UiO's Human Rights Award is given annually as a recognition of personal efforts and active involvement in one or more areas related to human rights issues in a broad sense.
– Shaheed has fought for the right to education, and for the rights of women, LGBT+ people, persons with disabilities, religious and ethnic minorities, and those who are economically marginalised. She has done so both in her home country of Pakistan and internationally. We are very pleased to be able to award her the University of Oslo’s Human Rights Award for 2026, says Mathilde Skoie, Vice-Rector at the University of Oslo and the Rectorate’s representative on the prize committee.
Skoie and the prize committee particularly highlight Shaheeds pioneering work for education and academic freedom.
A courageous voice
– I am deeply honoured to be awarded the University of Oslo’s Human Rights Award and join the list of luminaries and amazing human rights activists who have received the award before me. As the current UN Special Rapporteur for education, I am especially touched as the University of Oslo is one of the most esteemed universities in the world, says Shaheed.
She points out that the award recognizes the work of many:
– It is a tribute to those who enable me to do the work I do by their incredible courage and determination to protect and promote human rights in increasingly troubling times.
The right to academic freedom
As Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Shaheed is an independent human rights expert appointed by the UN. In this role, she has led groundbreaking work related to academic freedom.
In 2024, she published a report which, based on international law, establishes that academic freedom is a human right and a fundamental pillar of democracy as well as of social and scientific progress. Shaheed has herself visited countries where academic freedom is under intense pressure, and has reported from these with concrete measures to protect the right to education.
– In this work she has been not only a courageous and effective voice for students and lecturers, but for democracy more generally, says Skoie, adding:
– She has pushed boundaries through her advocacy over several decades. Her work for academic freedom is truly impressive and important, says Skoie.
Education in conflict zones
Shaheed has also highlighted the need for better protection of students, teachers, schools and universities that are under attack in conflict situations. She published a report that provides an overview of the legal basis for these rights, together with proposals for measures to protect and implement the right to education in situations of conflict.
In her home country Pakistan, the prizewinner was instrumental in securing women at least 33 per cent of the elected seats in direct elections. She is part of the international feminist network Women Living Under Muslim Laws, which supports women threatened by discriminatory laws.
The University of Oslo’s Human Rights Award will be presented in Gamle festsal on 19 November.
About Farida Shaheed
- Sociologist and Executive Director of Pakistan’s leading gender justice organisation, Shirkat Gah – Women’s Resource Centre.
- Former member of Pakistan’s National Commission on the Status of Women.
- Served as the first UN Independent Expert in the field of cultural rights and as UN Special Rapporteur in this field (2009–2015).
- Adviser to several UN organisations, the Pakistani government and a number of civil society organisations.
- Honorary Doctor of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Geneva for her long-standing work for women’s rights and girls’ right to education in Pakistan.
- She is currently the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education (2022–2028).
More on UiO's Human Rights Award – Lisl and Leo Eitinger's Fund