News Center- Shaharzad Akbar, former head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) from 2019 to 2021, received the 2023 Human Rights Award of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, FES) in Berlin.

“She is an impartial voice for democracy and human rights, and did not only criticise the Taliban, but also the Afghan government and the international community during the years of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. She is a genuine advocate for the human rights of all Afghans and set an example for dialogue and reconciliation with her participation in the intra-Afghan peace conference in 2019 in a country torn apart by more than 40 years of war,” said the statement released on the website of the foundation.

Shaharzad Akbar lives in exile with her family. She heads Rawadari, a human rights organization campaigning for human rights in Afghanistan, and is a visiting lecturer at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. In 2021, she was awarded the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law and was a finalist for the Sakharov Prize.

“The presentation of the FES Human Rights Award 2023 to the Afghan human rights activist Shaharzad Akbar sends a signal of unbroken solidarity with the Afghan people, who have been suffering under catastrophic humanitarian conditions since the Taliban took power in August 2021. This signal is closely connected to the important discussion on the lessons learned from 20 years of German and international engagement in Afghanistan and the future of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Sabine Fandrych, General Secretary of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.