Archive for the 'awards' Category
July 3, 2016
Activist and writer Elie Wiesel, the World War Two death camp survivor who won the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize for becoming the life-long voice of millions of Holocaust victims, has died, Israel’s Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem said on Saturday 2 July 2016. Wiesel, a philosopher, speaker, playwright and professor who also campaigned for the tyrannized and forgotten around the world, was 87.
The Romanian-born Wiesel lived by the credo expressed in “Night,” his landmark story of the Holocaust – “to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
In awarding the Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee praised Wiesel as a “messenger to mankind” and “one of the most important spiritual leaders and guides in an age when violence, repression and racism continue to characterize the world.” Elie Wiesel went on to receive another 6 human rights awards, including one named after himself.
Source: Elie Wiesel, Holocaust Survivor And Nobel Laureate, Dead At 87
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: death, Elie Wiesel, holocaust, human rights awards, Human rights defender, in memoriam, Nobel Peace Prize, writer
July 1, 2016
The 2016 Martin Ennals Award Ceremony, organized annually by the City of Geneva and the Martin Ennals Foundation, will this year take place on 11 October, 6.00 pm, at Uni Dufour, Geneva, as the the opening of the Human Rights Week hosted by the University of Geneva from October 11 to 14 and with the support of the Canton of Geneva.
The laureate will be selected from among three 2016 finalists:
Mr. Ilham Tohti (China) was sentenced to life imprisonment after working for two decades to foster dialogue and understanding between Uyghurs and Han Chinese.
Mrs. Razan Zaitouneh (Syria) was kidnapped after dedicating her life to defending political prisoners and documenting crimes against humanity in Syria.
Zone 9 Bloggers (Ethiopia) have been prosecuted for documenting human rights abuses in their country.
See also: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/breaking-news-final-nominees-2016-martin-ennals-award-tohti-zone-9-bloggers-razan-zaitouneh-annoucement/
The finalists and laureate are selected by the Jury of the Martin Ennals Award, made up of ten of the world’s leading human rights organizations: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), Frontline Defenders, the International Commission of Jurists, EWDE-Germany, the International Service for Human Rights, and HURIDOCS. The detailed programme of the ceremony will follow at the beginning of September.
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders
For the conversation in the social media, use the hashtag: #Ennals2016.
You can register already now through: http://www.martinennalsaward.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=296%3Amea-2016-save-the-date&lang=en.
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 4 Comments »
Tags: "Zone 9” bloggers, ceremony, China, City of Geneva, Ethiopia, human rights award, Ilham Tohti, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, NGOs, Razan Zaitouneh, registration, save the date, Syria, Uyghur
June 22, 2016
On 21 June 2016 it was announced that Louise Arbour, a Canadian lawyer and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was named the winner of the second Tang Prize in rule of law. The Tang Prize is awarded to Arbour “for her enduring contributions to international criminal justice and the protection of human rights, to promoting peace, justice and security at home and abroad, and to working within the law to expand the frontiers of freedom for all,” Arbour, 69, was also the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and for Rwanda (ICTR) between 1996 and 1999. In 1998, Arbour became the first prosecutor to get a conviction of genocide in an international tribunal, when the ICTR convicted Jean-Paul Akayesu, a mayor in Rwanda, of genocide. Tribunal defined rape as a means of perpetrating genocide — the first time that rape was considered an act of genocide by an international tribunal. The following year, as the chief prosecutor for the ICTY, Arbour again made history by indicting Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who became the first sitting head of state to be tried for war crimes by an international tribunal.
A Tang Prize award ceremony will be held Sept. 25 in Taipei. The laureate will receive a cash prize of US$1.23 million and a research grant of up to NT$10 million to be used within five years.
The biennial Tang Prize was established in 2012 by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin to complement the Nobel Prize and to honor top researchers and leaders in four fields: sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, sinology and rule of law.
This year the Tang Prize in the category sinology also has a human rights component as the laureate is William Theodore de Bary, Professor Emeritus of Columbia University. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: China, Columbia University, Confucianism, Louise Arbour, rule of law, Samuel Yin, sinology, Taiwan, Tang Prize, William Theodore de Bary
June 10, 2016
The Deutsche Welle (DW) Freedom of Speech Award 2016 goes to Turkish ‘Hürriyet’ journalist Sedat Ergin. The DW prize is awarded annually to journalists who stand out in their fight for human righ
ts and free speech. The award ceremony will on 13 June 2016 at the Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: awards, defamation, Deutsche Welle, DW Freedom of Speech Award, Erdogan, freedom of expression, Global Media Forum in Bonn, Hürriyet, human rights award, Journalist, Peter Limburg, Raif Badawi, Sedat Ergin, Turkey
June 10, 2016
It comes too late for murdered human rights defender Berta Caceres [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/berta-caceres/] but perhaps her fellow environmental activist in Honduras, Ana Mirian Romero, will receive the protective publicity she needs by being selected as the winner of the 2016 Front Line Defenders Award. Ana Mirian Romero had her home burned down and was beaten by police for protesting in her native country. Romero has been active in opposing the installation of the Los Encinos hydro-electric dam on indigenous land of the Lenca people in Honduras. She was presented with the award at a ceremony in Dublin’s City Hall this morning, 10 June 2016.
