Outgoing Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs has won a freedom of speech award.

Dr Triggs has had a rough run under the Abbott and Turnbull governments, which along with The Australian newspaper have consistently condemned her attempts to draw attention to the treatment of children in offshore detention in particular.

She has now been named the 2017 recipient of the Voltaire award by Liberty Victoria for her “courageous stand on people’s rights”.

“It’s a recognition of her work and the courage she has exhibited in the face of very withering criticism from the government from time to time,” said Prof Spencer Zifcak, acting president of Liberty Victoria.

Dr Triggs will receive the award in July alongside Georgie Stone, Liberty Victoria’s first Young Voltaire Award recipient, who at age 10 became “the youngest person in Australia to be granted permission by a court to take hormone blockers, the first stage of medical treatment for transgender children.”

Some of Dr Trigg’s most vocal opponents leapt to express their outrage, incensed by her being awarded a freedom of speech prize despite supporting 18C actions against Queensland university students and the late cartoonist Bill Leak.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said of Professor Triggs: “She’s been the enemy of free speech, the absolute arch enemy of free speech in this country and I can only assume that someone with a warped sense of humour has come up with this award.”

“It cannot be taken seriously, anything that couples the name of Gillian Triggs and free speech, simple as that,” Mr Abbott said.

“She’s paid half a million bucks a year to trample on people’s free speech so I think it’s a joke that this award is going to her.”

The Iranian asylum seeker cartoonist Eaten Fish - who has been in detention on Manus Island since 2013 - will receive the Voltaire Empty Chair Award for those unable to accept in person.

Eaten Fish produces work about life in detention, and went on a 19-day hunger strike in February to protest against the handling of his claims of sexual abuse.

“Again, we are talking about courage here,” Zifcak said.

“This is a person who is undergoing both physical and psychological suffering as a direct result of being in detention but is still willing to get out there and make it clear how people are being treated in that environment and criticise both the Australian and Papua New Guinean governments for their cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment on Manus and Nauru.”

Dr Triggs said she was “honoured” to receive the award.

She has repeatedly stated that she will not seek another term after her role as Human Rights Commissioner expires this year, but even so the Prime Minister has sought to score political points by announcing he would not offer her a new contract, even if she wanted one.