During a ceremony co-hosted by Girls not Brides and held in the margins of the first Girl Summit organised by the Government of United Kingdom in London on 23 July 2014, Niccolo’ Figa-Talamanca, Secretary General of No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ), handed over the “No Peace Without Justice Award for Human Rights” to Qamar Naseem in person.

Qamar Naseem is the head of Blue Veins, an organisation established in Peshawar, Pakistan, that works to prevent early and forced marriage in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas, where threats and retaliation against those who fight for gender rights are frequent. Blue Veins is part of the “Girls not Brides” network.
In receiving the award, Qamar Naseem stressed that “this award should not be considered as an achievement for Blue Veins or for myself. I dedicate this award it to all the activists, organisations and members of the Girls not Brides Network working around the world to prevent child and forced marriage”.

The purpose of the NPWJ Human Rights Award is to encourage and support the work of all those men and women who are fighting around the world for the affirmation of the rule of law, a precondition for the existence of fundamental rights of the person. The award has two categories: one for activities carried out in Italy and one for activities carried out at the international level. The Jury who selected the laureates was composed of Italian and international personalities, including the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda; the Chair of the Convention People’s Party of Ghana, Samia Nkrumah; President of the Extraordinary Commission for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights of the Italian Senate, Luigi Manconi; Secretary of the Italian Radicals, Rita Bernardini; and Secretary to the Italian Prime Minister, Sandro Gozi.

• Watch the video of the ceremony award

For more information, please visit the special page dedicated to NPWJ Human Rights Award 2014.