Tamara Ivanovna Chikunova, nee Petrova, Тамара Ивановна Чикунова (1948 – 31 March 2021) was an Uzbek human rights defender, campaigner against the death penalty and torture, and the founder of "Mothers Against Death Sentence and Torture."

Born in Tashkent, Chikunova began her campaigning after her son Dmitry was arrested in 1999 and executed in July 2000 and she worked against the death penalty, which Uzbekistan abolished in 2008. She won the Colombe d'Oro and the 2005 Nuremberg International Human Rights Award.

Tamara Chikunova

Finally the state of Uzbekistan adopted United Nations civil rights pact and abolished the death penalty.

Tamara Chikunova

Chikunova later moved to Italy, from where she campaigned across Europe, particularly against the continuing use of the death penalty in Belarus, the only European state that still conducts executions.

Tamara Chikunova

She died on 31 March 2021 in the Italian town of Novara, where she lived in a Sant'Egidio community.

References

Uzbekistani human rights activists

Anti-torture activists

Anti–death penalty activists

People from Tashkent

1948 births

2021 deaths

Uzbekistani women activists