The German Association of Judges (German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

: Deutscher Richterbund, DRB) is the largest professional organization of judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

s and public prosecutors in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It was founded in 1909. It is a member organization of the International Association of Judges.

Every other year, the DRB honors a judge, public prosecutor or other lawyer with a Human Rights Award for outstanding merits on the defence of human rights. Recent laureates were Syrian lawyer Anwar al-Bunni

Anwar al-Bunni

Anwar al-Bunni is a Syrian human rights lawyer who has defended clients such as Riad al-Turk, Riad Seif, the owner of The Lamplighter, , Kurdish protesters, and "dozens of others."...

, Iranian attorney Nasser Zarafshan

Nasser Zarafshan

Nasser Zarafshan is an Iranian novelist, translator, and attorney. He is most famous internationally for having been arrested while acting as the legal envoy of two of the families of dissident Iranian writers who were assassinated in November 1998 in what came to be known in Iran as the "Chain...

 in 2007 and the Chinese lawyer Zheng Enchong

Zheng Enchong

Zheng Enchong is a Shanghai-based Zheng Enchong is a [[Shanghai]]-based...

in 2005.