17:52, 5 October 2007

Lady journalist from Chechnya is the first Anna Politkovskaya's annual award winner

In London, Natalia Estemirova, a journalist and human rights activist from Chechnya, has been awarded with the first annual award named after Anna Politkovskaya.

This award instituted by a special fund with support of several Nobel Prize Laureates will be granted to the women who have proved themselves in human rights activity in military conflict zones.

Speaking at the award-presenting ceremony, Natalia Estemirova has noted that violations of human rights in Chechnya - kidnappings, murders and tortures - continue, and the world should not forget about it, the Radio Liberty broadcasts.

In 2004, Natalia Estemirova, a worker of the representative office of the Human Rights Centre "Memorial" in Grozny, was awarded with the prize instituted by the Swedish Parliament and named "The Right to Existence," the so-called alternative Nobel Peace Prize, for outstanding viewpoints and work for the sake of the mankind.