Front Line Defenders has announced the five recipients of the 2026 Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, including trans Black Quilombola woman Adda Vyctoria Caetano.

Five activists have been named recipients of the 2026 Awards for their work defending justice and equality. They are Ahmadreza Haeri, a recently released anti-death-penalty campaigner from Iran; Laurinda Manuel Gouveia, a feminist and pro-participatory democracy defender from Angola; Umar Khalid, a jailed student activist opposing anti-Muslim legislation in India; Ljiljana Nešić, a feminist peacebuilder from Serbia; and Adda Vyctoria Caetano, a trans Black Quilombola woman leader from Brazil.

The five awardees represent human rights defenders from different parts of the world, each facing scrutiny and danger because of their activism. Arbitrary detention, torture, death threats, judicial harassment and smear campaigns are among the dangers they have faced while advocating for peace, justice and equality.

Established in 2005, the awards were created by Front Line Defenders to honour activists who make outstanding contributions to the promotion and protection of human rights, often at great personal risk. The award gives international attention to their work and provides a greater national and international platform to speak for the issues they defend.

The winners were selected among hundreds of candidates, with the five laureates being the latest of over 50 Human Rights Defenders who have been awarded since its 2005 launch. 

A ceremony was held at Trinity College Dublin on October 8 to honour the five awardees. The event was attended by foreign diplomats and representatives of the Irish government and the Department of Foreign Affairs. Ahmadreza Haeri remains in Iran despite his release and was unable to attend the ceremony due to security concerns preventing him from travelling to Dublin.

The winners will receive support from Front Line Defenders in areas including digital and physical security, advocacy, visibility and wellbeing.

Adda Vyctoria Caetano, the awardee from the Americas region, is the national coordinator of CONAQ’s LGBTQIANPN+ Collective and a community leader in Quilombo Conceição dos Caetanos, in the rural municipality of Tururu in the state of Ceará, north-eastern Brazil. Quilombola communities are communities of Black Brazilian ancestry historically associated with resistance to slavery and the preservation of their territories, culture and traditions.

As an artist, cultural organiser, community leader and trans woman, Caetano works to increase the visibility of LGBTQ+ people within the Quilombola movement. She has faced threats, intimidation and attempts to discredit her public leadership, but has turned these threats into an effort to build collective protection and strengthen support networks within her community.

“I fight for ownership of our territories because territory is life, ancestry and the future. I fight so that no one has to hide who they are in order to have the right to belong,” said Adda Vyctoria Caetano.