From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lidia Muhtarovna Yusupova (Лидия
Мухтаровна Юсупова) (born September 15, 1961 in Grozny, Chechnya) is the Coordinator of the law office of the Moscow-based human rights
organization Memorial. Formerly, Yusupova was the
director of the Grozny office of Memorial. Currently, Yusupova is
completing a two year law fellowship in Moscow.
Yusupova was born of ethnically Russian parents in the Chechen
capital of Grozny. She studied Russian Literature at the
Karachaevo-Cherkeski Intstitute. Later she studied law at the
Chechen University in the city of Grozny, and served as a professor
in that field. During the First Chechen War, she witnessed the
tragedy of war, and suffered the loss of several friends,
neighbors, colleagues, and family members. In 2000, during the Second
Chechen War, she decided to devote her life to human rights, using
her legal expertise and personal experience during both wars to
help others that were entangled in the bloody conflict.
Yusupova gathers testimony from victims of human rights abuses, and presses their
cases with law enforcement and military agencies. Not only does
she, to the extent possible, provide the victims with legal
assistance, but she also informs the rest of the world on
violations of human rights, committed by Russian armed
forces and Chechen rebels alike. Yusupova has been described
by the BBC News service as
"the bravest woman in Europe"[1], and
representatives of Amnesty International have
similarly declared her "one of the most courageous women in
Europe".[2] Both Yusupova
and her organization have been nominated for the Nobel Peace
Prize.[3][4]
Yusupova has been awarded the 2004 Martin
Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders and the 2005 Professor Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize.
The International
Federation of Human Rights reported that Yusupova faced death threats for her work on October 12,
2006.[5]
Quotes
- "Mass-scale human-rights violations and state-level terror
still are the order of the day...Everyone now is endangered, not
only those who live in Chechnya, but those who live in Russia as
well... Society will respond. Some counterweight to this lunacy
must emerge, be it in the shape of a new dissident movement, or
other forms we don't yet discern. The authorities will as
inevitably seek to suppress this movement cruelly and brutally. But
suppression will only promote its growth, all the fears
notwithstanding." [6]
- "...we should not give up and say that the situation is
hopeless. There is still our conscience, there is still the memory
of the victims of this war, there is still our duty to try and
prevent further bloodshed. We have to prosecute all the
perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity."[7]
External
links
Wikis
Map
Search