Support brave women journalists and human rights defenders working in conflict zones by funding our work and the RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award!

JOIN US on 7 March when RAW in WAR honours the 2019 Anna Politkovskaya Award winner Alex Crawford (Sky News special correspondent) at “Refusing to be Silenced”, during the Women of the World (WOW) festival at the Southbank Centre in London. Crawford has for decades covered some of the most brutal and dangerous wars and conflicts taking place around the globe.

On Alex Crawford receiving the 2019 Anna Politkovskaya Award, Lord Frank Judd, a member of the 2019 Award Nominations Committee, said:

“In the best traditions of Anna, Alex Crawford is a powerful example of courage, integrity, and the constant commitment to truth for journalists across the world. Such journalism is vital for freedom and accountable government. It is disturbing how so many journalists of the highest calibre are being persecuted or killed across the world for their refusal to compromise.”

To mark the anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder on 7th October 2006, and to honour Anna and other women like her in the world, RAW in WAR (Reach All Women in WAR) annually presents the Anna Politkovskaya Award to a woman human rights defender working in conflict zones who, like Anna, stands up for the victims of this conflict, often at great personal risk. 

WE NEED YOUR VITAL SUPPORT! Your donation helps us support brave women journalists and activists from war and conflict zones by financially supporting their work, amplifying their voices by providing them with a platform to address international bodies and policy-makers, as well as the media; celebrate their work and bravery by organizing the Anna Politkovskaya Award events every year in London and holding the Anna Politkovskaya Memorial Lecture on the eve of the anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder on 7th October. 

WITH YOUR HELP, we are able to continue to support the work of our award winners, beyond just presenting the award to them:  we often mobilize the Network of Anna Politkovskaya Award Winners – a remarkable group of women human rights defenders from around the world – to advocate for the safety and ending the persecution of a fellow award winner, a journalist or an activist, whose life is threatened because she is refusing to be silenced and is speaking out about the atrocities against civilians in war and conflict zones.  

FOR EXAMPLE, WITH YOUR HELP, IN 2019 WE WERE ABLE TO URGENTLY MOBILIZE SUPPORT AND ADVOCATE ON BEHALF OF ONE OF OUR AWARD WINNERS, WHOSE LIFE WAS ON THE LINE. In May 2019, Pashtun women’s rights activist and 2017 Award winner, Gulalai Ismail (pictured above), was threatened with imprisonment by the Pakistani security forces for speaking out about sexual violence against women and girls in the so-called “tribal areas” in Pakistan. Fearing for her life, Gulalai went into hiding. Gulalai Ismail is the co-founder with her sister, Saba, of “Aware Girls”, a peace organization, promoting non-violence among young people in the North of Pakistan – Nobel Prize for peace winner, Malala Yousafzai, was a trainee of Gulalai and Saba, when she was 10. We urgently mobilized extraordinary international support for Gulalai by reaching out to key international media, by travelling to New York and Geneva and advocating directly with Governments, diplomats and UN human rights bodies, both at the UN Security Council in New York City and at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. We mobilized our Network of Anna Politkovskaya Award Winners, together with the women Nobel Peace Prize laureates from the Nobel Women’s Initiative to speak out together on behalf of Gulalai’s safety and providing safety to all women human rights defenders working in war and conflict zones.

The founder of RAW, Mariana Katzarova, advocated for Gulalai and the urgent need to bring her to safety by speaking on a panel, chaired by Canada’s Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, at the high-level Media Freedom Conference in London in July 2019, attended by more than 120 government delegations, led by their foreign ministers. As a result of this strong and urgent international advocacy campaign Gulalai Ismail successfully reached safety and continues her human rights work, currently outside Pakistan.

Anna lived a life of courage and truth-telling in the face of grave danger, just like her friend and the first recipient of the Anna Politkovskaya Award, Natalia Estemirova, a Chechen human rights activist and freelance journalist.

Every year since 2007, RAW in WAR organises the Anna Politkovskaya Award events - a powerful and special celebration of the courage of the winners of the award, who risk their lives in support of the victims and survivors of violence, while working as journalists and activists in war and conflict zones. To learn more about the award events, for example the ceremony for the the 2013 Award winner Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan please CLICK HERE

On Saturday 7 March 2020 during “Refusing to be Silenced”, you, our supporters, will be able to hear from Alex Crawford, Svetlana Alexievich, Pat Mitchell (founder of TED Women conferences and former CEO of PBS), Lord Frank Judd (Member of the UK House of Lords), actress Rosamund Pike, Elena Kudimova (Anna Politkovskaya’s sister), Mariana Katzarova (founder of RAW in WAR) and others, shine a spotlight on the abuses against women and girls in areas of conflict, and the price of speaking out on freedom of expression.

