PRESS BRIEFING ON 2003 UN HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE

PRESS BRIEFING ON 2003 UN HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE

At a Headquarters press briefing today, the President of the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly, Julian Hunte (Saint Lucia) announced the recipients of the 2003 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights.

The five recipients of the 2003 Prize are:  Enriqueta Estela Barnes de Carlotto of Argentina; the Mano River Women’s Peace Network of West Africa; the Family Protection Project Management Team of Jordan; Pufang Deng of China; and Shulamith Koenig of the United States.  A special posthumous award was given to Sergio Vieira de Mello, the late United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Introducing Mr. Hunte, Michele Montas, Spokesperson for the General Assembly President, noted that, since its creation by the General Assembly in 1966, the United Nations Prize had been awarded in 1968, 1973, 1978, 1988, 1993 and 1998.  The honorary award was a unique opportunity not only to give public recognition to the achievements of the recipients themselves, but also to send a clear message to human rights defenders the world over that the international community was grateful for -- and supported -- their tireless efforts to promote human rights for all.

The Prize would be awarded at the Assembly’s plenary session on Human Rights Day, 10 December 2003, at 10 a.m., she added.

Speaking in his capacity as Chairman of the Special Selection Committee of the Prize, Mr. Hunte said the Prize was first awarded on 10 December 1968, which was the International Year for Human Rights.  The awardees were selected from among 50 nominations received in accordance with established rules.  They had been invited to attend the General Assembly meeting and would be presented with commemorative plaques.

He said the Prize provided an opportunity for the United Nations to publicly commend the outstanding achievements of awardees through public recognition of their valuable work.  The United Nations paid tribute to the thousands of anonymous human rights advocates and defenders involved daily in the difficult and often perilous work of promoting and protecting the rights of others.

In accordance with the 1966 General Assembly resolution, the recipients were selected by a committee that consisted of the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council, as well as the chairpersons of the Commission on Human Rights, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, he added.

Describing the awardees, he said Ms. Barnes de Carlotto of Argentina was selected for her work as President of the Association of Plaza de Mayo Grandmothers, which had been established in 1977 in response to the forced or involuntary disappearance of hundreds of children following the military coup in Argentina in 1976, when children were either abducted with their parents or born in clandestine detention centres for young pregnant women.  Since then, Ms. Barnes de Carlotto and the organization had located missing and kidnapped children and restored them to their rightful families.

Mr. Deng, the founder and director of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, had established that organization in 1988 to act as an international advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities, he continued.  As a result of his initiatives and advocacy, the living standards and status of persons with disabilities in China had significantly improved.  Disabled by a spinal injury in 1968, Mr. Deng had earned a reputation during the ensuing years as an advocate of disabled people in China and around the world.  His many years of tireless effort to promote the human rights of the disabled in China through legislation, programmes and activities was exemplary.

The Family Protection Project Management Team of Jordan was a ground-breaking initiative that had helped to lift the taboo on the subject of domestic violence and promote open debate on human rights and gender equality issues, he said.  The team of seven men and five women, representing both governmental and non-governmental organizations, had been responsible for the project’s development and implementation, which took a holistic, preventative and inclusive approach to tackling the root causes of domestic violence.  The team had also developed a social justice partnership model to address domestic violence in countries of the region and might provide a useful learning experience for countries around the world.

Ms. Koenig of the United States was the Executive Director of the People’s Movement for Human Rights, which she had founded in 1988 with the goal of creating a global human rights culture.  To that end, Ms. Koenig had advocated global action for societal change through human rights education, worked tirelessly to support the United Nations Decade of Human Rights Education, and organized consultations and workshops with educators, human rights advocates and community leaders in more than 60 countries.  She had also initiated the “Human Rights Cities” project, which was supported by the United Nations Development Programme as a three-year global programme to be implemented in some 30 cities and train 500 young community leaders in strengthening human rights, civil society and democracy.

A network of women’s organizations from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the Mano River Women’s Peace Network in West Africa had been established in May 2000 to contribute to the search for regional peace and security, he said.  The network had brought an effective multi-dimensional, coordinated and regional approach to the struggle for human rights through initiatives to restore peace and to ensure that women’s voices were included at all levels of the decision-making process.  It had been active at both the grass-roots level and the highest level of government, successfully bringing the heads of State of their three countries back to the negotiating table in 2001 and as a delegate, mediator and signatory to the Liberian peace talks in August 2003.

Finally, the Special Committee had decided that a special posthumous award would be given to the late High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil, he said.  Mr. Vieira de Mello had held many other high-level positions within the United Nations, including most recently as Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Iraq.  He had served the United Nations cause relentlessly for more than 30 years and was killed in the line of duty in Iraq along with 21 of his United Nations colleagues on 19 August 2003.

Responding to a question, Mr. Hunte said the recipients had been notified and would be present on 10 December to receive the award.  It would be a grand affair and the United Nations attached great importance to the field of human rights.  The Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly would be present at the ceremony, and the press would have an opportunity to meet with the recipients.

For further information on the Human Rights Prize, please go to the following Web site:  www.un.org/events/humanrights.

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