Hind Eljadid wins the 2025 Human Rights Award

A voice that refuses to be silenced

Writer and slam poet Hind Eljadid has been awarded the 2025 Human Rights Award by the Liga voor Mensenrechten (League for Human Rights). The organization honors her for her uncompromising commitment to naming injustice and for her courage to speak out “regardless of the consequences.”

The award stems from an incident in early 2024, when Eljadid was detained for six hours following an action during the official celebration of Belgium’s EU presidency. What was meant to be a reading of a haiku by Herman Van Rompuy turned into a powerful moment of protest. At her call to “raise your flags,” hundreds of flags were lifted into the air, a symbol of solidarity with Palestine. “My microphone was cut off, and I was escorted away by plainclothes police,” Eljadid recalls. “But I couldn’t stay silent.”

Eljadid uses her art as a tool to make injustice visible and to break silence. Through her poetry, spoken word, theatre, and books, she continuously seeks words that move, confront, and connect. Beyond her artistic work, she is also socially engaged as a project coordinator at the Vermeylenfonds, where she promotes culture, dialogue, and social justice.

The Human Rights Award has been presented every two years since 1971 to individuals or organizations that have made exceptional contributions to human rights. Alongside Eljadid, the nominees included Retrace Investigations, Wouter De Ruyck, Fatena Al-Ghorra, and Seppe Nobels.

The award ceremony will take place on December 6, 2025, at LaVallée in Brussels, in the lead-up to International Human Rights Day (December 10). At the same time, the League will launch a campaign on freedom of expression, a theme that Eljadid embodies: one voice can break silence, and many voices together can bring change.

Read more (only in Dutch)