UG PhD student reaches ECHO Award finals

The UG is very proud to announce that its former student and current PhD student of Law Yasmine Bouzoraa is a finalist for the 2022 ECHO Award. She will attend the award ceremony held in Amsterdam on 6 December, when the winners will be announced.

The ECHO Award is granted in the Netherlands to academic students with a non-Western background who stand out because of their entrepreneurial spirit, organizational skills, active social involvement, and constructive approach to challenges related to exclusion.

Yasmine was nominated for the award by her sister Nora, and was supported in her nomination by the UG’s Diversity and Inclusion Office, who recognized Yasmine’s achievements in the field of law. ‘During my master’s studies, I grew very interested in the topic of democratic values in EU law’, explains Yasmine. ‘I decided to write one of my theses on how to promote democratic values such as non-discrimination under EU law. I got to interview some of the most interesting and most brilliant people currently fighting for the rule of law and democratic values in the EU.’

Besides her studies, Yasmine has also volunteered for Het Overweeghuis, an organization that offers women working as sex workers a safe space to recalibrate and to reflect on how they would like to proceed in their future. ‘A lot of the women in Het Overweeghuis are from a non-western background and do not have rights to certain things that other people would have a right to, such as benefits, or even the right to stay in the Netherlands’, says Yasmine. ‘I find the work that Het Overweeghuis does to support these women immensely important, and I am proud that I can be a small part of this organization.’

The ECHO Award winners will be selected by an independent jury headed by chair of the Dutch UNESCO Commission, Kathleen Ferrier. The winners will be rewarded with a six-week summer course at UCLA in 2023. We wish Yasmine the best of luck at the finals!