The 2026 Henry Dunant Field Prize has been awarded to Dr Maryam Idris Abdulkadir, a Nigerian lawyer and lecturer at Baze University in Abuja, who has turned law clinics into a bridge between legal education and the lives of people displaced by armed conflict.
The award ceremony took place on 15 October 2026 in Geneva, at the Humanitarium of the International Committee of the Red Cross. This year, the Field and Research Prizes were presented at a single ceremony, with the 2026 Henry Dunant Research Prize going to Alexandre Miliani.
Read the laudatio (French version) and Maryam Idris Abdulkadir’s acceptance speech. Watch the ceremony in English or in French.
From the classroom to the field
A law graduate of Ahmadu Bello University in Kaduna State, where she earned her Master of Laws in 2017, and a barrister-at-law, Maryam Idris Abdulkadir first practised as a legal professional. She then joined Baze University in Abuja as Law Clinic Supervisor and Secretary of the Law Clinic Committee. She teaches international human rights law, international humanitarian law and public international law to more than 800 students, and has developed a wide range of practical training materials for them.
To connect that teaching with real needs, she founded two specialised clinics at Baze University: the Migration and Trafficked Persons Law Clinic and the International Humanitarian Law Clinic.
In the camps for displaced people
With her students, she visits the camp for internally displaced persons in Kuchigoro, near Abuja. The student clinicians interview residents to assess their situation and the human rights issues they face, then handle case files and draft partnership proposals under her supervision. As part of UNHCR’s #IBelong campaign, the clinic also worked with a UN subsidiary body to design a training and capacity-building programme.
The IHL Clinic launched the “Tutor with Love” project, in which students she trained teach the camp’s children their school subjects, including the basic rules of humanitarian law, through storytelling, simple illustrations and role-play. Other projects followed: a women’s empowerment programme built on data gathered in the camp, human rights advocacy, and policy proposals on birth registration and education in the camps to combat statelessness. The clinics also bring food, clothing, medical aid and hygiene kits to camp residents.
A committed researcher
Maryam Idris Abdulkadir serves on two groups of the Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI): the think tank on free movement in the ECOWAS region and the fact-finding group on trafficking and returns. She researches the trafficking of children to Libya, drawing on data from Nigeria’s anti-trafficking agency (NAPTIP) and the IOM.
Her doctoral research at Ahmadu Bello University examined the role of international humanitarian law in protecting the natural environment in non-international armed conflict, through a study of Borno State. She combined legal analysis with field research on how the conflict affected the environment and how much the parties knew about IHL, and concluded with concrete recommendations: strengthening domestic law, involving NGOs, training non-State actors, disseminating IHL, and domesticating the international environmental obligations Nigeria has ratified.
True to the spirit of Henry Dunant
Like Henry Dunant, Maryam Idris Abdulkadir connects problems seen in the field with written work aimed at changing the lives of the most vulnerable. She gives displaced people and victims of trafficking access to justice, while preparing her students to face such situations in their future careers.
In her speech she called for IHL to be localised: “We must bring it out of the diplomatic chambers of Geneva and the academic halls of universities, and plant it firmly on the ground where the suffering is happening.”
By awarding her the 2026 Prize, the Henry Dunant Prize Foundation, in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross, honours an exemplary commitment and hopes it will continue to light the way toward a more just and humane world.