Archive for the 'awards' Category
January 30, 2017
Nomination for the 2017 Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L) Award can be submitted until 15 February 2017.
The Lawyers for Lawyers Award will be presented for the fourth time in Amsterdam on 19 May 2017. An independent jury, chaired by mrs. Heikelien Verrijn Stuart, will decide which lawyer will receive the award. The prize will consist of a special token as well as a monetary element of € 10.000. This award is presented every two years to a lawyer who promotes the rule of law and human rights in an exceptional way, who has been threatened or obstructed because of his or her work as a lawyer, and who may benefit from the publicity and recognition of the Award.
Anyone can submit a nomination, but a lawyer or group of lawyers cannot nominate themselves. Lawyers from all over the world can be nominated.
Only those nominations submitted via the nomination form on the website will be taken into consideration. The nomination form is available here : Nomination form L4L Award 2017 Lawyers for Lawyers
See for 2015: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2015/05/15/jorge-molano-from-colombia-laureate-of-2015-lawyers-for-lawyers-award/
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Tags: Amsterdam, awards, call for nominations, human rights award, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyers, international solidarity, L4L, Lawyers for Lawyers, lawyers for lawyers award, protection
January 26, 2017
This year’s Werner Lottje Lecture is dedicated to freedom of speech in Ethiopia, to which two Zone-9 bloggers (Zelalem Kibret und Jomanex Kasaye) have been invited. The Zone-9 bloggers were finalists for the 2016 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (of which the late Werner Lottje was one of the founders). See: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2013/11/16/and-a-lot-more-about-werner-lottje-the-great-german-human-rights-defender/
The event “We blog because we care“ – Das Recht auf Meinungsfreiheit in Äthiopien” takes place in Berlin on 15 February 2017 at 17h30 in there building of Bread for the World– Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst, Caroline-Michaelis-Straße 1, and is co-organised with the German Institute for Human Rights. To attend please contact Alexandra Prieß: alexandra.priess@brot-fuer-die-welt.de.
See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2014/10/18/2nd-werner-lottje-lecture-on-10-november-in-berlin-with-alejandra-ancheita-and-michel-forst/
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: "Zone 9” bloggers, Berlin, bloggers, Bread for the World, Ethiopia, evangelical, freedom of expression, Jomanex Kasaye, MEA nominees 2016, Werner Lottje, Werner Lottje lecture, Zelalem Kibret
January 25, 2017
On 24 January the Stockholm-based NGO Civil Rights Defender announced that human rights defender Edmund Yakani from South Sudan is recipient of the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award 2017.
Edmund Yakani is the Executive Director of human rights organisation Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO), based in South Sudan’s capital Juba. He is among the most tenacious and vocal voices in the country when it comes to defending and promoting human rights, democratic transition and justice. He particularly stands out in his effort to ensure respect for rule of law and justice, and the inclusion of civil society in the ongoing peace talks. “For me, this award symbolises motivation and recognition of the efforts and hard work to protect human rights defenders in South Sudan. This is a call for more efforts to engage in further protection for human rights defenders and their families”, said Edmund Yakani to Civil Rights Defenders.
South Sudan, the youngest country in the world, gained its independence as recent as in July 2011. By many social, economic and political standards, the country is among the poorest in the world. Respect for civil and political rights has never been established to the level its citizens wished for at independence. The situation for human rights worsened following the outbreak of inter-ethnic and armed conflicts in 2013. Since then, human rights defenders and outspoken critics have been increasingly targeted by the government, security forces and other armed actors, and Edmund Yakani has himself been threatened on several occasions due to his work. “State authorities see human rights work as part of a politically motivated agenda against them, and hence human rights defenders are seen as enemies of the state. In addition, the rule of law is compromised to the level that impunity has become a norm in the South Sudanese society”, said Edmund Yakani.
