Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, Mary Lawlor and Gégé Katana delivering an acceptance speech for the King Baudouin Prize for Development

08 May 2007

Mary Lawlor Director, Front Line

Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam Chairperson of SUDO, the Sudan Social Development Organization

Gégé Katana President of SOFAD, the Solidarity Movement of Women Human Rights Activists (Solidarité des Femmes Activistes pour la Défense des Droits Humains)

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Mary Lawlor

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Eleanor Roosevelt gave the most powerful rationale for why the work of human rights defenders is so important and why it is so important to protect them.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world”

The Kogi indigenous people live in Sierra Nevada in the north of Colombia. The Kogi are profoundly spiritual and believe that the Sierra is the origin and center of the world and they were created to protect it - as the harmony of the whole cosmos depends on the care and veneration they give to the Sierra . But now armed groups have invaded their mountain. The Farc, the left-wing guerrilla army, prevent the Kogi from going to the mountain ,their sacred place, where they listen to La Madre and discern what she wants them to do. Likewise, the AUC, the right-wing paramilitary group allied to the government army, control the foot of their mountain and stop food supplies reaching the community - an already very poor community. When one of the Kogi protested about the killing of Kogi people to the leader of the paramilitaries he was told “We have a right to kill Indians”. Ironically, the Kogi call us, the white people, “the civilized”. Jose Gabriel Alinako, one of their leaders says “You the white men are destroying the earth which is our mother. You are destroying the lakes, the rivers and the trees. You are poisoning the air and killing the animals and now you are killing us. Who is going to defend our Mother? Who is going to defend us?” When the Spaniards arrived 500 hundred years ago the Kogi numbered 300,000 but now there are about 5,000 left

Brendan Forde an Irish human rights defender who works with them says “Laws are very strange. They all depend on where you are looking at them from. When laws are promulgated in the stately buildings of the great cities they can appear very reasonable and just. When they arrive at the villages and mountains they are usually accompanied by machine guns and bayonets. Laws for the poor mean that the army has the right to take their lands and kill their people. A piece of paper written in some unknown city has more power than the existence and permanence of a people who have lived on their land for over a thousand years. “

Human rights can be encoded in laws but at the end of the day they must be made real in terms of freedom and justice for the disempowered. We now understand that human rights and development are intertwined. Within both governmental and non-governmental development agencies, it is now commonplace to talk of the importance of partnership with local civil society as a crucial factor which impacts on effectiveness. In many countries using this approach has delivered important benefits.

But to talk of civil society and genuine partnership is only valid if there is freedom of association and freedom of expression. If there is space for human rights defenders to undertake their legitimate work. When critical voices are repressed by the authorities, talk of partnership is meaningless. The key agents of social change are those willing to speak out for the rights of their communities, for the marginalised, for the poor. Governments and international agencies can provide a framework, but real development comes from the people. And it doesn't come without freedom.

We are truly grateful to win the King Baudouin Prize because it is independent recognition of our work to protect human rights defenders. We see it as a prize ,in reality,for human rights defenders at risk . More importantly in giving a Prize for Development to an organization working for the protection of human rights defenders the King Baudouin Foundation has affirmed the importance of human rights defenders as agents of development. As the people who sacrifice much of what they have to make a difference within their communities.

It sounds strange, but as we work with human rights defenders who are on the front line we have discovered that: repression is almost a measure of effectiveness. Threats and attacks against human rights defenders increase when their work has an impact.

Front Line seeks to work with those human rights defenders most at risk. Generally they are being repressed precisely because the powers that be fear that their work is making a difference. What this emphasizes is that we will only see real development when it is based on the full and equal enjoyment of human rights, and when the human rights and development communities work together.

I returned recently from DRC. It should be one of the richest countries in the world, it has gold ,diamonds and many other natural resources in abundance. Yet it is among the least developed countries in the world. That lack of development is directly linked to the failure to deliver fundamental human rights. Coming back from a country like DRC when you have stood on the site of a massacre where three hundred people have been brutally killed - and where the children you are playing with are either orphans of war, children born of rape or who quite simply don't know if their parents are alive or dead , - where you see a funeral procession with a little chipboard coffin painted purple carrying a child who could not be more than 3 years old - with only a small group of children following – few adults - it changes the way you see things.

In every country of the world there are people who work to get clean water for their village, protect their environment against illegal exploitation or challenge the abuse of power by their government.

These people with the vision to change the world are brave, few in number and often in danger.

They need protection.

I don’t suppose any of us will ever understand what drove Anna Politkovskaya the journalist and human rights defender in Russia- what it must have been like to live with the smell of fear and the uncertainty of life.

This small woman with a huge heart displayed an exceptional kind of courage in her determination to speak out fearlessly about against violence, poverty and injustice in Chechnya .

She did so non-violently but was violently gunned down - her body was found in the lift of her apartment block in Moscow . She put herself at risk in order to defend the rights of others and in turn, her life was brutally taken.

In Burma as we gather, there is an emerging group of human rights defenders working against poverty, the kidnapping of children for child soldiers, forced labour and torture. A group that is fragile yet brave in their convictions. A crucial part of their work is to empower the people and teach them their rights so that they will demand them. Ko Maung Maung Lay and Ko Myint Naing, are members of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters. They were violently attacked by an armed gang as they returned from a peaceful training session on human rights education on 17 April 2007.

This morning we received news that Zeinab Peyqambarzadeh, a women’s rights activist and member of the One Million Signature Campaign, was arrested in Iran and transferred to Evin Prison. Zeinab was one of the 33 women arrested on 4th March this year as the Iranian authorities sought to prevent the celebration of International Women’s Day. We must once more seek to mobilize international pressure for her release.

And what about Tunisia where the shameful apathy of the European Union in the face of blatant repression is so hypocritical. In Tunisia human rights defenders are under constant surveillance, attacked, and imprisoned. Family members are targeted and human rights defenders lose all sources of livelihood. Mohammed Abbou is an eminent human rights defender from Tunisia. He was arbitrarily arrested in Tunis and sentenced to three and a half years in prison in April 2005. – just because he published articles speaking out about torture in Tunisian prisons on the internet. His wife Samia has been attacked and in a splendid piece of irony Tunisia hosted the UN World Summit on the Information Society in November 2005 during which time the authorities broke up a meeting of Tunisian and international organisations, including Front Line.

The European Union has been more active in raising human rights concerns in Uzbekistan including through adopting limited sanctions against the Government following the massacre in Andijan whose second anniversary will be on Sunday. However, since May 2005 the Uzbek authorities have mounted a concerted campaign to silence human rights defenders in the country. Many have been imprisoned and some have been tortured.

Mutabar Tadjibaeva, Chairwoman of the human rights organization Fiery Hearts Club, was detained on 7 October 2005 just as she was about to board a plane to travel to Front Line’s 3rd Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders. She was sentenced to eight years imprisonment in March 2006 and was subsequently moved to a psychiatric hospital. According to reports, Mutabar Tadjibaeva's health has seriously deteriorated. The EU is now keen to re-engage with Uzbekistan but the situation for human rights defenders is now worse than it was two years ago. In our view there is no point to dialogue with the Uzbek Government about human rights unless Uzbek human rights defenders, including Mutabar, are freed.

Last year we went to Gaza to launch our report on the situation of human rights defenders in OPT. 70% of the population are unemployed and the UN says 50% are now food insecure. The World Bank says the occupation has been the primary cause of economic collapse – greater then the Wall Street crash and the crash in Argentina.

Gaza reminded me of a big prison where people are corralled like cattle into a holding pen.

Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Center for HR sends you this message: ‘ Military occupation is by definition anti-development. It is impossible to imagine development with the suffocation imposed by both the Israeli occupation and now the international community. In this year, the 40th anniversary of the occupation, what is needed is development with real economic and political independence. More then ever the Palestinian people are due to have their basic human right to normal development as people.

There are people in your life who sear themselves into your very consciousness because of who they are and what they do.

I am privileged today to stand beside Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim and Ms. Gégé Katana. To us in Front Line human rights defenders are our inspiration because day in day out , they face uncertainty, risk and horror and there is no escape – for us - and for all of you, we can always leave and go home. Like Anna Politkovskaya, these people get up in the morning and don't know if they will be coming home that night.

We have all seen the television footage of the tragedy of Darfur. Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, is an engineer by profession and Chairperson of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), which was created to promote both sustainable development and human rights. Since its establishment in 2001, SUDO has successfully implemented human rights, water, sanitation and health projects.

Under Dr. Mudawi’s leadership, SUDO has been active in Darfur, holding workshops with different groups on human rights and providing humanitarian assistance to the hundreds of thousands who have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict. Dr Mudawi and SUDO have also been working to implement a peace-building and reconciliation project with different ethnic groups in Southern Darfur. For his work he has been arrested 3 times, sent to a “Ghost House” and charged “with attempting to commit suicide” when he went on hunger strike to protest against his solitary confinement and denial of access to family and medical treatment.

We were very pleased to have Dr. Mudawi as the winner of our inaugural Front Line Award for human rights defenders at risk back in 2005. We are honoured to have him here with us today: Dr. Mudawi

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Human rights has in many occasions and times been confused and reduced to only “political rights”, rights of free association, speech, etc.., while in fact the rights of humans include their right for clean water, medical care, food etc, etc, to the end of the list of the economic and social rights, in a nut shell the right of the people to develop their personal and communal lives.

As you might all know, Sudan has been in a long-ravaging conflict, that the conflict has been in a long marathon from one part of the country to another, and that the country is emerging from conflict through signed but fragile and/or threatened peace agreements. These situations have been creating catastrophes at all levels and thus further worsening the already beleaguered governance system. Most affected are human rights activists and/ or defenders who have been working in an environment of mistrust and cynicism and are, therefore, in need of the support of their citizens and the protection and attention of the international community.

But I am optimistic that civil society in Sudan is strongly rising and that voices have started to speak louder, to become listened to and are amplifying the change, but with a high cost of sacrifices. The resilience and the courage of social actors, social activists and human rights defenders countrywide is what should encourage all of us to work towards democracy, good governance and justice, creating the enabling environment for development, which guarantees human dignity.

