Tạ Ngọc Vân is presented with an award for his contribution to the rescue of trafficked women by then US Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014. — Photo 2isao.com

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese lawyer Tạ Ngọc Vân has been honoured in the 2019 class of the Asia Young Leaders awards for his contribution to rescuing trafficked women and children.

Vân and 39 other young leaders under the age of 40 from 31 Asia-Pacific countries were recognised for their outstanding contributions in many fields by the US-based Asia Society. This year’s list included activists, artists, educators, journalists, scientists and social entrepreneurs.

Vân is the chief lawyer at Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation – a charity that provides legal support as well as the rescue of homeless, disabled and trafficked children in Việt Nam.

He was presented the "Hero of the Year" award by the US Department of State for his efforts on the freedom of victims of human trafficking in 2014. He was given the same title by the Ministry of Public Security the following year for travelling to the northern provinces to rescue more than 400 trafficked women and children.

Vân was also the first person to be awarded the "Trust Women Anti-Trafficking Hero Award" by the Thomson Reuters Foundation the same year.

This year's Asia Young Leaders awards honoured outstanding people under 40 years old who have made great contributions to their communities in Asia.

The young leaders will attend the Asian Youth Leadership Conference in mid-November in San Francisco and Silicon Valley with the theme "Technology and Humanities: The Way to the Future" on November 15-17.

The annual conference was first held in 2006 in Seoul. It is an initiative that connects outstanding people in the region to find solutions to the common challenges of the 21st century.

The list of honorees included BuzzFeed News journalist Megha Rajagopalan, Farhad Wajdi who built a school in a refugee camp in Pakistan at the age of 14 and then set up a non-governmental organisation to combat gender inequality in Afghanistan and Shahab Shabibi who gives financial and management support to start-ups.

The Asia Society was established in 1956. The non-partisan and non-profit organisation works on a range of challenges facing Asia and the world. — VNS