Sources:
Environmental activist from Honduras wins 2016 Front Line…
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/We-Dont-Fear-Honduran-Indigenous-Defender-Wins-Global-Prize-20160610-0002.html
Posted in awards, Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Ana Mirian Romero, Berta Cáceres, Caceres, environmental issues, Front Line (NGO), Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, Honduras, human rights award, Ireland, land rights defender, Lenca Indigenous People, Mary Lawlor, woman human rights defender
June 9, 2016
Today, 9 June 2016, Egypt‘s wrongfully detained scholars and students received the 2016 Courage to Think Defender Award during the SAR Global Congress in Montreal, Canada. This is in recognition for their commitment to exercising the right to think, share and question ideas despite tremendous risks. SAR selected student representatives to accept the award in order to recognize their efforts to conduct research and advocacy on behalf of threatened scholars and students around the world. “The students are vital to raising awareness around cases of imprisoned scholars and students like these, and to promoting academic freedom globally and locally,” said Clare Robinson, Advocacy Director at SAR.
Over the past several years, SAR has observed an overwhelming crackdown on Egypt’s higher education community, including the reported use of violence, wrongful prosecutions and imprisonment, professional retaliation and travel restrictions against scholars and students across the country. According to data obtained by the Egyptian NGO, Association for Free Thought and Expression, over 2,000 university students and professors have been detained by security forces since July 2013.
SAR has presented the award only twice before, in 2011 to Aryeh Neier for his long career dedicated to free inquiry and expression including as the chair of the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Foundations, and in 2015 to Dean Habib Kazdaghli of Manouba University in Tunisia for defending his university from extremist pressures after the Arab Spring, including in the face of prosecution and death threats.
[Scholars at Risk: Scholars at Risk (SAR) is an international network of higher education institutions and individuals working to protect threatened scholars, promote academic freedom and prevent attacks on higher education communities around the world since 2000. SAR protects scholars suffering grave threats to their lives, liberty and well-being by arranging positions of sanctuary for those forced to flee, and advocating for scholars facing prosecution, imprisonment or other restrictions through the Scholars-in-Prison Project. SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project identifies and reports attacks on higher education to protect vulnerable scholars and students, hold perpetrators accountable and prevent future violations. Institutions or individuals interested in learning more about SAR and its activities should visit http://www.scholarsatrisk.org or email scholarsatrisk@nyu.edu]
see also: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/scholars-at-risk-publishes-first-academic-freedom-monitoring-report-free2think/
Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Academic freedom, Courage to Think Defender Award, Egypt, Habib Kazdaghli, human rights award, Montreal, SAR, scholars, Scholars at Risk, students
June 7, 2016
Radio Free Asia reported on 6 June 2016 that detained (on suspicion of “subversion of state power”) lawyer
Wang Yu was awarded the prestigious
Ludovic Trarieux Prize in Athens on Saturday. [for more info on award see:
http://www.brandsaviors.com/thedigest/award/ludovic-trarieux-international-human-rights-prize]. The jury said it wanted to “
hail the courage” of a woman who “
decided that she could no longer keep her mouth shut,” founder Bernard Favreau said. “
She chose to expose herself to dangers in order to defend the rights of women, children and persecuted minorities,” he told Agence France-Presse.
Wang’s attorney Wen Donghai welcomed the award. “They used a serious of objective criteria, for example, the fact that Wang Yu often gave legal assistance to clients from vulnerable groups,” Wen said. “This has nothing to do with any government, nor with diplomacy.” But he said the award is unlikely to help Wang’s case with the Chinese authorities. “I don’t hold out much hope of that, because our government has a very biased attitude to such prizes, and they see human rights groups as trying to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” Wen said. “In reality, rights groups aren’t targeting China, but trying to help victims and vulnerable people around the world.” Wang has unfortunately figured regularly in this blog: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/wang-yu/
[The award comes as the families of dozens of rights lawyers detained on similar charges hit out at the government for denying the detainees access to their lawyers, and amid concerns that some detainees may have been tortured or sexually abused in police detention centers.]
On 5 June 2016, in a
joint letter Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, China Aid, Freedom House, Human Rights in China, Initiatives for China, International Campaign for Tibet, Reporters without Borders, Uyghur Human Rights Project, and World Uygur Congress – urged the US to:
- Meet with representatives of civil society in China during or immediately after the meeting;
- Press Chinese counterparts to repeal or bring into line with international law new national security laws, including the Counterterrorism and the Foreign Non-Governmental Management laws;
- Publicly call for the release of specific individuals detained for peacefully exercising their rights; and
- Publicly discuss US concerns about growing restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and religion, among others.