Edmund Yakani
“Edmund Yakani has, on a countless number of occasions, demonstrated his commitment in promoting genuine dialogue and efforts among social and political actors. He is active in calling for a greater inclusion of civil society in the peace talks. His contribution in promoting human rights and its defenders has been of paramount importance, in particular as he is working in the context of weak institutions and ongoing conflict. I am proud to announce him as this year’s recipient of the Civil Rights Defender of the Year Award”, said Robert Hårdh, Executive Director of Civil Rights Defenders.
For last year’s award: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/04/08/released-intigam-aliyev-azerbaijan-civil-rights-defender-of-the-year-award/
Source: Civil Rights Defender Of The Year Award 2017 – Edmund Yakani > Gurtong Trust > Editorial
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: awards, Civil Rights Defender of the Year award, Civil Rights Defenders, Civil society, Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (CEPO), Edmund Yakani, human rights award, Robert Hard, South Sudan
December 21, 2016
Republished as some readers could not properly see the post: This blog has a special interest in human rights awards, so I noted with dismay that according to some obscure sources President Duterte of the Philippines had been given an international human rights award. The announcement looked like this:
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been named as one of the honorees in the annual Human Rights Award by the International Human Rights Committee.”
Unable to find any confirmation elsewhere I wrote to the American Bar Association which has an award and an ‘International Human Rights Committee’. No reply received yet but in the meantime I saw yesterday the “Fake news alert!” published on December 14, 2016 in Busted. And indeed it seems that fake news has also entered the human rights awards arena:
Various Facebook Duterte supporter groups such as “Duterte Warriors”, “Duterte News Global”, and “Duterte Media” have been sharing news of President Duterte being awarded by the International Human Rights Committee. According to the news article sourced from Trending News PH, President Rodrigo Duterte was named as one of the honorees in the annual Human Rights Award held by the International Human Rights Committee. This “committee” was said to have bestowed this award to Duterte for his “exemplary service in the promotion of human rights.” However, the said article is not linked to any other source and no major news outlets have reported on the headline. Furthermore, upon closer inspection, there are numerous inconsistencies on the dates the groups posted the article. The article itself was posted 4 months ago while the groups posted on September and October, with the “Duterte Warriors” group sharing the post twice, once in August and another in September. What was the point of posting the same news article more than once and on different months?
Moreover, the photo used in the article was originally a photo taken during LPU’s Quality Awards Convocation wherein Duterte, still a mayor that time, was awarded as the Most Outstanding Alumnus of Lyceum of the Philippines University in 2015. [http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/677750/duterte-is-lpus-outstanding-alumnus]
Even if it would turn out that some biased or incompetent committee did bestow a minor award, it does not change the fact that Duterte has issues with human rights defenders for the way he is conducting his war on drugs. In fact, recently, Human Rights Watch and other NGOs demanded that Duterte should renounce his earlier statement that seemed to threaten the lawyers of alleged drug dealers. “Duterte’s threats against lawyers and human rights defenders constitute a dangerous extension of his abusive ‘war on drugs’ that has already resulted in more than 5,000 killings,” HRW deputy Asia director Phelim Kine said. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/11/02/duterte-is-wrong-human-rights-defenders-are-beautiful/
See also Front Line Defenders on 1 December: “On 28 November 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte threatened (<http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/848933/duterte-threatens-to-kill-human-rights-activists-if-drug-problem-worsens)> to kill human rights defenders in the Philippines in his speech in Malacañang. “The human rights (defenders) said I ordered the killings. I told them, ‘OK Let’s stop. We’ll let them (drug users) multiply so that when it’s harvest time, more people will die, I will include you because you are the reason why their numbers swell,” referring to human rights defenders.`
Sources:
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/12/03/1649760/duterte-urged-retract-kill-threat-vs-hr-activists
http://www.vocativ.com/379354/philippines-online-army/
Busted: International Human Rights award given to Duterte? Fake news alert!
