Yelena Urlayeva has faced numerous detentions…

Uznews.net – Uzbek human rights activist Yelena Urlayeva will receive Sweden’s Per Anger human rights prize for her contribution for defending human rights in a ceremony in Orebro on 16 November.

The path of Urlayeva, the head of the Human Rights Alliance of Uzbekistan, to the award was long and difficult.

She has faced numerous detentions, beatings-up, two forced treatments in Tashkent’s psychiatric hospital, and the pain and sufferings of her relatives who have also been punished for her human rights activities.

She has never been indifferent to those whose lives were destroyed by the authorities and to the lawlessness and arbitrariness of officials.

The activist was kind and attentive to everyone, even when she herself desperately needed help and care.

Urlayeva was the first person who organised a picket outside the Tashkent city administration in 2000 and demanded the observance of human rights.

Her dedicated fight has not been in vain. The Uzbek government now takes account of her activities.

She has proven that her ideas and her truth are much stronger than government propaganda and that the life of each person is priceless and that everyone has rights.

On 16 November Urlayeva will receive Sweden’s Per Anger human rights prize for giving “voice to freedom of expression and association in Uzbekistan, unselfishly, by peaceful means and with great personal courage risking her own life and health in the struggle for human rights”.

Urlayeva, who has been in Sweden since 11 November, said it was great honour to receive the Per Anger prize.

She said this prize was not only the recognition of her work in the complicated human rights sphere of Uzbekistan, but also the proof of the outside world’s support for the fight of Uzbeks for human rights.