"The Nobel prize committee has to stop overlooking the human rights defenders who risk their lives every day", 29 Sep 2018

This summer, the father of Juana Raymundo became concerned when he called her mobile phone and found that it had been turned off... Her body was found the next day on the banks of a local creek. Marks on her body indicated that she had been tortured. Raymundo was a 25-year-old member of the Committee for Campesino Development (Codeca), a grassroots human rights organisation dedicated to promoting land rights and rural development for indigenous communities in Guatemala.  In a matter of days, the Nobel committee will choose the winner of the 2018 Peace Prize. As always, there are many worthy candidates. Yet it seems right and proper this year that the prize is awarded not to a person or an organisation but – for the first time ever – to a community: a collective award for the global community of human rights defenders... They face a world where human rights are no longer on the march. Freedom and democracy are on the defensive. The prize could not come at a more urgent time... [T]he prize would be a powerful ally...Too often they stand alone, courageous individuals and small communities forced to face down crooked legal systems, corrupt multinationals and oppressive governments...