Aachen Peace Award 2023 for Bravery and Civil Courage awarded to the Feminist Anti-War Resistance

The members of the Aachener Friedenspreis e.V. have selected the recipients of this year’s Aachen Peace Award for Bravery and Civil Courage, awarded annually since 1988 to people and groups who work for peace and understanding at a grassroots level and often from disadvantaged positions. The 2023 honorees are two initiatives that stand up against injustice and support and strengthen others in their commitment to peace: the Human Rights Defenders Fund (Israel) and the Feminist Anti-War Resistance (Russia).

The Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR) was founded on February 25, 2022, based on a manifesto against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The group opposes war, the patriarchy, authoritarianism and militarism and fights against the extremely conservative image of gender and family that prevails in Russia, as well as against discrimination and repression of the LGBTQ+ community. In its manifesto, the FAR condemns the Russian war of aggression and denounces the resulting (sexualised) violence, poverty, forced displacement and destruction of lives.

The activists aim to raise public awareness on the issues of (sexualised) violence against women and children, fight for the human rights of political activists in Russia and write petitions and letters. They organise psychological and emotional support for people who are directly or indirectly affected by Russia’s war of aggression.

From the beginning, the FAR has been at the forefront of anti-war protests and is now the largest anti-war initiative in Russia. Since being added to the list of so-called »foreign agents« in December 2022, FAR activists have been arrested and locked up either in psychiatric wards or prisons.

Daria Serenko, a political activist, public artist and founding member of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance, was detained for 15 days for a social media post advocating tactical voting that contained campaign symbols associated with Alexei Navalny’s Anti- Corruption Foundation. While in jail after her arrest in February 2022, Serenko began working on I Wish Ashes for My House (Я желаю пепла своему дому), which started as an examination of her own activism and has since developed into something much greater. The text will be published by Suhrkamp in August 2023. For more information please visit the author's Foreign Rights website or contact the respective Rights Manager.