2026: Belkis Florentina Izquierdo Torres
“I accept this award with the conviction that ethnic peoples, peasant communities, citizens of the world, and global society require that international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, and the domestic law of the different states of the world be more inclusive, that they value, respect, and engage in dialogue with the knowledge and justice systems of Indigenous people and local communities with the purpose of protecting human rights form a perspective of relational ontologies, where territories, nature, and ecosystems have value and are not subordinated to human benefit.”
On April 8th, 2026, Advocates and HHRJ awarded the fourth annual Global Advocacy Award (“GAA”) to Judge Belkis Florentina Izquierdo Torres. Also known by her Indigenous name, Aty Seikuinduwa, she serves as a “light in the darkness,” promoting international human rights through her advocacy efforts in Colombia. Judge Izquierdo Torres is a leader of the Arhuaco people, an Indigenous tribe from Gonawindua, in the north of Colombia. In 2014, she was the first Indigenous woman to become an auxiliary judge of the Superior Council of Judicature. As an Indigenous jurist and now a magistrate of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, her career represents a historic step toward the inclusion of ethnic peoples in the highest levels of judicial decision-making.
She is also currently serving as President of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace’s Truth Recognition Chamber, where she has promoted an intercultural and plural understanding of law, challenging homogeneous conceptions of justice and advancing the recognition of Indigenous worldviews, legal systems, and territorial relationships. Her leadership in the Ethnic and Racial Commission of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace has been essential in mainstreaming the ethnic and differential approach throughout the processes of investigation, charging, and adjudication of serious human rights violations committed during the armed conflict.
Judge Izquierdo Torres was nominated alongside Rita Milena Pereira Correia, an indigenous leader from Brazil fighting against corporations for the protection of her indigenous territory, and Riyad Avlar, a former prisoner in Syria originally from Turkey, who has dedicated his life to advocating for political prisoners. These three nominees were recognized at the 2026 Global Advocacy Award Gala.
2025: Depaul Bakulu
“I speak out for my people, I write, I intervene, I organize, and I build solidarity.”
On April 9, 2025, Advocates and HHRJ presented the third annual Global Advocacy Award (“GAA”) to Depaul Bakulu, a Congolese human rights activist, slam poet, and artist. Depaul has long been at the forefront of grassroots efforts for democracy and education across eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As a leader in LUCHA, a Congolese grassroots organization, he has organized campaigns for free elections, accountability for human rights abuses, and development. Depaul has also been fiercely dedicated to LUCHA’s political education work, traveling by motorcycle to villages to lead educational sessions on democracy and human rights.
Depaul frequently draws upon art as a tool of political change and resistance. He is the co-founder of the Goma Slam Session collective and uses his poetry to illuminate the challenges his community faces. Depaul has also spearheaded critical humanitarian initiatives. Following waves of displacement in eastern DRC due to conflict in 2022, Depaul led efforts to provide necessities and educational opportunities to thousands of internally displaced persons. Finally, Depaul was displaced from his home in Goma following the takeover of large parts of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by the M23 armed group and the Rwandan military. Nonetheless, he retains his strong ties to communities in the Rwandan-occupied territories of the DRC.
Depaul was nominated alongside Yvon Janvier, who founded the first and only law school clinic in Haiti, and Mariam Naiem, a cultural scholar from Ukraine focused on decolonizing discourse through a graphic novel called Ukraine: A Short History of a Long War with Russia. These three nominees were recognized at the 2025 Global Advocacy Award Gala.
2024: Brahim Bilal Ramdhane
“We do not only need [to denounce] slavery, we need to do something on the ground for people who are not slaves anymore.”
On April 17, 2024, the second annual Global Advocacy Award (“GAA”) was awarded to Brahim Bilal Ramdhane, a human rights defender and Vice President of the Initiative pour la Résurgence du Mouvement Abolitionniste (IRA) (The Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement), an organization aimed at eradicating slavery in Mauritania. Brahim himself was born into slavery in the 1960s and was liberated after two decades.
The organization’s actions include sit-ins, hunger strikes, marches, and lawsuits, which have led to the liberation of thousands of enslaved people. In 2010, IRA-Mauritania organized a protest that led to the first arrest of a slaveowner by the government of Mauritania.
In 2014, Brahim participated in the “Caravan of Liberty,” which worked to inform villagers of their rights and document violations across Mauritania. For his peaceful advocacy as an anti-slavery activist, Brahim was sentenced to two years of imprisonment and was released after 18 months of severe prison conditions. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that Brahim’s detention was a violation of international law. Brahim continues his work as an activist as president of the Sahel Foundation, an organization that defends human rights, supports children’s education, and fosters social peace.
Brahim was nominated alongside Joey Joleen Mataele, a Tongan activist fighting for the rights of LGBTQI+ and gender-diverse communities across the Pacific and the Commonwealth, and Ola Al-Aghbary, a Yemeni peace activist, civil society leader, and founder of the Sheba Youth Foundation for Development. These three nominees were recognized at the 2024 Global Advocacy Award Gala.
2023: Issa Amro
“I have three choices: to use violence and I will be the hero of Palestine for one month; to accept to live under occupation and accept to be a slave; or to fight the occupation using non-violent resistance. So you choose: everybody would choose to fight using non-violence.”
On April 23, 2023, the inaugural Global Advocacy Award (“GAA”) was awarded to Issa Amro, a prominent Palestinian activist and human rights defender based in the West Bank. A Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Issa has been internationally recognized for his use of non-violent resistance against the Israeli occupation and his efforts to create a future where Palestinians can live freely and without fear. In 2010, Issa was also declared “human rights defender of the year in Palestine” by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and was later recognized as a Human Rights Defender by both Amnesty International and the United Nations. In 2024, The New York Times Magazine called him “the Palestinian Gandhi.”
Issa is the founding member of several non-violent organizations such as the Hebron branch of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the Arab Non-Violence Network, the Hebron Defenders, and the Youth Against Settlements (YAS), a grassroots organization that provides media outlets on-the-ground information on events occurring in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). As such, Issa has been deeply involved in monitoring the application of international human rights and humanitarian law in the OPT, organizing protests, and supporting local Palestinian communities.
Despite having been detained, tortured, attacked, evicted, and subjected to judicial harassment by Israeli forces, Issa has remained fiercely dedicated to non-violent resistance in Palestine.
Issa was nominated alongside Alexander Kapshul, a Belarusian lawyer and current political prisoner for his work supporting labor rights, and Indyra Mendoza, an LGBTQ+ advocate in Honduras who founded Red Lesbica Cattrachas. These three nominees were recognized at the 2023 Global Advocacy Award Gala.