Archive for the 'awards' Category
August 12, 2019
An award-winning documentary following Thuli Madonsela’s time as Public Protector has officially been released. The film focuses mostly on Madonsela’s last year in office and is called Whispering Truth to Power.
Behind-the-scenes footage shows Madonsela’s fight for justice for ordinary South Africans. As Public Protector for South Africa, Thuli Madonsela made an impact. The film has won the Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs, a collection of awards at FESPACO, Luxor African Film Festival and Jozi Film Festival.
Madonsela has become a celebrated name for many in South Africa, after she managed to successfully challenge former SA President, Jacob Zuma, on his illegal use of state funds. “In other countries, people don’t know who the ombudsman is,” Madonsela’s son, Wantu explains, “If the government is doing their job properly, then the ombudsman is not this celebrated figure who is fighting the good fight, because there shouldn’t be that fight.” The documentary is filmmaker, Shameela Seedat’s first ever release. The documentary on Madonsela is available to stream at Showmax.
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Tags: anti corruption, award, Documentary film, film festival, human rights films, Luxor African Film Festival and Jozi Film Festival, Prosecutor, Shameela Seedat, South Africa, Thuli Madonsela, Whispering Truth to Power (film), Zuma
August 8, 2019
Gladys Mmari is a driven Tanzanian human rights defender (HRD), and the founder of MAFGE (Male Advocacy For Gender Equality) – a non-governmental organisation (NGO) focused on women empowerment through educating both women and men. “So much of the work that I do is cultural conversation. We have grown up talking about these issues among women, but now, I have to work with men as well – making it more challenging,” Mmari stresses. She fosters the idea that male voices should be heard, and educated, in women’s rights, and that it is important to establish an equitable understanding between the genders, while breaking down gender stereotypes. “We need to stop romanticising the idea of women empowerment, and co-empower one another to achieve the goals of an equal world,” Mmari affirms.
After obtaining a law degree, she worked as a human rights researcher in Tanzania, with a focus on the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and indigenous rights. Then, she worked for AfricAid, an NGO specialised in cultivating leadership in young women and girls. She recalls a young boy who, following one of her sessions, asked her why he could not participate in the dialogues. He also wanted to boost women and girls’ rights. “It was a turning point for me,” Mmari says. “The time has come to work together and empower each other to revisit the many socio-cultural constraints that have stopped us from equality.” Her organisation MAFGE was hereby born.
She pinpoints numerous challenges faced in her work. “It is challenging to mobilise men to join, to ensure impact to women empowerment.” Furthermore, “most organisations that deal with women empowerment want to fund women organisations. And they do not want to see men in women organisations.”
She also points out the political situation in Tanzania as a great hurdle. Political rallies in the state deviate and misconceive the importance of HRDs, putting them at risk. As she expresses a sincere concern for Tanzanian HRDs, she mentions that the government is currently registering all NGOs under a single entity. “Here there is potential importance of this initiative, as this could be used for something productive such as acting as a more centralised human rights platform allowing more structured approaches, information passage, and funding opportunities. It is a step forward, unless it is a political interest”.
Gladys will continue to fight for women’s rights. “Women are born into unequal societies, and their achievements are unacknowledged and their potential left untapped [..] I can imagine my children and grandchildren living in a world with equal rights, and that they’ll get the opportunities and securities that I missed as a woman. That’s what keeps me going.”
Through MAFGE, she is also running a crowdfunding campaign, to strengthen gender equality in Tanzania.
https://www.defenddefenders.org/blog/human-rights-defender-of-the-month-july-2019-gladys-mmari/
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Tags: Africa, award, DefendDefenders, gender equality, Gladys Mmari, Human rights defender, human rights lawyer, human rights of women, MAFGE (Male Advocacy For Gender Equality), profile, Tanzania, woman human rights defender
August 5, 2019
“Award a protection against autocratic tendencies, but Magsaysay is ‘not infallible” says Sandeep Pandey, a social activist and academic, a Magsasay recipient, who returned his award in 2002.
