Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh awarded Václav Havel Human Rights Prize

Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian human rights lawyer and activist, has been awarded this year’s Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, the Council of Europe announced on Monday. She is known for defending activists, journalists, minorities and people facing execution in Iran, and has repeatedly been arrested and imprisoned for her work.

The other finalists were Iranian-American journalist and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad and Hungarian human rights lawyer Márta Pardavi.

The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize is awarded every year by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation to honour outstanding civil society work in defence of human rights.