Omid Memarian represents a new and young generation of human rights defenders who challenge political repression in Iran. Omid is a weblogger, journalist and civil society activist who has sought to push the limits of freedom of expression in Iran by working on the Internet.

Because of his public defense of human rights, Omid was arrested with more than twenty other webloggers in October 2004. He was detained in solitary confinement, tortured repeatedly, and forced to make false confessions. He was released in December 2004, following protests from the international community. Human Rights Watch worked closely with Omid's family and colleagues to campaign for his release.

Omid has worked with Human Rights Watch to expose arbitrary detentions, torture and mistreatment of prisoners in Iran. By speaking the truth about these abuses, Omid has put himself in great danger.
Salih Mahmoud Osman is a lawyer and human rights activist from the Darfur region of Sudan who for twenty years has defended and given free legal aid to people who have been arbitrarily detained and tortured by the Sudanese government. Working with an organization called the Sudan Organization Against Torture (SOAT), Salih contests torture and impunity, and defends people whose only crime is that they oppose government policies or share the same ethnicity as the rebel movements in Darfur. He meets with those who are detained and launches legal actions on their behalf.

A member of the Fur ethnic group, Salih was arrested and arbitrarily detained without charge or trial for seven months in 2004 by Sudanese security forces. He went on a hunger strike and was finally released. Salih continues to work courageously in Nyala and in Khartoum to defend basic civil and political rights.

Beatrice Were is a courageous advocate for the rights of women and children affected by HIV/AIDS. As a married university graduate with two children, Beatrice lost her husband to HIV in 1991. Facing enormous stigma as a widow living with HIV/AIDS, Beatrice also nearly lost her property and children to her husband's family. She became an activist to prevent these abuses from happening to others and founded an organization that provides services for tens of thousands of women across Uganda.

Beatrice has worked with Human Rights Watch to call attention to Uganda's recent and dramatic backslide in HIV-prevention policy. She is a credible and outspoken critic of U.S.-funded "abstinence-until-marriage" programs, which censor factual and sexually explicit HIV/AIDS information for young people. Human Rights Watch honors Beatrice Were for defending the human rights of people living with AIDS and for upholding the right of all people to make informed choices about their sexual lives.