In Hong Kong, protesters marched to Beijing’s Liaison Office in the former British colony on Monday, demanding an inquiry into the 2012 “suicide” death of Chinese labor rights activist Li Wangyang in police custody four years ago. Rights activist Ou Biaofeng said Li’s friends and relatives are under house arrest or close police surveillance on the anniversary of his death. “They are all under surveillance by the state security police, and are cooperating”
For the Lucovic-Trarieux prize 2015: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/saudi-arabian-human-rights-lawyer-waleed-abu-al-khair-wins-ludovic-trarieux-prize/
Source: Detained Chinese Lawyer Wins Award Amid Calls For Pressure on Human Rights
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/05/us-show-breadth-rights-commitment-china-dialogue
Posted in awards, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 4 Comments »
Tags: Agence France-Presse, China, digest of human rights awards, Foreign Policy of the USA, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyer, illegal detention, Li Wangyang, Ludovic Trarieux Prize, NGOs, Ou Biaofeng, Radio Free Asia, Wang Yu, Wen Donghai, woman human rights defender
June 6, 2016
Hina Jilani will speak on the subject of “Protecting Human Rights Defenders Worldwide.” Ms Jilani, from Lahore in Pakistan, is a lawyer, civil rights activist, and an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. She has been active in the movement for peace, human rights, and women’s rights in Pakistan for more than three decades and is internationally recognised for her expertise in critical human rights investigations. especially as the first UN rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders. The event will incorporate an interview with Ms Jilani and Mrs Robinson. The lecture is free of charge and open to the public. For more information or to reserve a seat visit www.maryrobinsoncentre.ie/events.
Source: International Human Rights Lecture 2016 – The Mary Robinson Centre – Ireland’s first Presidential Library
More posts about Hina Jilani: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/hina-jilani/
She won the 2000 Ginetta Sagan award and the 2008 American Bar Association Human Rights Award.
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Hina Jilani, Human Rights Defenders, Ireland, lecture, Mary Robinson, Mary Robinson Centre, woman human rights defender
May 30, 2016
Nine former Sakharov prize laureates from different countries met in Brussels on 24 May 2016 to discuss how to adapt to the challenges facing human rights defenders in the digital era. The event was organised by the European Parliament (EP) in the framework of Sakharov prize network activities engaging former prize laureates and Members of EP to draw attention to human rights violations and to support former laureates and their causes.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Ali Ferzat, digest of human rights awards, EU, European Parliament, European Parliament President Martin Schulz, human rights award, laureates, Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, Sakharov prize network, Vitaliy Ponomarev, Zhanna Litvina
May 27, 2016
On Wednesday 25 May 2016 Azerbaijan finally released investigative journalist Khadijah Ismayilova [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/azerbaijan-khadija-ismayilova-remains-in-jail-but-council-of-europe-takes-exceptional-step/] after a number of other human rights defenders were released bit by bit over the last months. Ismayilova was serving a seven-and-a-half year sentence on charges which included embezzlement, illegal business activities and tax evasion. The Supreme Court has now amended her imprisonment to 3 1/2 years of suspended sentence and released her from prison. She vowed to continue to fight to clear her name. “I will continue to fight until complete acquittal,” Ismayilova told reporters after her release. “I will also continue to work as a journalist.” The British-Lebanese lawyer Amal Clooney is representing Khadija Ismayilova at the European Court of Human Rights.
As an independent reporter and journalist of the Azerbaijani radio Azadliq (“Radio Freedom”) she has shown great courage (see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/khadija-ismayilova-azerbaijan-is-not-deterred/), and received several international prizes, such as the 2015 Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism (HRW), the 2015 Freedom to Write Award, the 2012 Fritt Ord/Zeit Press Prize, and the 2012 Courage of Journalism Award by the Washington-based International Women’s Media Foundation.
Although there are still human rights defenders and journalists in prison, Azerbaijan provides a fine example of how awards and the combined international pressure from a variety of sources (States, NGOs and international organizations) can have an impact:
https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2016/03/18/azerbaijan-pardon-jafarov-ismayilova-aliyev/
https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/released-intigam-aliyev-azerbaijan-civil-rights-defender-of-the-year-award/
Source:
Reuters – Azerbaijan frees journalist whose case raised outcry in West
https://www.cpj.org/2016/05/-azerbaijani-reporter-khadija-ismayilova-ordered-r.php
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Amal Clooney, Azerbaijan, campaign, Council of Europe, diplomatic pressure, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, Ismayilova, journalists, Khadijah Ismayilova, release
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 