There could not have been a better choice than Ravish Kumar for this year’s Magsaysay Award. Ravish has demonstrated exemplary courage in questioning the sectarian, communal, jingoistic and irrational politics which has dominated the narrative in this country over the last five years when one by one most of the saner voices were made to disappear, some made compromises or simply surrendered and worst there were others who decided to collaborate with this insidious project of right wing fundamentalism. [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/08/03/magsaysay-awards-2019-honor-4-outstanding-asians/]
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The Magsaysay Award will definitely bring more credibility to his work and hopefully some of the opposition from right wing forces, who are known to troll in an organised manner any sane voice in support of human rights, democracy, justice, communal harmony, peace and friendship, especially with Pakistan, and who’ve targeted Ravish in the past, will subside.
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However, the aura of Magsaysay is quite exaggerated in India than other countries of Asia, and outside of Asia very few people have heard of it, probably because there are many well known Indians who have won it. Part of the reason for its popularity in India is that it and its winners feature prominently in most General Knowledge books which are used by students preparing for competitive examinations. But the Magsaysay Foundation itself is not infallible, unlike its reputation.
I went to Manila in 2002 to receive the Magsaysay Award as well as participate in a Peace conference organised at the University there in the wake of impending US attack on Iraq. It was a mere coincidence that both events were happening on same dates. There was a demonstration outside the US Embassy the day after the Award ceremony. The chairperson of the Foundation asked me not to participate in the demonstration as it could tarnish its image. ..
I argued that US was a bigger culprit in the game of warfare and I considered it part of my activism to oppose the US policy. Before landing in Manila I had little idea that the Foundation was completely US funded — by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. Obviously the Magsaysay Foundation was quite uncomfortable with my stand. The fears of Magsaysay Foundation came true. Even the Hindi Indian media back home covered the demonstration outside US Embassy in Manila highlighting my participation. An editorial in a Manila newspaper asked me to return the $50,000 Award money to the US Embassy before I returned to India if I was the principled man I wanted them to believe. I returned the cheque from the airport to the Magsaysay Foundation before embarking the plane out of Manila.
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But the Award is prestigious and definitely is a protection against autocratic tendencies of the state and its cronies in India, especially for human rights defenders and upright journalists like Ravish Kumar. We hope that the right-wing fundamentalists will take his viewpoint more seriously and the media fraternity will start considering him as an ideal rather than an exception. He has now emerged as the hope for a free media in India and by extension a democratic polity. This is a victory of progressive forces, sanity and humanity and we must celebrate it. Most of all it is a victory for truth which has become a casualty in the era of post-truth. The post-truth has created only strife and conflicts. If we have to return to the human endeavour of making this world a better place for everybody, there is no option but to go back to recognizing truth as the most important values. In spite of Nathuram Godse having become a hero for a fringe group in this country, the universal ideal continues to be Mahatma Gandhi.
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Tags: India, Kumar Ravish, Philippines, Ramon Magsaysay Award, Ravish Kumar, Sandeep Pandey, USA
August 3, 2019
The Ramon Magsaysay Award, one of Asia’s best known prizes, celebrates transformative leadership. In the past five decades, the award has been bestowed on over three hundred men, women and organizations whose selfless service has offered their societies, Asia, and the world successful solutions to some of the most intractable problems of human development. For more on this regional award, see: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/ramon-magsaysay-award-for-community-leadership] The trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation annually select the awardees. The Award is presented to them in formal ceremonies in Manila, Philippines on August 31st, the birth anniversary of the much-esteemed Philippine President whose ideals inspired the Award’s creation in 1957.
The winners for 2019 are:
Kim, Jong-ki, South Korea
- Such a journalist is 41-year-old Ko Swe Win. Born to a poor family in Yangon, he grew up in politically turbulent times and fell victim to state repression early on.
- In 2017, he criticized a powerful, ultranationalist Buddhist monk, Ashin Wirathu, for purveying “hate speech” and publicly commending the killer of a Muslim human rights activist. Wirathu, Swe Win wrote, had desecrated Buddhism and should be punished for endorsing assassination and fomenting hate.
