The fundraising on the evening of the award ceremony for the Syrian White Helmets raised a total of 1.120 €. With this amount we support the aid for the earthquake victims in Syria in general and in particular the work of the 221 female White Helmets. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all donors once again!

Anne Klein Women's Award 2023 to Joumana Seif

Reasons given by the jury: Anne Klein Women's Award 2023

Honor

The Syrian lawyer, women's rights and human rights activist and lawyer Joumana Seif is awarded with the Anne Klein Women's Award 2023.

Award Winner

Joumana Seif trägt einen blauen Schal und blickt in die Kamera

From a human rights defender to a women's rights activist

Portrait

Syrian lawyer Joumana Seif is the 2023 Anne Klein Women's Laureate. She strives for the political participation of women and the recognition of gender-based violence as a crime against humanity as well as its punishment. Kristin Helberg describes her journey from Damascus to Berlin.

By Kristin Helberg

Anne Klein Women's Award 2023 to Joumana Seif

Press release

The Anne Klein Women's Award 2023 goes to the Syrian lawyer and women's and human rights activist Joumana Seif.

Licence:
Stephan Röhl / CC-BY-SA

Short biography Joumana Seif

Biography

Joumana Seif has been working in the human rights field since 2001 and supported the democratic movements in Syria with a focus on political prisoners. She left Syria in 2012, a year after the start of the uprising against the Assad regime.

An Arabic version of the texts can be found on the pages of our Beirut office

Award Ceremony

Dr. Imme Scholz, Vorstand der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

Picture gallery

Livestream recording

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>> Language: Arabic (اللغة: العربية)

More on the topic: Sexual violence in wars and armed conflicts

The topic of sexual violence in armed conflicts was already a topic of the Anne Klein Women's Prize in previous years. For example, in 2018, when the jury of the Anne Klein Women's Prize honored two women from Colombia, Jineth Bedoya Lima and Mayerlis Angarita Robles, who campaigned for the rights of women in armed conflicts, against the use of structural sexual violence and for peace and processing in Colombia.

Anne Klein Women's Award 2018 to Jineth Bedoya and Mayerlis Angarita

To the spanish version / A la versión española

Joumana Seif blickt vor einem neutralen Hintergrund in die Kamera

Time to move in the right direction

Interview

In the Syrian case the international community failed to prove that human rights are also for the Syrian people, that everyone has the right to be protected. Twelve years of this ongoing war – and the international community did not do anything for the democratization of the country, they only offered humanitarian help. Interview with the winner of the Anne Klein Women's Award 2023, Joumana Seif.

By Marion Kraske

Syria: Systematic Torture and Sexualized Violence

Speech

Torture and sexualized violence are part of everyday life in Syrian prisons. However, human rights violations committed by the Assad regime play no role at the Geneva peace talks. With this in mind, Barbara Unmüßig, calls for women to be included as peace negotiators.

By Barbara Unmüßig

A war crimes prosecutor team inspects buildings that were destroyed by Russian shelling in Borodyanka, Ukraine, on Thursday. | REUTERS

5 examples of Russia breaching Geneva Conventions

Facts

Russia is constantly attacking civilian targets in Ukraine, including residential buildings, factories, educational and health facilities.

Syrische Frauen in einer Unterkunft im Libanon

Frauen, Flucht und sexualisierte Kriegsgewalt - Ein politisches Forderungspapier

Dr. Monika Hauser und Jessica Mosbahi von medica mondiale e. V. erläutern, wie sexualisierte Gewalt und Flucht zusammenhängen und was sich ändern muss, um Frauen auf allen Stationen ihrer Flucht zu schützen.

Our Focus topic: "Gender Based Violence in Armed Conflicts"

Gender-based and sexual violence are very common in virtually all armed conflicts and are often used as strategic weapons of war. Women and girls are mostly affected. There has been important progress at international, regional and national levels: sexual violence is categorised and addressed in legal systems - as war crimes, crimes against humanity, violations of human rights treaties... This is what our Anne Klein Women's Laureate 2023 stands for, this is what we honour her for. Her focus is on Syria. However, sexualised violence in armed conflicts is unfortunately used as the "cheapest means of warfare" in all regions of the world; the scale is appalling and survivors often find no justice or support. We take a closer look at some of the affected regions here.