An international human rights lawyer, Kola Alapinni has been conferred with the 2023 United States Secretary of State’s International Religious Freedom Awards. Alapinni - a Nigerian - was recognised alongside other defenders of religious freedom across the globe for providing legal defence in multiple freedom of religion or belief cases and for challenging the constitutionality of Nigerian blasphemy laws. He is the leading defence counsel in two prominent blasphemy cases in Kano, Northern Nigeria.