- Swe Win and Myanmar Now draw strength from the fact that they are making a difference. With a current readership of 350,000, the news service is highly regarded for the quality, balance, and depth of its reporting on high-impact issues, including land grabbing, child labor, and abuse of domestic workers.
- In electing Ko Swe Win to receive the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes his undaunted commitment to practice independent, ethical, and socially engaged journalism in Myanmar; his incorruptible sense of justice and unflinching pursuit of the truth in crucial but under-reported issues; and his resolute insistence that it is in the quality and force of media’s truth-telling that we can convincingly protect human rights in the world. [see also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/09/03/myanmar-time-for-aung-san-suu-kyi-to-return-at-least-some-of-her-many-human-rights-awards/]
The fifth award winner is Mr Cayabyab, 65, who was recognised for “his compositions and performances that have defined and inspired Filipino popular music across generations”.
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http://festival.rmaf.org.ph/?page_id=35
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Tags: Angkhana Neelapaijit, awards, bullying, Cayabyab, digest of human rights awards, India, Jong-ki, journalists, Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF Thai NGO)), Kim, Ko Swe Win, Kumar Ravish, media, Myanmar, Ramon Magsaysay Award, regional award, Somchai Neelapaijit, South Korea, Thailand
July 22, 2019
The Committee to Protect Journalists on 16 July gave one of its International Press Freedom Awards 2019 to Neha Dixit, an Indian freelance reporter, who has covered politics, gender, and social justice in print, TV, and online media for more than a decade. [see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/07/17/international-press-freedom-awards-2019/]
She began her career at Tehelka magazine and then joined the special investigation team at India Today. In 2019, Dixit spent months investigating and reporting stories that shed a light on important issues in the country, including extrajudicial killings by police. She also reported on the illegal detention of citizens under draconian laws that appeared to be motivated by political interests. In January 2019, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights sent a notice to the Indian government to express its concern about the detentions. In 2018, Dixit reported on the damage to the health of poor Indians who were being used as guinea pigs by pharmaceutical companies in illegal drug trials.
In 2016, she wrote a story for Outlook magazine that accused members of a right-wing nationalist group of trafficking more than 31 girls in Assam state to other parts of India in order to inculcate them with a nationalist ideology. After the story was published, members of the ruling party filed a criminal defamation suit against Dixit and Outlook, accusing both of violating Indian law. CPJ condemned the case, which continues today, and provided Dixit with support for its legal fees. CPJ’s research has found that section 153A of India’s colonial-era penal code, under which the suit was filed, has been used to silence journalists, writers, and academics in India. Dixit was also charged with “inciting communal hatred through writing,” for which she could face a five-year prison term.
After Dixit’s exposé on extrajudicial killings by the police, she said high-ranking police officials threatened her family’s safety if she continued to report on the issue. She is frequently harassed online as a result of her reporting, especially from alleged right-wing extremists. She has been threatened with physical attacks, rape, and death, and her personal information has been exposed online. She told CPJ in May 2019 that she faces up to 300 abusive messages a day.
Dixit’s work has been published in international outlets including The New York Times, Al-Jazeera, Caravan, and The Wire. She has received numerous awards, including the European Commission’s Lorenzo Natali Media Prize in 2011, the Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism in 2014, and the 2016 Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist.
https://cpj.org/awards/2019/neha-dixit-india.php
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Tags: Committee to Protect Journalists, critical journalists, Extrajudicial killing, freedom of expression, India, International Press Freedom Awards, Lorenzo Natali Media Prize, Neha Dixit, profile
July 22, 2019
Digital activist Maxence Melo. (Daniel Hayduk, AFP, File)
A Tanzanian journalist awarded the International Press Freedom Award on 16 July [see https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2019/07/17/international-press-freedom-awards-2019/] said he hoped the recognition will “lift the corner of the veil” on the plight of reporters in his homeland reported News24 on 17 July 2019. Maxence Melo, a blogger whose critical writings of President John Magufuli have landed him in hot water.
The CPJ said the co-founder of the Jamii Forums blog in 2006, was a “champion of online freedom of expression” who never flinched, even in the face of Tanzania’s strict internet laws. Melo has been in court more than 80 times, the CPJ said, and is still facing prosecution for refusing to disclose his sources in a story criticising Tanzanian authorities. His work focuses on corruption, tax evasion and human rights violations.
