The UN Human Rights Prize is celebrating its five winners – two individuals and three organizations – for their outstanding contributions within their fields of human rights. The winners are: Julienne Lusenge of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Julio Pereyra Sánchez of Uruguay and the organizations Viasna, The Amman Center for Human Rights Studies, and the Global Coalition of civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, social movements and local communities for the universal recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

UN Human Rights received the UN Heroes Award by the United Nations Foundation, recognizing the work of human rights officers in the field offices across the globe.

“There is a correlation between skin colour and social class,” said Stephanie Sewell, a UN Human Rights 2019 African Descent Fellow. Sewell says colourism, discrimination based on skin tone, impacts the human rights of the majority of Jamaicans.

Mueda Nawanat was born without a nationality, and only became a citizen of Thailand, the country where she was born, when she was 21. Today, she is an advocate for stateless people and has helped many obtain citizenship. She is also a UN Human Rights Fellow.