State Department honors eight recipients at 19th International Women of Courage awards; hostage survivor calls for immediate action

The U.S. Department of State on Feb. 20, 2025, honored eight women with the 19th annual International Women of Courage Awards in the Benjamin Franklin Room, spotlighting human-rights defenders, journalists and conservationists whose work the department said advances protection and participation for women and girls worldwide.

Kat Fotovat, senior bureau official for the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues, opened the ceremony and said the award, “established by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,” recognizes women who have acted “often at great personal risk or sacrifice.” Fotovat told the audience the awards reflect U.S. support for the rights and empowerment of women and girls and introduced the stories of the eight honorees.

Nut graf: The ceremony combined brief biographies and in-person remarks from awardees, a keynote appearance by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and a speech by First Lady Melania Trump. The most urgent moment came when Amit Susanna, an award recipient and survivor of captivity, described her experience and urged world leaders to act to secure the release of people remaining in captivity.

Amit Susanna, who identified herself in the ceremony as a survivor, recounted being taken hostage on Oct. 7 and said she “was taken hostage by Hamas and held captive for 55 days.” She said that while she was able to speak at the ceremony, others remain detained: “While I am here, my friends remain in the darkness. 543 long days and nights, they are still suffering, still waiting, still hoping.” Susanna asked the international community to act now to bring remaining hostages home and thanked the U.S. government for its role in recent exchanges, saying she “trust[s] that they will continue their efforts until every last hostage is free.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the awards a long-standing State Department tradition and highlighted legislative and policy efforts he said the U.S. had taken to support women globally. Rubio noted that the awards date to 2007 and said the administration’s women’s initiatives “have reached over 12,000,000 women worldwide” and that President Trump “signed the Women, Peace, and Security Act,” a law Rubio referenced as part of the United States’ efforts to protect women and promote their participation in peace and security processes.

First Lady Melania Trump framed courage as rooted in love, praising awardees who, she said, “defy convention” and act despite “great personal risk of stigma, persecution, or harm.” She singled out one honoree who, she said, enters care facilities unannounced to document mistreatment of people with disabilities and credited that work with leading to criminal charges in some cases.

Tammy Bruce, identified at the ceremony as the State Department spokesperson, introduced the video and live presentations of the winners and noted the group would gather in the Jefferson Room for a reception after the program concluded.

The State Department presented awards to eight women who were introduced at the ceremony as recipients from a range of countries and fields, including human-rights defenders, journalists, conservationists and leaders working on trafficking and detention issues. The ceremony materials and remarks named the Abductees Mothers Association for its documentation work on detainees in Yemen and referenced recipients who work on protecting persons with disabilities, combating trafficking, marine conservation, anti-corruption investigative reporting, and grassroots post-conflict women's programming.

The awards program, Fotovat and Rubio said, is intended to amplify the honorees’ work and encourage further international support and collaboration. The event closed with thanks to staff and partner bureaus and an invitation to a reception in the Jefferson Room.

Ending: The department announced no new policy actions at the ceremony. The principal public outcome from the program was recognition of the eight honorees and a public appeal from Amit Susanna for continued international and U.S. attention to efforts to secure the release of hostages.