Dutch Embassy hands out Human Rights Tulip award to Truth Hounds

This week, Dutch Ambassador to Ukraine Alle Dorhout presented the Human Rights Embassy Tulip Award during a reception at the Dutch Embassy in Kyiv to the Ukrainian human rights organization Truth Hounds.

That’s according to the Embassy’s press service, Ukrinform learned.

The organization was praised for their significant contribution to the documentation, investigation and analysis of evidence of war and potential crimes against humanity committed during Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine.

The organization will also receive UAH 500,000 to finance its further activities.

Presenting the award, Ambassador Dorhout emphasized: “For the Netherlands the issue of Accountability is a priority. We are here to work together with Ukrainian civil society, Ukrainian state bodies and international organizations to ensure that crimes committed by the Russian Federation will not go unpunished.”

He pointed out that the Netherlands is the lead nation on Point 7 “Restoring Justice” of the Peace Formula of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Truth Hounds Co-Executive director Dmytro Koval said: “Our approach to documentation is based on the idea of preventing further trauma to victims and witnesses. While working with evidence of war crimes, the Truth Hounds team uses all available avenues to achieve justice in its broadest sense. This includes close collaboration with Ukrainian investigative bodies and prosecutors.”

The Human Rights Tulip is an annual award of the Dutch government to support human rights defenders in their work advancing and protecting human rights around the world, while highlighting related issues.

The Embassy of the Netherlands in Ukraine has been presenting a local Human Rights Tulip to Ukrainian activists and human rights defenders since 2018.