Posts Tagged ‘digest of human rights awards’
February 6, 2018
Do you know any brave person or organisation who works in a visionary and exemplary manner to solve global problems? Take the chance to propose a candidate for the 2018 Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize” The Right Livelihood Award is not an award for the world’s political, scientific or economic élite, but an award for the people and their work and struggles for a better future. [http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/right-livelihood-award] Everyone is welcome to propose candidates for the Right Livelihood Award and four recipients are chosen each year by an international jury after extensive research work. The deadline is 1 March 2018.
See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/10/04/2017-right-livelihood-lau…
Read more about the nomination process here. If you want to propose a candidate (preferably in English), please follow these guidelines.
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: call for nominations, digest of human rights awards, human rights award, laureates, Right Livelihood Awards
February 6, 2018
Applications for the European Commission‘s 2018 Lorenzo Natali Media Prize, which recognises journalists doing outstanding reporting on development topics, are open from 5 February to 9 March for online, print and audio-visual works.
Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica said: “In an era of disinformation, fake news and digital algorithms, we need professional and fact-based journalism more than ever. The important work of journalists is not only crucial for democracy across the globe, but also gives visibility and a voice to those who would otherwise not be heard. Through their stories they inform, inspire, and call for much-needed change. With this prize, we thank them for their determination and encourage them to keep up the fight.”
The Lorenzo Natali Media Prize is awarded to journalists reporting on issues such as poverty eradication and the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Journalists are invited to submit their work, be it in print, digital, radio or TV broadcast format. Deadline: 9 March 2018. Detailed information on the specific rules and criteria are available online. The prize has two categories based on age groups: 21 to 26 years, and 27 years plus. For each category there will be a winner from each region: Africa; the Arab World and the Middle East; Asia and the Pacific; Latin America and the Caribbean; and Europe.
A “Grand Winner” will be selected among the regional winners [this is the award listed in the Digest: http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/lorenzo-natali-grand-prize-for-development-and-human-rights] and an additional thematic prize will be awarded for work focused on the elimination of violence against women and girls.
The selection will be carried out by a “Grand Jury” composed of renowned journalists from across the world. This year’s jury members include Bruce Shapiro from the Columbia School of Journalism, Peruvian reporter and founder of “Panorámica Lationamericana” Isabel Recavarren, New Delhi-based journalist and President of the Commonwealth Journalists Association Mahendra Ved, Le Soir’s Maroun Labaki, and Mary Harper, the BBC World Service’s Africa Editor.
All 11 winners will receive their awards at a ceremony during the 2018 European Development Days in Brussels this June.
Application
Posted in awards | Leave a Comment »
Tags: call for nominations, development, digest of human rights awards, European Commission, human rights awards, journalists, Lorenzo Natali Media Prize, lorenzo-natali-grand-prize-for-development-and-human-rights
February 1, 2018
In 1984, Robert F. Kennedy’s eldest child, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, saw a need to celebrate and support activists whose work reflected his conviction that one person can make a difference and that each of us should try. That year, Kathleen founded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to honor courageous human rights defenders who spoke truth to power. In the years since, RFK Human Rights has forged strategic partnerships with its laureates, whose work advances human rights causes all over the world. In combining resources and collaborating on ideas and strategies with RFK Human Rights, the laureates have been able to amplify their transformative work and broaden awareness of their causes to a worldwide audience. The deadline for nominations is 31 March, 2018. For more information on this and other awards: http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/robert-f-kennedy-human-rights-award.
See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/10/24/ceremony-for-alfredo-romero-recipient-of-the-2017-robert-f-kennedy-human-rights-award-on-16-november/
Information regarding the nomination process can be found here.
For more information, please email nominations@rfkhumanrights.org.
Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: call for nominations, digest of human rights awards, human rights award, RFK Human Rights, Robert Kennedy Human Rights award
January 27, 2018
The piece states that:“While some like Oskar Schindler and Nicholas Winterton are well known, here are the tales of three less-heralded saviours to whom thousands owe their lives“. That may be true for the first two, but not Raoul Wallenberg who has an Institute in Lund, Sweden and three human rights awards [http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest] named after him.
Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler (Wikimedia Commons)
Polish nurse Irena Sendler (1910-2008), often known as “Jolanta”, served as head of the children’s department of Zegota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews. It was operated by underground resistance fighters in German-occupied Warsaw between 1942 and 1945. She is credited with smuggling 2,500 Jewish children out of the Polish capital’s ghetto…. “Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this earth and not a title to glory,” she once said.
Frank Foley
Frank Foley (Wikimedia Commons)
A British Secret Intelligence officer who became known as “the Scarlet Pimpernel”, Frank Foley (1884-1958) became known for “bending the rules” while working undercover at a passport control office in Berlin and allowing Jews to escape Germany….So he stamped passports and issued visas allowing fleeing Jews to escape to Britain and Palestine in defiance of the authorities during the Kristallnacht pogrom. ..Although he had died aged 74, three years earlier, it was said at Adolf Eichmann’s trial in 1961 that Foley was responsible for saving “tens of thousands” of lives.
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg (Wikimedia Commons)
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg (born 1912) played a similarly pivotal role in rescuing Jews from Hungary. There, he issued protective passports recognising them as Swedish citizens. He also sheltered those victimised by the Nuremburg Race Laws (imposed by Germany in 1935) in 32 government buildings across Budapest, which he had designated Swedish territory.
Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: digest of human rights awards, Frank Foley, holocaust, Holocaust Memorial Day 2018", Human Rights Defenders, Irena Sendler, Jews, Nicholas Winterton, Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg, Shoah, The Independent
January 26, 2018
Ayşenur Parıldak, a 27-year-old reporter from Turkey’s now-closed Zaman newspaper who has been behind bars for 13 months, was named the recipient of the first Shahnoush Award by the Oslo-based Vigdis Freedom Foundation (VFF). [for more on this and other awards: http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/shahnoush-award]
“I was subjected to violence and sexual abuse. I was interrogated day and night for eight days. They [police officers] were questioning me while they were under the influence of alcohol […] I am afraid of being forgotten here,” Parıldak said in a letter to the Cumhuriyet newspaper in October 2016.
“The Shahnoush Award will be given every year to a female prisoner of conscience whose courage has not been internationally acknowledged. By doing so, Vigdis brings attention to the suffering of women who languish behind bars for speaking out and whose human rights have been violated. They are not forgotten; they are not alone. Hope is sometimes the difference between life and death. May the [Shahnoush] Award give hope to those who need it most.” said Marina Nemat, a board member of VFF.
Parıldak, also a law student at Ankara University’s faculty of law, was detained while taking exams on Aug. 11, 2016. She was released by the court on May 2, 2017 but was later rearrested by the same court before being freed since a prosecutor objected to the initial ruling. During her trial, she told judges that she had thought of committing suicide several times while in prison. Behind bars since last year, Parıldak faces 15 years in jail under Turkey’s broad anti-terror laws based on her tweets and alleged use of the ByLock mobile app. Turkish authorities believe ByLock indicates links to the Gülen movement, which the government accuses of masterminding the abortive coup last year. The movement denies all involvement.
https://turkeypurge.com/jailed-journalist-aysenur-parildak-given-courage-award-by-norwegian-rights-group
Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Ayşenur Parıldak, digest of human rights awards, human rights award, human rights lawyer, journalists, Norway, prisoner of conscience, Shahnoush Award, students, Turkey, Vigdis Freedom Foundation (VFF), woman human rights defender, women human rights defenders, Zaman newspaper
January 25, 2018
Amnesty International’s German branch has awarded its human rights prize to Egypt’s Nadeem Center. For the past 20 years, the center has documented torture carried out by security forces and treated victims at its clinic (the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture).
