Nigerian democracy activist and women’s right advocate, Josephine Odumakin, has been honored, alongside nine other women, with the United States Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award.
The U.S. First Lady, Michelle Obama, with Secretary of state, John Kerry presented Joe’s award to her at a ceremony in the Dean Acheson Auditorium of the US State Department.
The ceremony coincided with the International Women’s day. Joe Odumakin heads the Campaign for Democracy and has been involved with a lot of initiatives to broaden Nigeria’s democracy.
Other recipients of the award are Malalai Bahaduri, First Sergeant, Afghan National Interdiction Unit (Afghanistan); Samira Ibrahim, Coordinator, Know Your Rights (Egypt); Julieta Castellanos, Rector, National Autonomous University of Honduras (Honduras); and Elena Milashina, journalist, human rights activist (Russia).
Others include Fartuun Adan, Executive Director, Elman Peace and Human Rights Centre (Somalia); Tsering Woeser (Wei Se), Tibetan author, poet, blogger (China); Razan Zeitunah, human rights lawyer and founder, Local Coordination Committees (Syria); Ta Phong Tan, blogger (Vietnam); and Nirbhaya “Fearless,” champion for justice (India).
