The Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award is presented for outstanding work in the defense of civil and political rights. It is awarded yearly by Civil Rights Defenders, a Stockholm-based organization that was founded as the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in 1982. "Ukrainian human rights defender Mariia Sulialina has, at a young age, already achieved the accomplishments of a lifetime. "Despite personal losses and great risks, she has continued her work to document war crimes and other grave violations against children and ensure justice for children from the occupied territories of Ukraine who have fallen victim to indoctrination and deportation," the Civil Rights Defenders’ Board of Directors said in its award justification.Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, at least 545 Ukrainian children have been killed, and over 19,500 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia.