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Zimbabweans nominated for an International human rights defenders
award 2006
SW Radio Africa
February 14, 2006
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news140206/hraward140206.htm
Zimbabwe has
been put in the spotlight again. Jenni Williams, the coordinator
of the pressure group Women
of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and Arnold Tsunga, Director of the
Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights, are among four people nominated for the Martin
Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders for 2006 (MEA).The jury
of human rights organizations which announced the award on Tuesday
said they decided to start publicly announcing the leading candidates
as they are all in an urgent need of protection.
In a statement,
the group said Jennifer Williams continues to organise and lead
peaceful protests against the ongoing erosion of human rights in
Zimbabwe, in spite of having been arrested and beaten by the police.
She is one of the 181 activists arrested on Monday for handing out
Valentines roses in Bulawayo. All were released by a Bulawayo magistrate
on Tuesday.
On Arnold Tsunga,
the statement said that he represents victims of human rights abuses
and campaigns for greater respect for human rights. He has repeatedly
denounced the undemocratic system of justice in Zimbabwe. He has
also been threatened, detained, and is constantly harassed.
The other two
nominees are Akbar Ganji from Iran, who is in prison for having
expressed publicly his views on the need for democratic reforms
and having denounced state crimes. He has been tortured and ill-treated.
Lastly, Golden Misabiko from the Democratic Republic of Congo, whohas
denounced human rights violations in his country for the past 20
years, was tortured in 2001 and had to flee the country in 2002
due to death threats. He returned to the DRC in 2005. Since then
he has been detained several times and constantly harassed.
The final MEA
laureate is expected to be announced at a conference in the Carter
Centre in Atlanta, USA in May. The four candidates were carefully
selected by ten human rights organisations that constituted the
jury. They were Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human
Rights First, International Federation for Human Rights, World Organization
Against Torture, International Commission of Jurists, German Diakonie,
International Service for Human Rights, International Alert and
HURIDOCS.The award was named after Martin Ennals, an influential
figure in the modern human rights movement who died in 1991. He
was the first Secretary-General of Amnesty International and the
driving force behind many other organisations.
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