Posts Tagged ‘awards’
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!
Posted in awards, Front Line, HRW, human rights, IBA | Leave a Comment »
Tags: awards, Duterte, fake news, Front Line (NGO), HRW, http://memebuster.net/category/busted/, human rights awards, International Human Rights Committee, misinformation, Philippines
December 14, 2016
Deadline for nominations: 1 February 2017
———–
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 5, 2016
This blog follows with special attention developments in the area of human rights awards. The announcement of a new award on 1 December 2016, the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, came as a surprise. Some aspects remain unclear (is there a monetary component?; what will be the frequency?) but judging from the text of the press release as well as the choice of recipients of the inaugural prize, it is mostly an award for human rights defenders. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: awards, Europe, Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, human rights award, Human Rights Defenders, Jacqueline Moudeina, Li Heping, Mary Lawlor, Thun Saray, Valentina Cherevatenko, Wang Qiaoling
November 7, 2016
The University of Michigan’s 2016/17 Wallenberg Medal has been awarded to civil rights lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson. He is the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization he founded in 1989 that focuses on social justice and human rights in the context of criminal justice reform in the United States. EJI litigates on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people wrongly convicted or charged, poor people denied effective representation, and others whose trials are marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct. Under Stevenson’s direction, EJI has handled hundreds of cases and spared the lives of 125 death row prisoners. Stevenson’s arguments have convinced the U.S. Supreme Court that juveniles in non-homicide cases may not be sentenced to life without parole. He is creating a memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, to commemorate the more than 4,000 persons who were lynched in 12 southern states between 1871 and 1950.
Stevenson is a professor of law at New York University, where he prepares students to consider the legal needs of those in resource-deprived regions. He has been a visiting professor of law at the U-M Law School. He wrote the prize-winning book “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” and has won numerous awards and honors, including Reebok Award (1989), the Gleitsman Award (2000). the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award Prize, the ACLU National Medal of Liberty, the Olaf Palme Prize for international human rights (2000), the Gruber Prize for International Justice (2009) and the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award.
Raoul Wallenberg was a 1935 graduate of U-M’s College of Architecture. As a Swedish diplomat Wallenberg saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews near the end of World War II.
NOTE: There are at least two other awards with Wallenberg in the title:
- Raoul Wallenberg Prize (Council of Europe )
- Raoul Wallenberg and Civic Courage Awards (USA), and there is
- the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (Lund, Sweden)
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: academic, anti-racism, awards, Bryan Stevenson, Criminal justice, death penalty, Equal Justice Initiative, human rights award, human rights lawyer, Michigan, profiles, USA, Wallenberg Medal
October 27, 2016
Having reported last month on the Atlantic Council‘s questionable idea of giving an award to Gabon’s leader [https://thoolen.wordGabon’s leaderpress.com/2016/09/20/how-awards-can-get-it-wrong-four-controversial-decisions-in-one-week/], I would be amiss in not referring the big spat that this has developed into between Thor Halvorssen of the Human Rights Foundation and Frederick Kempe of the Atlantic Council. In opinion page in The Hill of 26 October does not mince words. The final paragraph sets the tone: “It’s fair to wonder how Kempe and his staff can look at themselves in the mirror every morning when they spend their days defending dictators like Eritrea’s Afwerki, Gabon’s Bongo, and Kazakhstan’s Nazarbayev. The donations might be juicy, but at some point, Kempe’s colleagues and prestigious board members must stop and realize that they are taking the side of tyrants, betraying the very ideals they set out to promote in the first place.” Some of the juicy excerpts:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Foundation | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Atlantic Council, awards, Bahrain, Eritrea, Frederick Kempe, Gabon, Human Rights Foundation, Kazakhstan, lobbying, public relations campaign, Thor Halvorssen, washington
September 29, 2016
The Norwegian branch of the PEN Club had hoped to honor whistleblower Edward Snowden in Oslo, but a Norwegian court has dismissed a bid for assurances he would not be extradited should he visit Norway to collect the Carl von Ossietzky award which was granted to him in 2014 [see: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/edward-snowden-gets-another-human-rights-award-in-berlin/]. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: awards, Bjornson Prize, Carl von Ossietzky Medal, Edward Snowden, extradition, human rights award, Human rights defender, Norway, Oliver Stone, PEN, Snowden, whistleblowers
September 20, 2016
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: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Foundation, UN | 2 Comments »
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
July 5, 2016
The North-South Prize is awarded to two candidates who have stood out for their exceptional commitment to promoting North-South solidarity. The 2015 Laureates are:
Ms Lora Pappa is the founder of METAdrasi, Action for Migration and Development. Through the creation of METAdrasi, Ms. Pappa aimed to address long-standing gaps in the area of refugee protection and migration management in Greece. METAdrasi’s main focus has been primarily community interpretation and the care for unaccompanied minors. METAdrasi and Ms Pappa personally, have based their work on the highest standards of professionalism and ethics, developing specialist training methods, recruiting dedicated and committed staff, bringing pioneering methods and approaches benefitting refugees and vulnerable groups in multiple ways. Biography
Chairperson of the Joaquim Chissano Foundation, an organisation that promotes peace, social and economic development and culture in Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano has campaigned for peace in the African continent through his work as an envoy and peace negotiator for the United Nations. He has received the highest awards from many countries and has received several prizes, including the Chatham House in 2006 and the inaugural Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in 2007. He is the founding member of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and played a fundamental role in the 1974 negotiations on the independence of Mozambique, between FRELIMO and the Portuguese Government. Biography
Source: Centre Nord-Sud – Prix Nord-Sud
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: awards, Council of Europe, Greece, human rights awards, Joaquim Chissano Foundation, Lora Pappa, METAdrasi, Mozambique, North-South Prize, refugees
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 