On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch bestowed the Women of Courage Award to Mariam Sukhudyan, a young Armenian human rights activist and a leader of SOS Teghut, an environmental defense organization.

“This award recognizes an Armenian woman who has demonstrated exceptional courage, innovation, and leadership in the pursuit of equality, opportunity, and justice,” Ambassador Yovanovitch declared at yesterday’s ceremony at the U.S. Embassy. “An ecologist, an advocate for vulnerable groups, a good and decent woman who saw a wrong … and knew that she needed to act to try to right it,” the Ambassador continued, alluding to the controversial prosecution of Sukhudyan on slander charges after exposing allegations of sexual abuse and mistreatment at a Yerevan boarding school.

“I’m a little ashamed of receiving this prize because in other countries [civic activism] is a normal thing,” the activist told RFE/RL. “People do it instinctively, not out of patriotism or because they have some supernatural abilities. I’m also a little ashamed that I will receive it not from my country but a foreign government.”

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