Iraqi Yazidi Islamic State survivors and activists Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar receive the EU Parliament’s 2016 Sakharov Prize during a ceremony in Strasbourg on Tuesday 13 December. After escaping sexual enslavement by Islamic State they both became spokespeople for women affected by the terrorist group's campaign of sexual violence and for the persecuted Yazidi minority

The speech of Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, presented by Berit Reiss-Andersen, deputy chair of the Committee, Oslo, 10 December 2016. Prize motivation: "for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end"

Many of us are fearful about the way the world is heading. Messages of intolerance and hatred prey on our fears. But we can change the course by reaffirming our common humanity and taking action to support everyone’s human rights.

Human Rights Day is observed every year on 10 December. It commemorates the day on which, in 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1950, the Assembly passed resolution 423 (V), inviting all States and interested organizations to observe 10 December of each year as Human Rights Day.