Melo said he hoped the award would turn the spotlight on the exceptional difficulties faced by journalists in Tanzania. “This prize lifts a corner of the veil on what is happening in our country,” said Melo, who is barred from leaving Tanzania’s financial capital and biggest city, Dar es Salaam. “Never before in our country has a government violated press freedom so much.”
“It is of course not good news that my country is making the headlines because of its laws and practices that violate freedoms of the press and expression,” Melo said. “With the announcement of this award, I think the international community will take a greater interest in what is happening in Tanzania, in the difficult environment in which the media and human rights defenders work in Tanzania.” Melo, a father of three, said he had received death threats. “It is obvious that I am afraid, afraid for my personal safety, but also for the safety of my family,” he said.
In 2015, the East African country was 75th in the world in RSF’s press freedom rankings. By 2019, it had slid to 118th.
https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/tanzanian-press-champion-hopes-prize-lifts-veil-on-abuses-20190717
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Tags: anti corruption, blogger, CPJ, critical journalists, freedom of expression, International Press Freedom Awards, Jamii Forums blog, Maxence Melo, Maxence Melo Mubyazi, Tanzania
July 19, 2019
The Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) 2019 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award recognizing extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom will be presented to Zaffar Abbas, editor of Pakistan’s daily newspaper Dawn. Abbas, who has decades of experience as a reporter in Pakistan, has led Dawn since 2010. Under his leadership, Dawn and its reporters frequently have come under government pressure. This is the second Ifill award which replaces the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award. For more on this and other awards for journalists: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/gwen-ifill-press-freedom-award
“Zaffar Abbas is the embodiment of journalistic courage, which is why the board is so pleased to honor him with the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award,” said Kathleen Carroll, chair of the CPJ board. “Every day he fights to deliver facts to Dawn’s readers in the face of pressure, obstacles, and blockades from the institutions in Pakistan that would much prefer to go about their business without scrutiny from the press or the public.”
https://cpj.org/2019/07/cpj-announces-2019-international-press-freedom-awa.php
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Tags: awards, Committee for Protection of Journalists, CPJ, Dawn newspaper, digest of human rights awards, Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award, Pakistan, Zaffar Abbas
July 17, 2019
On 16 July 2019, the Committee to Protect Journalists announced that journalists from Brazil, India, Nicaragua, and Tanzania will receive the 2019 International Press Freedom Awards amid the erosion of press freedom in democracies around the globe. The journalists have faced online harassment, legal and physical threats, and imprisonment in their pursuit of the news
CPJ’s 2019 awardees are:
Patrícia Campos Mello, a reporter and columnist at Brazil’s daily Folha de S. Paulo. During the Brazilian presidential election campaign in 2018, Campos Mello was attacked online and doxxed in response to her coverage of supporters of then presidential-candidate Jair Bolsonaro allegedly sponsoring bulk messaging in WhatsApp.
Neha Dixit, a freelance investigative journalist in India who covers human rights. She has faced legal and physical threats, as well as online harassment, after reporting on alleged wrongdoing by right-wing nationalist groups and police.
Lucía Pineda Ubau, news director, and Miguel Mora, founder and editor, of Nicaraguan broadcaster 100% Noticias. The pair was imprisoned in December 2018 in relation to their coverage of political unrest. They were freed on June 11 after six months behind bars, under surveillance and in isolation most of the time.
Maxence Melo Mubyazi, champion of online freedom of expression in Tanzania, who co-founded and is the managing director of Jamii Forums, an online discussion site and source of breaking news. Melo has been charged under the country’s restrictive CyberCrimes Act and, in 2017, appeared in court 81 times.
For more on the International Press Freedom Awards and other media awards, see: http://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/international-press-freedom-awards-cpj
All of the winners will be honored at CPJ’s annual awards and benefit dinner, which will be chaired by Laurene Powell Jobs and Peter Lattman of the Emerson Collective. The event will be held at the Grand Hyatt New York in New York City on November 21, 2019.
