WUNRN
Human Rights Watch:
(New York, September 15, 2008) – Five brave and selfless advocates of human rights from Burma, Congo, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan have been awarded the prestigious 2008 Human Rights Defender Awards, Human Rights Watch said today. All five have been persecuted and threatened for their work. One winner, Saudi lawyer Abd al-Rahman al-Lahim, is under a travel ban, which Human Rights Watch urges the Saudi government lift so that he may receive his award in person in London.
The
five winners of Human Rights Watch’s 2008 Human Rights Defender Awards are:
“Despite the dangers and difficulties they face every day, these five activists
continue to expose abuses and seek justice for victims of human rights violations
in their own countries,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights
Watch. “It’s an honor to stand with such brave and determined people, and we
hope that this award will help them to keep working as effectively and safely
as possible.”
Human Rights Watch staff work closely with the human rights defenders as part
of our human rights investigations in more than 80 countries around the world.
These defenders will be honored at the 2008 Human Rights Watch Annual Dinners
in Chicago, Geneva, Hamburg, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Paris, San
Francisco, Santa Barbara, Toronto, and Zurich.
Bo Kyi, Burma
As a college student, Bo Kyi participated in Burma’s “8.8.88 Uprising,” a
popular revolt against military rule that reached a turning point on August 8,
1988. On that day, after months of unrest, millions of people took to the
streets calling for an end to military rule. The military government’s violent
response to the uprising resulted in the deaths of an estimated 3,000 people during
the seven months of protests.
“The outside world largely ignored events inside Burma, but for me there was no
escape,” said Bo Kyi. “As a student in Rangoon, I participated in many
demonstrations and witnessed the brutal suppression by the riot police that
killed and wounded so many.”
Bo Kyi ultimately spent seven years and three months in prison for his
political activism. He suffered repeated interrogations, beatings, shackling,
and torture in prison, amid squalid living conditions. In prison, Bo Kyi
learned to speak and write in English, hiding his educational materials each
time a warden passed his cell.
Upon his release from prison, Bo Kyi fled to the Burma-Thailand border, where
he helped to found the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners in Mae
Sot, Thailand. Some 1,920 political activists remain imprisoned in Burma, where
they endure abysmal treatment. The number detained increased dramatically after
the August and September 2007 crackdown when security forces brutally suppressed
peaceful demonstrations of activists, monks and ordinary people.
Assistance Association of Political Prisoners works on behalf of current and
former political prisoners and their families. It provides them with financial
support and medical care, monitors prison conditions, and advocates
internationally for the prisoners’ release.
Over the last 20 years, Bo Kyi has demonstrated unfaltering courage, sharing
his story and those of other political prisoners and exposing the Burmese
military government’s abuses. Human Rights Watch honors Bo Kyi for his heroic
efforts to speak out against Burmese repression and to advocate on behalf of
those who have dared to criticize the military government.
Mathilde Muhindo, Democratic Republic of Congo
“Women and children are paying dearly for the war in the Democratic Republic of
Congo,” said Mathilde Muhindo. “Sexual violence in eastern provinces should be
seen in its proper contexts – a war within a war. A war against women.”
Muhindo, once a member of Congo’s parliament, works to support rape victims in
South Kivu, in eastern Congo, which has been ravaged by armed conflict for over
10 years, up to today. She draws attention to the widespread and systematic use
of sexual violence by government troops and armed groups – including sexual
slavery, gang rape and mutilation – and to the disastrous consequences for the
victims.
As director of the Olame Centre, a nongovernmental women’s rights organization,
Muhindo provides urgently needed psychological and practical assistance to
victims of abuse and empowers women to fight against pervasive discrimination
and sexual violence. To address the crisis – tens of thousands of women and
girls have been raped – she also founded a parliamentary committee to investigate
rape as a weapon of war.
In partnership with Human Rights Watch and other groups, Muhindo has pressed
the European Union, the United States, and others to address ongoing atrocities
in eastern Congo. She led a coalition of local women’s organizations that
advocated successfully for a comprehensive law on sexual violence. Muhindo has
faced death threats for her work, but refuses to be silenced. Human Rights
Watch honors Muhindo for her unfaltering dedication to the safety, health, and
rights of eastern Congo’s most vulnerable, and often forgotten, women.
Abd
al-Rahman al-Lahim, Saudi Arabia
Abd al-Rahman al-Lahim’s commitment to justice is manifest as he fights on
behalf of those in Saudi Arabia who have been persecuted arbitrarily under
dubious interpretations of Sharia (Islamic law). His constant quest for justice
and thorough knowledge of Islamic teachings are valuable catalysts for change
within oppressive Saudi Arabian laws.
