURY
2025 International Hrant Dink Award Laureate Bülent Şık, 2025 International Hrant Dink Award Laureate Helena Maleno Garzon, expert in memory studies and museology Bonita Bennett, researcher, editor and cultural organization director Asena Günal, historian and academic Cemal Kafadar, investigative journalist and author Fariba Nawa, international relations scholar Kalypso Nicolaidis, playwright and director Berkun Oya, human rights defender Feray Salman, civil society representative in the fields of democracy and human rights Naira Sultanyan, and Hrant Dink Foundation President Rakel Dink.
The International Hrant Dink Award was previously presented to food safety and environmental health researcher Bülent Şık, who was prosecuted for exposing withheld carcinogen data, and human rights defender Helena Maleno Garzón from Spain, who has worked to defend the lives and rights of migrants on Europe's borders, in 2025, 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 2026 International Hrant Dink Award Booklet.
