New Delhi: Activist Umar Khalid who has been jailed since the last six years has won the 2026 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.“Umar Khalid is the 2026 Asia winner of the Front Line Defenders Award. To those who try to silence his work, he is seen as an “enemy of the state’’ and an “anti-national”, but to others, he is a national hero, a voice of the people, and a human rights defender. For the last six years, Umar Khalid has been shackled behind bars for his leadership in the peaceful and democratic civil movement against the unconstitutional and anti-Muslim amendments to India’s citizenship laws,” Front Line Defenders said in a statement on Thursday (October 8).Khalid has continued to be lodged in jail ever since Delhi Police Special Cell arrested him as a ‘key conspirator’ in the 2020 Delhi riots case on September 14, 2020. He is charged with Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), sedition and 18 other sections of the Indian Penal Code, including murder and attempt to murder. A student activist at the time of his arrest, Khalid had played a key role in organising anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in 2019-2020.The Front Line Defenders statement noted how the CAA impacts India’s Muslim population and how Khalid spoke against this grave injustice.“The law, which accompanied an increasingly hostile climate of growing Hindu nationalism, threatens to disproportionately strip Muslims of documentation and legal status. Umar Khalid, with a steady trajectory defending students’, minorities’ and citizens’ rights, is seen as one of the key voices speaking out against this injustice. Several major international human rights organisations, as well as the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, have highlighted the illegality of his arrest and detention,” said the statement.The five winners of the 2026 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk pictured at Trinity College in Dublin, where a special ceremony was held in to honor them.A recently freed anti-death penalty campaigner from Iran, a feminist pro-participatory democracy defender from Angola, a jailed student activist opposing anti-Muslim legislation in India, a trans Black quilombola woman leader from Brazil and a feminist peacebuilder from Serbia are this year’s laureates.Front Line Defenders is pleased to announce the five laureates of its prestigious 2026 Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk:Africa: Laurinda Manuel Gouveia (Angola)Americas: Adda Vyctoria Caetano (Brazil)Asia and the Pacific: Umar Khalid (India) (represented by his father, Dr Ilyas) as he remains imprisoned.Europe and Central Asia: Ljiljana Nešić (Serbia)Middle East and North Africa: Ahmadreza Haeri (Iran) (represented by Afrooz Maghzi as Ahmadreza was unable to travel.“There is a powerful wave of people who believe there is a better path despite the worrying state of affairs for human rights defenders (HRDs) around the world today; a wave of those who believe in a brighter future. This year’s laureates are emblematic of this wave of positive change,” said Alan Glasgow, CEO of Front Line Defenders.— Front Line Defenders (@FrontLineHRD) October 8, 2026Apart from Khalid, the other winners are: Laurinda Manuel Gouveia (Angola) for Africa, Adda Vyctoria Caetano (Brazil) for the Americas, Ljiljana Nešić (Serbia) for Europe and Central Asia and Ahmadreza Haeri (Iran) for Middle East and North Africa.A special ceremony was held at the Trinity College in Dublin, to honour all the recipients. Khalid was represented by his father, Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas.On September 20, the Delhi high court had denied bail to Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam – also jailed for more than six years – in the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots larger conspiracy case.Khalid was lasted granted a three-day interim bail by the Delhi high court on May 22 for meeting his mother who underwent a surgery after a trial court had on May 19 denied him relief that he had sought to attend rituals after the death of his uncle and to attend to his mother before and after a surgery on June 2.