The Award, which is now in its 11^th year, is given to a human rights defender who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of human rights in their community over the past twelve months. The EU congratulates the three shortlisted nominees, who were chosen following a review of dozens of nominations received from members of the public.

The winner of the EU Human Rights Defenders Award 2022 will be announced during a ceremony in Kampala hosted by the Embassy of Belgium on 23^rd May 2022.

The EU encourages members of the public who would like more information about the award to contact us on DELEGATION-UGANDA-HUMAN-RIGHTS-DEFENDERS@eeas.europa.eu.

Eron Kiiza - Co-founder and the managing partner of Kiiza & Mugisha Advocates Attorneys and an Advocate of the High Court of Uganda. He is also an environmentalist and is experienced in public interest litigation and human rights. He is actively engaged in human rights enforcement and standing up against gross human rights violations by state agencies and some top government officials. He has done pro-bono works for torture suspects and victims of illegal/forced land evictions in different parts of the country. In 2021, Eron was part of the legal team that secured the release of Nicholas Opiyo. Recently Eron defended Novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija. Also in 2021, he led a campaign against the continued degradation of Bugoma Forest in Hoima District and is leading a suit against the Uganda National Environment Authority for giving away the natural forestland illegally. His campaign has generated public and legal pressure against Hoima. 

Primah Kwagala - Primah Kwagala is an award-winning human rights lawyer, Chairperson of Female Lawyers in the Uganda Law Society and Executive Director of the Women's Probono Initiative (WPI) - an Organization she founded whose vision is a Uganda free of violence and discrimination against women and girls. WPI works to achieve their vision through legal representation of vulnerable women and girls suffering discrimination, legal empowerment, research and knowledge sharing.  Her achievements in recent years include repatriation of Ugandan women trafficked in the Middle East; uncovering the abuse of children by an American volunteer in Busoga; and securing release of women unfairly imprisoned during the COVID-19 lockdown. She has received a number of awards for her work and in 2020 she was named Peace and Reconciliation Laureate by the German and French Embassies to Uganda in honour of her work defending women against violence and discrimination in Uganda. On Women's Day 2022 was named by the US embassy to Uganda as one of Uganda's Outstanding women of Courage.

Kayinga Muddu Yisito - is Network Coordinator of Community Transformation Foundation Network (COTFONE), a community network based in Greater Masaka focused on access to basic social services; youth unemployment; oil and gas management; human rights protection; child protection and land/property ownership. The development of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is currently one of their focal issues given that many households in Greater Masaka are affected by this project. Kayinga has been instrumental in raising voices of local communities. The past year, Kayinga has been particularly active on advocating on behalf of people affected by EACOP and is an active and outspoken member of the global Stop EACOP coalition. As a result of his human rights work, he has faced a number of risks. In late February 2022, the offices of COTFONE were broken into by unknown individuals and equipment and data, including that related to their EACOP work, was stolen.