Amanda Nguyen Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Sexual assault survivor and activist  27-year-old Amanda Nguyen has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.California representatives Mimi Walters and Zoe Lofgren have nominated Nguyen for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for her active involvement in fighting for sexual assault victim’s rights.  On top of testifying across with actor Terry Crews to get her law passed in as many states as possible, Nguyen also founded Rise, a non-profit civil rights foundation focusing on providing consistent rights for sexual assault victims throughout the US and other countries.

Nguyen’s honorable fight began when she was sexually assaulted in her home in Massachusettes, where Amanda’s rape kit, including viable genetic information that could help to prosecute her assailant,  could, legally, be destroyed after six months while bringing charges against her rapist could potentially take up to 15 years.  It was then Nguyen decided to fight to ensure no woman or man faces the same trauma she endured.

 

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Today I was invited into the Department of Justice to meet with the Survivor Bill of Rights Taskforce which includes representatives from 15 federal departments. I created this task force when I wrote the federal law as a safeguard to ensure the rights would be implemented. The law requires that the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services issue a report on the status of the survivor rights to Congress 2 years after President Obama signed it. I still remember the morning I left the hospital feeling so alone. I wrote this law so that no one would ever have to go through what I went through. It was just a regular room but seeing all these new faces across the federal government work on this meant so much me. It’s so rare for activists to ever experience this – to fight, win, and then be a part of its implementation. I feel so lucky. And I just want anyone who is struggling in their fight to know – just keep at it. You are not alone. You can do it.

A post shared by Amanda Nguyen (@amandangocnguyen) on Aug 27, 2018 at 2:29pm PDT

In 2016, Amanda assisted in writing the first set of federal laws that would protect sexual assault survivors.  Nguyen’s Sexual Assault Bill of Rights ensures that sexual assault victims will be notified 60 days prior to their rape kits being destroyed and grants victims access to their medical records.  This was the first law in history to be passed unanimously by Congress and has been enacted by 14 states so far.