Svetlana Gannushkina is a Russian human rights defender and professor of mathematics based in Moscow. In 1989 Svetlana was a founding member of the international working NGO Memorial whose purpose was the documentation of crimes against humanity committed in the former Soviet Union and during Stalin's regime. She also helped to establish the Memorial Human Rights Centre which has focused on the protection of human rights in contemporary Russia.

In 1990 Svetlana co-founded and since heads the NGO Civic Assistance Committee which has provided free and legal support, humanitarian aid and education to over 50,000 migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons since then. Currently, this Migration Rights Network incorporates 57 counselling points in different regions of Russia. Svetlana was a member of the Russian Presidential Human Rights Council from 2002 - 2012 and was able to help amend and implement the law on refugees allowing more than two million people to be granted Russian citizenship.

On the 5th of April 2022, the Memorial Human Rights Centre was closed and liquidated by the Russian Government. For her criticism of the Russian Government Svetlana has received numerous threats to her life and her name and address were posted on a website which listed a number of Russian human rights activists and journalists as so-called enemies of the people. In March 2022 Svetlana was arbitrarily arrested by law enforcement officers for attending a public protest against the war in Ukraine. 

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For her lifelong commitment to advocating human rights and justice for refugees and migrants, Svetlana received among others the Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award, the Stieg Larsson Prize, the Human Right Prize from Amnesty International and the Right Livelihood Award in 2016. She published several articles and books including her very personal account of life in contemporary Russia: "Auch wir sind Russland" - "We are Russia as well".

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The Nobel Peace Prize 2022 was awarded to the Memorial Human Rights Centre.