The Dalai Lama and the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) will honour the ICJ with the Light of Truth Award in recognition of the organization’s consistent support of the Tibetan cause over six decades.
The Award will be presented to ICJ Secretary-General Wilder Tayler at a ceremony in Fribourg, Switzerland, on 13 April 2013.
The ICT presents the Light of Truth Award to individuals and institutions who have made significant contributions to the public understanding of Tibet and the struggle for human rights and democratic freedoms for the Tibetan people.
The award itself is an antique Tibetan butter lamp, symbolizing the light that each recipient has shed on the Tibet issue.
In addition to the ICJ, there will be four other Light of Truth Awardees in 2013, including ICJ Honorary Member Theo van Boven. Professor van Boven is a Dutch jurist and professor emeritus in international law, a former UN Rapporteur on Torture and served as ICJ Vice-President in the 1990s. He will be awarded for putting the spotlight on Tibet within and beyond the United Nations system.
Other honorees include Professor Dr. Christian Schwarz-Schilling, former German Minister and Parliamentarian, who has been working in a low-key manner for many years on the issue of the Tibetan-Chinese relationship; Ms. Sigrid Joss-Arnd, the longest-standing member of the Swiss Red Cross officials who was involved in helping Tibetans in the diaspora from the early 1960s; and Mr. Robert Ford, CBE, for his tireless advocacy on Tibet for more than half a century. Mr Ford is the only Westerner who was given official ranking in the Tibetan government before 1950 and he was imprisoned by the Chinese authorities for nearly five years.
The Light of Truth Award is the most prestigious award in the Tibet movement and has been presented by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, on behalf of the ICT, for many years.
Previous recipients include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the late Václav Havel, Chinese scholar and writer Wang Lixiong, and film director Martin Scorsese.
At the ceremony, French politician and doctor Bernard Kouchner, former Minister in the French government and co-founder of the international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) will introduce the Dalai Lama.
Photo/Phuntsog/Namgyal Archive
