Dublin-based human rights organisation Frontline Defenders has acknowledged the work of the jailed Chinese activist Guo Feixiong this morning.
His wife and daughter have travelled to Dublin to collect the award on his behalf.
Speaking at the ceremony, Guo Feixiong's daughter Sara said she was happy to see her father's work as a human rights defender recognised.
"Yes it's hard. But now you know his courage." -Sara, daughter of Chinese #HRD #GuoFeixiong, 2015 #FLDAward recipient pic.twitter.com/eUX5A3w09f
— Front Line Defenders (@FrontLineHRD) September 11, 2015
Renowned Irish playwright and author Sebastian Barry presented the 2015 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk at Dublin City Hall.
Guo has been held in Guangzhou’s Tianhe Detention Centre for over 750 days, where he is currently awaiting sentencing.
Guo Feixiong (pen name of Yang Maodong) is a leading figure in the movement for human rights China - a struggle fraught with danger for human rights defenders seeking civil, political, economic and social rights; accountability: transparency: and an end to corruption.
Human rights defenders in China facing brutal crackdowns
For more than a decade, Guo has worked as both a lawyer and writer investigating allegations of abuse and corruption and defending the civil and political rights of people throughout China.
Human rights defenders in China are facing one of the most brutal crackdowns in recent years.
The Chinese leadership emphasises the importance of the rule of law while simultaneously subjecting those defending it to outrageous abuses.
In the past six months, lawyers have been assaulted outside courthouses by mobs and inside courthouses by State officials, all part of a concerted crackdown on human rights defenders.
Attacks can even be carried out by judges themselves, as happened to lawyer Cui Hui in April of this year when she was assaulted after pressing for a resolution to a protracted case.
She was punched in the face by a judge and when she appealed to another judge for assistance, he instead instructed bailiffs to join in beating her. And then there was the savage beating inflicted on four lawyers last year when they went to investigate reports of Falun Gong practitioners being detained in an illegal holding centre.
Who is Guo Feixiong and why is he so important?
For more than a decade, Guo has worked as both a lawyer and writer investigating allegations of abuse and corruption and defending the civil and political rights of people throughout China.
In 2005, he provided legal assistance and organisational support to villagers in the Guangdong province who were trying to remove a local chief accused of corruption. For this support, local police detained him for three months without charge.
In 2006, Guo wrote a book documenting a political scandal and was held in pre-trial detention for 17 months, tortured and eventually sentenced to five years' imprisonment and a €5,500 fine. During his five years in a Chinese prison cell, Guo was shackled to a wooden bed for 42 days, hung from a ceiling by his arms, and subjected to electric shocks.
Upon his release in 2011, Guo renewed his fight for human rights in China.
In 2013, Guo organised protests calling on the Chinese government to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Seven months later, he was arrested and detained without charge for almost a year. In 2014, authorities charged him with 'gathering crowds to disrupt public order' and tried him on 28 November 2014 in proceedings that lasted nearly 18 hours.
A verdict has yet to be announced, and Guo remains in prison.
