Fern Holland

Fern Holland of Tulsa, Oklahoma, for going above and beyond in her commitment to seeking justice and human rights for women and children around the world. Holland was an attorney and humanitarian who paid the ultimate price, becoming the first civilian casualty in Iraq when her life was taken on March 9, 2004. At the time of her death, Holland was working in Iraq to help ensure the participation of women in the new Iraqi constitution. Her passionate determination and desire to help provide fundamental rights to those women and children most in need led her to remain in Iraq despite knowing her life was in danger. Previously, she had served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Namibia, an attorney for the American Refugee Committee in Guinea helping to establish laws to protect African women from violence and abuse, and in an orphanage in the Soviet Union.



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