Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

This blog regularly covers human rights awards [e.g. https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/human-rights-awards/]. Most of the awards end up with the right people or – if needed – decisions get corrected [e.g. https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2016/07/10/russian-protest-artist-pavlensky-stripped-of-havel-prize-over-support-for-violent-partisans/]. This week four controversial cases have come to the fore although they ‘fortunately’ concern more political kind of awards given to more political kind of people. Still instructive for those who consider giving awards:

• Malaysian media reported on Sunday that Permata, a children’s welfare group founded by Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, had been selected to receive UNESCO’s “Lead by Example” award. But the organiser of the event – Antiquities Coalition – said that (1) the award had nothing to do with the United Nations’ cultural arm, UNESCO. “Contrary to erroneous reports, the event is not a UNESCO event, nor is UNESCO giving the award,” Antiquities Coalition spokesman Andy Beck said, according to news portal malaysiakini.com., although NYT on 18 sept maintained that “The event is co-hosted by the head of Unesco, Irina Bokova. Ms. Bokova is running to be secretary general of the United Nations, so her actions are also being closely scrutinized.“) and (2) that the committee decided it requires more time to review the comments that have been received, and has removed Permata from the list of Thursday’s honorees. (“However, we do not wish this important event to be dominated by anything other than the issue of how to mobilise and unite people in the fight against violent extremism,” Beck said.)

• In an op-ed in Foreign Policy of 19 September, the New York-based Human Rights Foundation (Thor Halvorssen and Alex Gladstein) takes issue with the Atlantic Council for handing its Global Citizen Award to Gabonese dictator Ali Bongo Ondimba. The piece [‘Independent’ Think Tank Honors African Dictator as ‘Global Citizen’] does not mince words (“Gabon’s president is an outlandishly corrupt autocrat who probably just stole an election”) and wonders: “Why is the Atlantic Council toasting him at a black-tie gala?” ‘

Gabonese dictator Ali Bongo Ondimba, recipient of the Atlantic Council’s Global Citizen Award

The Gabonese President was scheduled to attend the gala hosted by the Atlantic Council to accept this award for “his life of public service and efforts to improve the lives of the people of Gabon.” The dictator was forced to cancel at the last moment because of mounting unrest in his country. The Human rights Foundation says that the Atlantic Council has not officially rescinded the award [Atlantic Council President Frederick Kempe only said his organization respects Bongo’s “decision to forgo receiving his Global Citizen Award this year due to the overriding priorities he has in his country”].  Yet the authors of the piece say “it’s not clear how Bongo was ever considered a worthy candidate for the award in the first place. The notoriously corrupt leader has ruled Gabon since 2009, when he succeeded his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba, in a fraudulent election. (The Bongo family has exerted almost complete control over Gabonese politics, business, and civil society since 1967.) The country scores the lowest possible rating on Freedom House’s civil and political rights indices, and anti-government protestors are often met with violence or even killed.”

By recognizing him with a Global Citizen Award, the Atlantic Council is helping Bongo shed his image as an outrageously corrupt autocrat. …And since the Atlantic Council hasn’t revoked the award, he may still be able to do so at a later date.

The authors then refer to earlier doubtful decisions by the Atlantic Council [“In 2012, for instance, the think tank hosted an event entirely dedicated to Kazakhstan, where speaker after speaker lauded the government’s foreign and economic policies while providing only tepid criticism of the country’s deteriorating human rights situation“] and casts doubts on its long-trumpeted objectivity and independence, e.g. financial support from the governments of Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, and Kazakhstan. ..Until more questions are answered, “the credibility of one of Washington’s most venerated think tanks will remain in question, and its Global Citizen Award will remain a joke.”

• Luisa Brown – in a Guest Column in the Yale Daily News of 20 September – registers her total disagreement with the decision to invite Rwandan President Paul Kagame to deliver the prestigious Coca-Cola World Fund Lecture, in which he is being celebrated in part for his leadership in the “promotion of human rights.” By Yale’s account, Kagame is the man responsible for Rwanda’s impressive economic growth, stability and human development. And yet, the wide recognition and extensive documentation of Kagame’s abysmal human rights record tells a different story.  Yale’s MacMillan Center has invited various high-profile figures to deliver the lecture previously, but Kagame’s invitation stands out for its blazon disregard for human rights. The lecture is part of the Coca-Cola World Fund, established in 1992 to “support intersecting endeavors among specialists in international relations, international law and the management of international enterprises and organizations.” Previous speakers have included heads of state, U.N. officials, journalists and academics such as Samantha Power ’92, Nicholas Kristof, Mary Robinson and Tom Friedman. 

The author [a Community Fellow at the Schell Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School – louisa.brown@yale.edu] summarizes the many violations occurring in Rwanda and ends with a personal observation: “Two years ago, I sat in a Yale graduate seminar in which the professor selected Rwanda as a case study for a “successful transition.” The professor cited Rwanda’s impressive annual seven percent GDP growth, improvements to child mortality and life expectancy. When a handful of students raised concerns about human rights abuses, we were told to “focus on the development indicators.” Similar to Yale’s description of Kagame, the syllabus had whitewashed any mention of human rights abuses. Our critiques were dismissed and stifled. Kagame’s visit to Yale is a clear message that human rights abuses can be brushed aside whilst growth indicators improve and GDP soars. In honoring Kagame’s leadership in the “promotion of human rights,” Yale is warping the truth and legitimizing his leadership.”

• Finally a case that is less obvious but still a serious expression of concern by an ethnic minority: Prensa Latina reported on 19 September that hundreds of Muslim students demonstrated against the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award 2016 given to Minister of State of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi by the Harvard Foundation. According to the website of the Harvard Foundation recent prizes of that foundation were given to education activist Malala Yousafzai, Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon. According to the Mizzima news agency, the young people consider that Aung San Suu Kyi does nothing to handle the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority. According to the local press, Suu Kyi herself considered, while receiving the prize, that in her country there is still a long way to go before saying that the people are free and safe.

sources:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/no-leadership-award-for-malaysian-pm-s-wife-rosmah/3138130.html

Source: Demonstrations in Myanmar for Prize Awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/09/20/brown-yale-honors-the-dishonorable/

‘Independent’ Think Tank Honors African Dictator as ‘Global Citizen’

This entry was posted on September 20, 2016 at 17:59 and is filed under awards, human rights, Human Rights Foundation, UN.

Tags: Ali Bongo Ondimba, Antiquities Coalition, Atlantic Council, Aung San Suu Kyi, awards, Coca-Cola World Fund Lecture, Gabon, Global Citizen Award, Harvard University, human rights awards, Human Rights Foundation, Kagame, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Permata, Rohingya people, Rwanda, Unesco, Yale university