“We want to support all the courageous women and men who put their lives on the line in the struggle against torture, violence and despotism in Egypt,” said Markus Beeko, the Secretary General of Amnesty International in Germany, in a statement. For more information on this and other awards: http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/a-i-germanys-human-rights-award.
See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/11/10/helen-hunt-joins-list-of-celebrities-that-show-insensitivity-on-human-rights/
Posted in AI, awards, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: AI Germany, anti -torture, digest of human rights awards, Egypt, human rights award, Nadeem Centre, the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture, victims of torture
December 18, 2017
How sensitive human rights awards can be is shown again in the case of Taiwan’s Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award. The award (see: http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/asia-democracy-and-human-rights-award) is technically independent but closely related to the Government, which probably explains why the part concerning the “1MDB” corruption scandal in Malaysia was deleted from Maria Chin Abdullah’s acceptance speech.
[Parts of Bersih 2.0 chairman Maria Chin Abdullah’s acceptance speech when accepting the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award in Taiwan last week were censored by organisers. A copy of the speech made available by the electoral reforms coalition today showed the censored portion was on state investment fund 1MDB and the allegations of corruption plaguing Prime Minister Najib Razak’s administration. The section of the speech, titled “Unfettered corruption”, was removed “due to diplomatic sensitivity”, the coalition said.]
Bersih 2.0 received the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award on 10 December 2017. The event was attended by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy chairman Su Jia-chyuan, the foundation’s president Hsu Szu-chien and civil society leaders. Bersih 2.0 received earlier the Gwangju award: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2016/04/26/malaysian-bersih-2-0-walk-for-democracy-wins-gwangju-human-rights-award/
Maria in her speech also touched on the lack of freedom of expression, attacks against human rights defenders, and the government’s use of laws such as the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2015 (Sosma). She charged that hate politics was part of a strategy to vilify rights activists. “The politics of hate, religious intolerance and exclusion, which adversely affect the freedom and human rights, are used against human rights defenders. Yet, impunity against wrong doers is not addressed,” she said, adding that change was still a long road ahead. “Malaysians’ voices are loud and clear – racial hostility, generated hatred, intolerance, violence and poverty have no place in our nation…Our clarion call: They can jail us. They can beat us up. But, they can never break our spirit”.
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2017/12/18/human-rights-award-taiwan-censors-bersih-chiefs-speech/
Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award, Bersih 2.0, censorship, digest of human rights awards, Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, human rights award, Malaysia, Maria Chin Abdullah, Taiwan, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy
December 15, 2017
Front Line Defenders is currently accepting nominations for the 2018 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.
For more information on this and other awards: http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/front-line-defenders-award-for-human-rights-defenders-at-risk
If you would like to nominate a human rights defender for the 2018 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, please follow this link: <https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/secure/nomination.php?l=en> Please also note that nominations can be submitted in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic via the Front Line Defenders website. Deadline: midnight Friday, 19 January 2018.
See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2017/05/26/lawyer-wins-front-lines-2017-human-rights-award-for-helping-crimean-tartars/
Posted in awards, Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: awards, call for nominations, digest of human rights awards, Dublin, Front Line (NGO), Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk, human rights awards
December 7, 2017
Posted in awards, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Adilur Rahman Khan, Anna Martha Napp, Bangladesh, digest of human rights awards, Egypt, Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, human rights awards, human rights defedners, Ragia Omran
Do you know any brave person or organisation who works in a visionary and exemplary manner to solve global problems? Take the chance to propose a candidate for the 2018 Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize” The Right Livelihood Award is not an award for the world’s political, scientific or economic élite, but an award for the people and their work and struggles for a better future. [http://trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/right-livelihood-award] Everyone is welcome to propose candidates for the Right Livelihood Award and four recipients are chosen each year by an international jury after extensive research work. The deadline is 1 March 2018.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 