This year’s award is presented by the 2018 winner of the award and Nobel Prize in literature laureate, Belarusian writer, Svetlana Alexievich (pictured below). 

In 2019 RAW in WAR launched a new initiative, a Leadership Programme for young refugees interested in human rights, called “JOY’S BRIGADE”, to honour our colleague and friend Joy Watkins, who passed away in August 2018. As part of the programme prominent journalists and human rights defenders, including Anna Politkovskaya Award winners, will provide mentoring and internship opportunities at their organisations and at RAW in WAR, to support the young persons' development involvement in human rights. Lejla Damon, born during the war in Bosnia as a result of the gang-rape of her Muslim mother by Serbian soldiers and who was later adopted by British journalists Dan Damon and Sian Damon, is the first participant in “Joy’s Brigade”.

Being a small charity of volunteers, RAW in WAR must raise money to undertake all of its activities, which range from the pivotal advocacy campaigns to financial support necessary to continue vital work in conflict. GET INVOLVED, DONATE AND SUPPORT RAW IN WAR’S WORK!

RAW in WAR’s current work:

• The Anna Politkovskaya Award - previous award winners include Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan, and Vian Dakhil, the only Yazidi MP in Iraq’s Parliament and a 2016 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. We envisage to further build the strength and to support the Network of Anna Politkovskaya Award Winners for joint advocacy and solidarity campaigns in support of the work and safety of women human rights defenders from war and conflict. 
• Refusing To Be Silenced – this is a platform through which human rights abuses against women and girls can be discussed, and has included previous Anna Politkovskaya Award winners. Our aim is to share their experiences and voices with a wider audience and enable a discussion, which we hope will inspire others to take action in their own communities. We are hoping to expand this forum in the future to make positive policy change.
• Support the work of women human rights defenders from war and conflict, including the winners of the Anna Politkovskaya Award, who are working in Chechnya, Colombia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Darfur, Ukraine and Pakistan. In May 2017, RAW in WAR supported the efforts of our 2016 Award winner, Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima. RAW’s Founder and Chair, Mariana Katzarova, visited Colombia and took part in Jineth’s campaign “No Es Hora De Callar” (“Now is not the time to remain silent!”) – extending support to women survivors of sexual violence in the conflict.
• In October 2019, to mark the anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder, RAW in WAR held the inaugural Anna Politkovskaya Memorial Lecture. The first lecture was delivered by Nobel Prize laureate and Anna Politkovskaya Award winner, Svetlana Alexievich at the British Library in London. The launch of the Memorial Lecture was also supported by the English PEN. We aim that the Memorial Lecture will be delivered by the women winners of the Award, as well as by selected prominent journalists and human rights defenders from war and conflict zones, who have an urgent and important message and need help to amplify their voice internationally. The Memorial Lecture could also be delivered by prominent supporters of the Anna Politkovskaya Award, who have made a significant contribution to enhance protection of women human rights defenders and to alleviate suffering in war and conflict zones. JOIN US IN OCTOBER 2020 in London for the next Memorial Lecture which will be delivered by Alex Crawford, followed by a conversation with Svetlana Alexievich. 

The 2015 Award winner Kholoud (Waleed) Helmi, the co-founder of the main Syrian underground newspaper ‘Enab Baladi’, which exposes the atrocities that continue to take place on the streets of Syria, and 2014 Award winner Vian Dakhil, the brave Yazidi MP in the Iraq Parliament, both took part in our Refusing To Be Silenced event in March 2016, as part of the WOW - Women of the World Festival at the Southbank Centre in London - see our 2016 Refusing To Be Silenced video for an inspirational example of our work CLICK HERE.

WE NEED YOU TO GET INVOLVED! Please donate so that we can further support women like Alex, Svetlana, Jineth, Gulalai, Kholoud, Vian and Malala.

For more information about RAW, please see our current website – CLICK HERE.

Email us at: [email protected]

Join us on Facebook and Twitter (@RAWinWAR  @Refuse2beSilent)