Deadline: 1 June 2018
Open to: women fighting for human rights
Grants: 20,000 USD

Description

The purpose of the Ginetta Sagan Fund of Amnesty International USA is to support courageous women human rights defenders who are working in dangerous contexts to further the rights of women and children.

The creation of the Ginetta Sagan Fund emphasizes that more human rights work must be done by and for women. The 20,000 USD award recognizes individual accomplishment, but also serves as a beacon of hope to women everywhere who are fighting for human rights.

Eligibility

• Founder and/or Executive Director of an organization;
• Under threat for her activism;
• Proven effective at addressing human rights issues;
• Has brought about significant change in her country, region, or issue through her work.

Grants

The 20,000 USD award can be used by the awardee at her complete discretion. The money is awarded to the individual, not the organization.

With the 20,000 USD award to be used at the awardee’s discretion, the Ginetta Sagan Award also seeks to support the awardee to receive training to assist in her ongoing work. To this end, in addition to the 20,000 USD award, the awardee can receive up to 5,000 USD to further their professional development. This can include covering her expenses to participate in, and/or attend trainings throughout 2019.

The awardee should be available for a national tour to promote her work in late fall, 2018 for approximately two weeks. The awardee should be comfortable with public appearances, speaking in public, and doing interviews.

The Award

• Recognizes outstanding achievement, often at great personal risk;
• Enhances the recipient’s ability to live and work freely, and protects the recipient’s capacity to continue her work, by bringing a new level of international attention to her accomplishments and the obstacles she faces;
• Brings increased international scrutiny to the crisis, region, or issue for which the recipient works.

How to Apply?

Each letter of recommendation should inform the Selection Committee about why the candidate is deserving of the Ginetta Sagan Award for Women’s and Children’s Rights.

To the extent that it is relevant, please include any personal background related to human rights. Please include answers to the following questions:

• What kinds of personal interactions have you had with the candidate? How would you characterize those interactions?
• What compels you to nominate this candidate?
• How has the candidate impacted and/or transformed her community through her work? Examples from past nominees include changes to legislation, raising the profile of the issue in her country and internationally, providing life-saving services, etc. Please be as inclusive as possible.
• A story or history about how or why the candidate became involved in human rights issues.
• Any other relevant information you would like to include.

These two letters can be from anyone familiar with the nominee’s human rights work. If possible, please have these two letters sent along with the nomination package. Please be sure to email letter of recommendation from each recommender to gsf@aiusa.org with the name of the nominee in the subject line.