Former Swiss President and newly-appointed Chair of the Martin Ennals Foundation, Micheline Calmy-Rey, today announced the nominees for the 2012 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA). The MEA is the main award of the international human rights movement.
This year, the prize in memory of Per Anger is being awarded to the human rights activist Brahim Dahane, defender of human rights in Western Sahara.
The ICJ is delighted to learn that the 2009 American Bar Association Rule of Law Award will be bestowed upon its affiliate, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).
The ICJ wishes to congratulate ZLHR for winning this prestigious and well-deserved award for their considerable and persistent work in the promotion and protection of human rights and the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe-awardZLHR-web story-2009 (full text, PDF)
Emad Baghi, a leading Iranian human rights defender based in Tehran, founded the Society for the Defense of Prisoners’ Rights, and has been a vigorous and outspoken opponent of the death penalty in Iran.
His campaigning includes a scholarly examination of Islamic law (shari`a) on the subject, in which he demonstrates the absence of any doctrinal requirement for maintaining capital punishment. In addition, Baghi’s inventory of death row prisoners in Iran, including juvenile offenders, has been an important resource for UN human rights bodies as well as human rights groups outside the country.
Baghi has spent four years in prison over the past decade for his campaigning against the death penalty and other rights activities. Currently out of jail, he still faces charges relating to his work for the defense of prisoners rights. Baghi suffers from serious heart and kidney ailments; in August 2008 prison physicians declared his condition critical.
Martin Ennals Award goes again to a Human Rights Defender-web story-2009 (full text, PDF)
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