Binalakshmi Nepram, a rights activist supporting women survivors of violence in Northeast India, has been named as one of two winners of the prestigious Anna Politkovskaya Award 2018, which recognises female human rights crusaders across the world. The Reach All Women in WAR (RAW in WAR) on Thursday announced the courageous global award on micro-blogging site Twitter. Congratulations to brave Indian activist @BinaNepram & courageous Belarusian writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich - winners of #RAWinWAR 2018 #AnnaPolitkovskayaAward for women human rights defenders from war and conflict zones @Refuse2beSilent pic.twitter.com/LTLCXP9RqS — RAW in WAR (@RawinWar) October 4, 2018 Binalakshmi, who belongs to Manipur, will share the RAW in WAR Anna Politkovskaya Award along with a Nobel literature laureate Svetlana Alexievich. Svetlana is an investigative journalist and a writer from Belarus, a landlocked nation in Eastern Europe. Also Read | Norwegian Nobel Committee head: Women are used as weapons of war The award recognised for their bravery in speaking out and defying injustice, violence and extremism, especially for their role in their respective conflict-ridden and yet ‘forgotten’ domicile regions of Manipur and Belarus. Binalakshmi, the author of ‘India and the Arms Trade Treaty’, is the founder of Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network. Since its inception in 2007, the network has helped more than 20,000 women survivors of gun violence in Manipur to rebuild their lives and obtain justice. Talking about the surge of violence in the region, Binalakshmi said: “Every day the violence continues unabated ... with our region seeing some of the highest numbers of rape and women trafficked in the country… In this conflict, a lot of girls and women are subjected to sexual abuse and there is a climate of impunity.” Read More | Obesity in the guise of body positivity - Morbid facts Binalakshmi is also the co-founder of India’s first civil society organisation to work on disarmament and to oppose growing militarisation, the Control Arms Foundation of India (CAFI). Svetlana, 70, won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature for her portrayal of the lives of Soviet women during World War Two, as well as the impact of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Soviet military adventure in Afghanistan. The Reach All Women in WAR (RAW in WAR) award marks the 12th death anniversary of the Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya, a Russian female rights activist, journalist and writer. Anna was killed on October 7, 2006, in Moscow at the age of 48.

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