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Tags: awards, Duterte, fake news, Front Line (NGO), HRW, http://memebuster.net/category/busted/, human rights awards, International Human Rights Committee, misinformation, Philippines
December 19, 2016
Human rights awards – one of my favorite topics [https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/?s=human+rights+awards] – come in many shapes and forms. Here two special ones: the first concerns a handicapped swimmer from Syria and other refugee related recipients (in Madrid) and the second a Turkish pianist (in Bonn).
Ibrahim Al Hussein receiving the Human Rights Award from the Spanish General Council the Bar © • IPC
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Tags: Aeham Ahmad, Beethoven Prize, Fazil Say, General Council of the Bar (Spain), Germany, human rights awards, Ibrahim Al-Hussein, pianist, Refugee Olympic Team, Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Spain, Syria, Turkey, Yonas Kinde
December 15, 2016
On 13 December 2016 Human Rights First convened its annual Human Rights Summit: American ideals. Universal values, at the Newseum in Washington D.C. in the context of International Human Rights Day. During the Summit Human Rights First awarded the 2016 Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty to anti-slavery activist Janvier Murairi Bakihanaye of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Murairi was selected for his work on behalf of vulnerable rural populations to combat contemporary forms of slavery in the mining sector in the DRC. (The Roger Baldwin Medal is given in alternating years by the ACLU to US citizens). 
It also presented the 2016 Beacon Prize, awarded annually to an individual or organization whose work embodies the best in the tradition of American leadership on human rights, to Marilyn Carlson Nelson, former CEO of Carlson Inc., in recognition of her pioneering leadership in the fight to end modern slavery.
Source: Human Rights First Hosts Annual Human Rights Summit | Human Rights First
Posted in awards, HRF, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: anti-slavery, Beacon Prize, Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, human rights awards, Human Rights First, Human Rights Summit, international human rights day, Janvier Murairi Bakihanaye, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Roger Baldwin Medal, slavery, USA, Washington DC
December 14, 2016
A bit belatedly here is the ‘news’ that on 17 November 2016, Andrea James and Glenn E. Martin, leading human rights defenders working to reform the criminal justice system in the United States, received the 2016 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. “Andrea and Glenn are precisely the moral leaders our country needs to solve one of our most pressing human rights problems here at home: a broken criminal justice system that unjustly targets communities of color and the poor,” said Kerry Kennedy, President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. “This is the civil and human rights issue of our time. Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights is proud to recognize Andrea’s and Glenn’s remarkable achievements with this award, and to partner with them moving forward on this important work.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Andrea James, Criminal justice, Glenn E. Martin, human rights award, human rights lawyers, incarcerations, law reform, prison, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, USA
December 14, 2016
Deadline for nominations: 1 February 2017
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Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.
Established in 2005 the award is to honour the work of a human rights defender who, through non-violent work, is courageously making an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of the human rights of others, often at great personal risk to themselves. A cash prize of €15,000 is awarded to recipient and his/her organisation in an effort to support the continuation of this important work. Individual nominees may not play a prominent role in a political party and must be currently active in human rights work (no posthumous contribution). Nominees must not be living in exile. For 2016 award see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/06/10/ana-mirian-romero-environmental-activist-from-honduras-wins-2016-front-line-award/
Deadline: Friday, 3 February 2017
https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/secure/nomination.php (English)
Posted in awards, Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: awards, call for nominations, Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, international protection, Ireland, Norway, Rafto award
December 13, 2016
On 7 December 2016 the Government of Canada published Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders. It joins a limited number of Governments with a specific policy on human rights defenders (not just human rights in general) such as Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland and Austria, although they differ a bit in the degree of detail. And there are of course the EU Guidelines.[https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2012/01/13/quick-reminder-of-the-eu-guidelines-on-human-rights-defenders/] and those of the OSCE: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 4 Comments »
Tags: Canada, foreign policy of Canada, guidelines, human rights award, Human Rights Defenders, international human rights instruments, John Diefenbaker Defender of Human Rights and Freedom Awards, policy, UN
Nomination for the 2017 Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L) Award can be submitted until 15 February 2017.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 