This year's Li Buyun Law Prize was presented on Wednesday at Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing, alongside events marking the 77th Human Rights Day. The award went to Zhang Yonghe, executive director of the university's Human Rights Institute, in recognition of his academic and institutional contributions to human rights law, legal theory, sociology of law, and legal anthropology.

At the ceremony, Huang Wenyi, vice-chairman of the Li Buyun Law Award Committee, highlighted Zhang's role in linking human rights theory with fieldwork and policy engagement. Under Zhang's leadership, researchers have carried out extensive studies in ethnic minority regions and produced over a dozen reports in Chinese and English documenting China's human rights progress for international audiences. Zhang is also a frequent participant in United Nations Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva and has led teams in submitting nearly 20 parallel reports.