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Tags: awards, Brazil, Committee to Protect Journalists, digest of human rights awards, India, International Press Freedom Awards, journalists, Lucía Pineda Ubau, Maxence Melo Mubyazi, Miguel Mora, Neha Dixit, Nicaragua, Patrícia Campos Mello, Tanzania
July 16, 2019
On Sunday July 14, 2019 the 31st Galway Film Fleadh came to a close after many Irish and international film premieres, screenings, workshops and discussions. On the last day of the festival, the film fleadh held it annual awards honouring the best of the filmmakers working in every discipline who brought their work to showcase in Galway. The best Human Rights Film (chosen in association with Amnesty International) was “For Sama” (https://www.forsamafilm.com – Director Waad al-Kateab & Edward Watts – Producer Waas Al-Kateab). The documentary film is an intimate yet epic journey into the female experience of war. The film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria,’ and the choices she has to make to protect her daughter.
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Tags: Aleppo, Documentary film, film festival, For Sama (film), Galway, Ireland, Syria, Waad al-Kateab, war
July 16, 2019
On 15 July 2019, the law firm Herischi & Associates LLC issued a press release announcing that the family of Mr. Abbas Amirentezam, former Deputy Prime Minister of Iran in 1979, filed an action against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) for, allegedly, the almost 40 year unlawful incarceration and house arrest of their father who was subjected to torture, solitary confinement, and lack of medical care that ultimately led to his death in 2018. The complaint is lodged under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA)
Allegedly, Mr. Amirentezam was the longest-held political prisoner and prisoner of conscience in the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to Fariba Amini, as of 2018 he had “been in jail for 17 years and in and out of jail for the twenty one years, altogether for 38 years.” He was Iran’s Ambassador to the five Scandinavian countries and Deputy Prime Minister in the Interim Government of the Islamic Republic. Mr. Amirentezam opposed the Iranian hostage taking of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and was subsequently arrested. Allegedly for 555 days, he was held in solitary confinement without access to lawyers nor any details of the charges against him before his trial; after Iran released the 52 American hostages in 1981, Amirentezam was tried without access to a lawyer and jury; he was unjustly convicted and condemned to life in prison.
The following is alleged in the complaint:
According to his memoir, “until 1996, while he was incarcerated in Evin prison, Mr. Amirentezam was denied any visitation rights and/or communication with his children. Mr. Amirentezam was routinely tortured and exposed to mock executions. He was refused medical treatment and consequently suffered irreparable damage to his health. His family not only endured his absence but lived in continuous fear of his death. Despite attempting to silence Mr. Amirentezam – he defied and remained as vocal as he could throughout his incredible hardship.”
According to UN Commission on Human Rights Report published on March 1996, Amirentezam interviewed with the UN Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Maurice Copithorne. In his 1996 report to the UN, Mr. Amirentezam alleges that “1,100 political prisoners had been executed in Evin prison during one night at the beginning of the fall of 1981.” Pursuant to Mr. Amirentezam personal website, he alleges that, “despite constant pressure from the Iranian authorities, he never confessed to any erroneous allegations and never asked for mercy. He remained defiant to the end. As a result, he is the recipient the human rights award of Bruno Kreisky Prize in 1998 and the Jan Karski Award for Moral Courage in 2003.”
Mr. Amirentezam died on July 12, 2018 while under house arrest in Tehran. Allegedly until his death, he demanded a fair and public trial. Mr. Amirentezam children claimed in their Complaint that they have suffered significantly by the immense pain intentionally imposed unto their family by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Complaint further alleges that, “the Amirentezam family is demanding justice by exposing the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IRGC for all the cruelty and suffering they have endured for almost four decades.”
This case is brought under terrorism exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia through Plaintiffs attorney, Mr. Ali Herischi of Herischi & Associates, LLC. This action is filed on the first anniversary after Mr. Amirentezam’s death. Plaintiffs are asking for compensatory and punitive damages. Mr. Herischi is hopeful that “this case will bring attention to the systematic human rights abuses and domestic terrorism by the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
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Tags: Abbas Amirentezam, Bruno Kreisky award, damages, detention, Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, Iran, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp, USA
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 