As the leading human rights lawyer in Saudi Arabia, al-Lahim defends the rights
of women, educators, and human rights activists who have been unjustly
convicted under the Saudi religious establishment’s narrow interpretations of
Islamic law. He has been arrested several times, imprisoned and banned from
traveling outside the kingdom for his unfaltering defense of the rights of
Saudi activists, but he continues to engage fearlessly in the fight for
justice.
Al-Lahim is a classically trained Sharia scholar. It is his understanding of
Islamic religious teachings that makes him such a formidable force for human
rights reform. Al-Lahim provides free legal services to those in desperate need
and is writing a comprehensive guide to human rights in Saudi Arabia. Where the
Saudi justice system failed him and his clients, Human Rights Watch has helped
raise al-Lahim’s cases with Saudi decision-makers, and with success: King
Abdullah has pardoned six human rights victims defended by al-Lahim. Human Rights
Watch honors al-Lahim for protecting the human rights of people in Saudi Arabia
and for his dedication to progressive judicial reform.
Sunila
Abeysekera, Sri Lanka
Sunila Abeysekera, one of the best-known activists in Sri Lanka, has advised
Human Rights Watch on human rights work in the country for more than a decade
and a half. She has tirelessly fought against abuses by both sides in Sri
Lanka’s long civil war.
“When I started working on human rights two decades ago, it was not easy,”
Abeysekera said. “One is regarded as a troublemaker, sometimes as a traitor.
Questioning the role of the government and of the different political actors in
destroying democratic structures and creating a militaristic environment led to
attacks from all sides.”
As executive director of INFORM, a nongovernmental human rights monitoring
organization, Abeysekera fights to expose serious abuses and bring
institutional change. For over two decades, Abeysekera has struggled against
the entrenched culture of impunity to hold perpetrators accountable for
enforced disappearances, killings of civilians of all ethnicities, violence
against women, and the protection of those displaced by the armed conflict.
With a rare ability to act as researcher, advocate, and spokesperson both
within Sri Lanka and abroad, Abeysekera is internationally recognized as one of
Sri Lanka’s preeminent human rights activists. In a war driven by ethnic
tensions, she refuses to take sides, denouncing abuses by both the government
and armed separatist Tamil Tigers. Her neutrality and fierce commitment have
won Abeysekera the respect of Sinhalese and Tamils alike. She has faced death
threats for her work in an environment that has become increasingly difficult
for human rights defenders, but remains steadfast in her work. Human Rights
Watch honors Abeysekera for bridging the gaps between ethnic groups and
upholding the human rights of all Sri Lankan citizens.
Umida Niazova, Uzbekistan
A long-time activist and contributor to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and
other news agencies, Umida Niazova stood trial before a court in Uzbekistan in
April 2007 for “distributing material causing public disorder,” among other
criminal charges. Despite the threat of a lengthy prison term, Niazova
continued her criticism of the government and its repressive laws. “This is the
idea of a democracy,” Niazova told the court. “If we want to build civil
society, criticism of the authorities must be allowed.”
Niazova embodies the struggle of Uzbek human rights defenders who, in spite of
government repression, continue to speak out against the government’s abuses.
In the three years since government forces killed hundreds of unarmed protesters
in the eastern city of Andijan, Uzbekistan’s rulers have continued to engage in
widespread harassment, interrogations, house arrests, and arbitrary detention
of civil society actors. Niazova, an independent journalist from Tashkent and a
former translator for Human Rights Watch, was arrested in January 2007 and
convicted in May 2007 on politically motivated charges. At her appeal, she was
forced to denounce the work of Human Rights Watch and publicly admit guilt. She
was eventually granted amnesty, but it was understood that she would not take
up her human rights or journalistic activities within Uzbekistan again.
As a token gesture, in response to criticism from the European Union and the
United States, the Uzbek government has recently released a few human rights
defenders from prison. These releases are welcome. But, as Niazova’s
experiences demonstrate, Uzbek society is far from free. The government
continues to deny accountability for its role in the May 2005 Andijan killings,
and it silences those who question the official version of the massacre. Human
Rights Watch honors Niazova, who, at great personal sacrifice and risk, has
advocated on behalf of her fellow citizens and compelled the international
community to scrutinize the Uzbek government’s deplorable human rights record.
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