A kidney consultant from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) has been nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize alongside colleagues from an international organisation set up to fight unethical organ transplants around the world.

Consultant nephrologist Dr Adnan Sharif is secretary of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) – which campaigns globally against illegal and unethical transplant activity, especially in China where the majority of such transplants occur.

DAFOH’s decade-long efforts to raise awareness of this issue have been recognised with a nomination for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize – with the winner being announced in October ahead of an award ceremony in December.

Dr Sharif, who has been a consultant at QEHB since 2011, sits on the Board of Directors for DAFOH and gives up his free time to work with colleagues to tackle one of the biggest ethical challenges in global transplantation.

He said: “I’m tremendously honored to share this nomination for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize with my colleagues from DAFOH, which has been campaigning for nearly a decade to raise awareness of unethical organ procurement.

“The nomination is specifically an acknowledgement of the work DAFOH has undertaken over many years in directing the world’s attention to gross violations of medical transplant ethics in countries such as China, where organs have been systematically procured from non-consenting capital prisoners and prisoners of conscience to fuel a lucrative transplant tourism industry.

“Since the publication of the independent Matas and Kilgour report in 2006, DAFOH has campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of human rights abuses in China driven by the unethical procurement of organs for transplantation.

“I hope this recognition fuels interest in the work of the organisation and draws urgent attention the issue of unethical organ transplant activity, which unfortunately continues to the present day in places like China.”

In his role as Secretary of DAFOH, Dr Sharif has represented the group in Parliamentary meetings in Westminster and in talks with the World Medical Association and several international transplantation organisations.

He was also part of a delegation that travelled to Geneva in December 2013 to hand in a petition, signed by 1.5 million signatories, asking the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner to investigate claims of forced organ procurement from executed prisoners in China.

Further information about the work being undertaken by DAFOH can be found on the group’s website (see below).