Anne Klein Women's Award 2014

The 2014 awardee: Imelda Marrufo Nava

The 2014 Anne Klein Women's Award went to lawyer, feminist and women's activist Imelda Marrufo Nava from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The courageous fighter for women's rights is passionate about outlawing and prosecuting gender-based violence. Already as a law student, Imelda Marrufo began with a group to document femicides and to give names, faces and histories to those murdered. As a board member of Mesa de Mujeres, she does lobbying, campaigning and public relations work, accompanies human rights defenders who have experienced violence to court and supports relatives of murdered women in prosecution and finding justice. She has played a major role in making the situation in Juarez and the work of Mesa de Mujeres known throughout Mexico.

Imelda's insistence on not giving up on her hometown despite everything and on making Ciudad Juarez livable again is particularly impressive.

Imelda fearlessly confronts violence, exposes herself to danger on a daily basis, and provides exemplary courage to all those who threaten to despair at the scale and brutality of violence against women in the border region between Mexico and the USA. Her contribution to the classification of gender-based violence against women in Ciudad Juarez as femicide and against the impunity of the perpetrators is exemplary.