The New Statesman Person of the Year Humanity Award gives you the chance to nominate someone who has done most in the past 12 months to inspire and enrich the lives of others, either in their community or profession, globally or locally. The names proposed so far have included Alan Johnston, Gordon Roddick, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Benazir Bhutto, Scott Ritter and Mark Thomas.
Prize draw
The names of everyone who nominated the winner will go into a prize draw: first out of the hat receives a luxury ethical food hamper and a six-month subscription to the NS. Quarterly NS subscriptionsgo to ten runners-up.
When all nominations are received we will count up the votes, and the winner of the award will be profiled in our bumper NS Christmas Special (out on 13 December).
Please note: nominations have now closed
Barbara Frost, CEO of WaterAid, nominates Deborah Kogi
Deborah Kogi works in Bauchi State, Nigeria, as a fieldworker in water and hygiene education for an NGO called Women in Nigeria. This October, Deborah travelled to the UK to explain the desperate water and sanitation situation in Nigeria, where life expectancy is 43 years, and where water supply is still low down on the political agenda. Deborah stands out for her astonishing passion and strength of purpose in promoting the right to water and sanitation for all people, but especially women, children, the poor and the marginalised.
John Bird, founder of the Big Issue, nominates Gordon Roddick
Gordon Roddick has supported more social enterprises - particularly those with social performance targets as well as financial ones - than anyone else I know, at home and abroad. He has used his entrepreneurial skills to help set up organisations that create business responses to social crises, such as the Big Issue and Divine Chocolate, both of which are fair-trade.
John Pilger nominates Scott Ritter
Ritter, the former United Nations chief weapons inspector in Iraq, explained in 1999 that "weapons of mass destruction" were a fiction and a lie. For telling the truth, he was smeared, denied employment and virtually ignored by the so-called mainstream media. However, his courage ensured that his truth was heard and helped to reinforce the growing opposition to Bush and Blair. For several years now, he has been speaking the same truth about Iran. Scott Ritter exemplifies all that is decent and brave.
Kate Allen, director of Amnesty UK, nominates Anas el-Banna
Anas el-Banna is the 11-year-old son of the Guantanamo prisoner and UK resident Jamil el-Banna. Jamil is one of more than 300 people still held without charge or trial at the notorious prison camp. Anas has led his family's struggle for justice for his father. At Amnesty we've been incredibly impressed as Anas has written to prime ministers, picketed No 10 and appeared on live television. He deserves recognition for his courage and determination.
David Marquand nominates Benazir Bhutto, exiled Pakistani politician. For all of her courage and determination in trying to forward the cause of democracy in Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto deserves to be person of the year. Returning to Karachi after eight years in exile, she has been placed under house arrest twice in a matter of days, but remains as resolute as ever. She is a linchpin of Pakistan's fight against Islamist extremism who has stood her ground under the most difficult of circumstances.
Soweto Kinch, British jazz alto saxophonist and rapper, nominates Toyin Agbetu, justice campaigner. The founder of Ligali, an organisation that campaigns for human rights and cultural, socio-economic and political justice on behalf of the African community, Toyin Agbetu showed courage and perspective when he stood up to protest during the slavery bicentenary service at Westminster Abbey earlier this year. His action highlighted an issue that is often ignored - that the ritual of self-approval overlooked the part played in slavery's abolition by millions of Africans who instigated resistance and rebellion.
Shazia Mirza, comedian, nominates Mark Thomas, comedian. This year, he campaigned against the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act and then made this into a fantastic comedy show. Second, he wrote and toured with the show As used on the Famous Nelson Mandela. Mark set himself up as an arms dealer, and a PR adviser on the most sensitive of human-rights issues, and then turned this real life into brilliant comedy. He continues to be a revolutionary comedian. His performance at Glastonbury was also quite sensational.
Marek Kohn, science writer, nominates Alan Johnston, BBC correspondent. Held captive in Gaza for 114 days, Alan Johnston never seemed to believe he was more important than the events he was reporting. That modesty and commitment helped inspire a display of solidarity that spoke movingly about how the relationship between journalists and public should be, but rarely is.
Amit Chaudhuri, writer, nominates Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has been part of England's intellectual and cultural life for two decades at least. She is indispensable as a tonic, a necessary irritant and an enlivening force. Even in faraway India, I've looked forward to her appearances on BBC World's Dateline London, challenging male journalists in their smugness and European commentators in their parochialism. As a secular Muslim woman who also has the gift of irony and satire, she is unique, and can effectively critique extremists from her religion as well as expose, with authority, the idiocy (to give offensiveness its kindest interpretation) of people like Martin Amis. And all this polemic is situated in a life-affirming privileging of existence itself. Her really wonderful dramatic monologue Nowhere to Belong: Tales of an Extravagant Stranger, about growing up in Uganda and being besotted with Shakespeare, is evidence of her courage and many-sidedness, and that you can't pigeonhole the most interesting people.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the RSA, nominates Simon Duffy
As director of the In Control partnership, Simon Duffy is one of the key figures improving social care in the UK. His organisation developed a pioneering system called "self-directed support", which enables the elderly and disabled to gain control over the kind and the amount of support they receive, giving them the chance to be independent citizens. Thanks to Simon, it has now become part of government policy with the advent of personalised budgets.
Jenni Murray nominates Shirley Williams
Baroness Williams continues to be a shining example for women of all ages - her determination, her intelligence, her knowledge and the power of her language are legendary. She's as energetic and engaged in her seventies as she was as a young woman, and she is a great humanitarian with integrity running through her like "Brighton" through a stick of rock. She has recently committed herself to civil disobedience, risking imprisonment, if ID cards that would intrude on the privacy of our personal details are introduced.
Shami Chakrabarti nominates Rachel North
A survivor of the 7/7 bombings, Rachel North has become a leading defender of civil liberties with her fearless blog, successful book and appearances in films such as Taking Liberties. Rachel says, "It's not all about bombs these days," but courageously continues to oppose authoritarian counter-terror laws, including extending pre-charge detention for terror suspects.
Harriet Harman nominates Dora Dixon-Fyle
As chair of the Fairtrade Steering Committee, Councillor Dora Dixon-Fyle guided Southwark Council towards successfully achieving Fairtrade status in June 2007. Dora, who was born in Sierra Leone, has been a local Labour councillor representing Camberwell Green for ten years. She recognised the important effect that a large local authority in London such as Southwark could have in reducing world poverty if it were to signal its intentions by agreeing wherever possible to buy Fairtrade goods. Achieving this was no mean feat. She had to work across party political lines, with people from churches, local businesses and groups such as Southwark Friends of the Earth.