As I have always been saying, Front Line has taken me and my organization to the front line, they gave us recognition and made more people care for and protect us. Front Line has been the voice of those who work at risk, not known to any body except their own people, it is their work and dedication that made the work and the sacrifices of human rights defenders known and recognized, it is their courage that encouraged persons like us to give more to our communities. Your recognition to Front Line is a recognition and encouragement to all of us.

Mary Lawlor During the trip to DRC I met a woman who has braved a multitude of threats and attacks yet who continues to work through a grassroots network of 625 women to end the endemic sexual violence against women and girls. Gégé Katana is the founder and President of SOFAD, the Solidarity Movement of Women Human Rights Activists, in Uvira, Eastern DRC. This is a country where 3.8 million people have already died as a result of the conflict and where 1,200 people die every day from disease, including HIV/AIDs, hunger and violence. Thousands have been raped. – Gégé Katana's work is a source of great hope and encouragement. I was with Gégé in Uvira a couple of weeks ago and there are moments watching her which I will carry with me forever. -; the way other women reached out to her drawn by her quiet dignity, steely strength, clear understanding and ability to listen and the way she gently touched the heads of the children born of rape as she described their progress in school. Gégé has adopted 15 children – some are children of relatives killed by the war, some are orphans she came across without knowing their story. She says almost incidentally, “sometimes we have food for everyone and sometimes we don't. “ We were very pleased to welcome Gégé Katana to Dublin last week where Bono presented her with the 2007 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. And we are very pleased indeed to have her here with us today. Gégé Katana

Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Nos sincères remerciements à la Fondation Roi Baudouin d'avoir accordé ce prix a Front Line. Front Line pense à la protection des défenseurs des droits de l’homme qui est une question jusque là moins examinée par notre gouvernement la RDC et pourtant la situation de guerre a apporté atteinte au respect des droits humains par des atteintes à l’intégrité physique.

La présence de Front Line en RDC est très importante. Elle permet aux défenseur des droits de l'homme de contribuer au dévelopment du pays car le non-respect des droits de l'homme risque de conduire la RDC au sous-dévelopment du fait que les femmes et les enfants sont souvent victimes de cette violation. Et pour-tant actuellement nul n'ignore que les femmes jouent un rôle important pour rehausser l'économie du pays, améliorer la situation politique, socio-culturel, et l'éducation en RDC. Nous sommes aussi conscients que ces enfants victimes des violations des droits de l'homme seront les dirigeants de demain.

Nos remerciements aussi a FrontLine de son assistance morale, de ses contributions au renforcement de capacité en matière des droits de l’homme, et son intervention rapide pour la protection des défenseurs en danger. Sans oublier les différents centres informatiques qu’il a mis à la disposition des défenseurs qui ont facilité le travail des défenseurs des droits de l'homme et la sécurisation de leurs informations.

The people of Congo and Sudan deserve better. They have the right to live “free and equal in dignity and rights” but they will only achieve this right if human rights defenders working on their behalf can work without the risk of being attacked or murdered. That is why we focus all our activities on human rights defenders who work non-violently at great personal risk for the rights of others.

Front Line provides a 24 hour round the clock emergency response in 5 languages. For example when WOZA Women of Zimbabwe Arise were arrested we got a text which said: “Woza 49 in custody for handing in petition - now 43 to one cell” we rang the police station in Bulawayo immediately to demand that they be released and treated properly. Simultaneously the Irish Embassy in South Africa got the Dutch Embassy on the ground who made an appeal on behalf of the EU (even though it was a Saturday afternoon). This quick response by the EU resulted in their release next day. We offer training in personal and information security and have trained human rights defenders to act as trainers in their regions as well as carrying out training in over 12 countries. We mobilize key actors to help create a safe space in which human rights defenders can do their legitimate work. We give practical financial grants for measures which can contribute to security such as computers, mobile phones, walls around offices and internal office security, lawyers to attend trials and medical assistance for hrds who have been tortured. We also facilitate networking with other hrds and international organisations. Our work brings us into daily contact with human rights defenders at risk on the ground and to date we have assisted over 600 defenders in 100 countries. Speed is of the essence. It can literally be a matter of life or death. Front Line often needs to respond instantly to move human rights defenders out of danger – for example Aloysius Toe in Liberia. Aloysius escaped from prison where he was on trumped up charges, when the rebels took over Monrovia . He was on a black list so couldn't leave by normal channels. We got a bank to open up and working through an intermediary sent him money to get a small fishing canoe. He hid on the beach under the boat while the nightly security check was taking place and then embarked on a perilous 4 day journey to get to Cote D'Ivoire. Thankfully he made it, got a lorry to Ghana from where he flew to Ireland. Aloysius returned to Liberia to continue his work as a human rights defender and started The Foundation for Human Rights and Democracy (FOHRD), a pro-democracy and human rights organization, whose mission is to spread democratic values and principles and promote the protection and respect for Social and Economic Rights. Now more than ever we need to work together. Every day there is a new incident of a government which seeks to brand human rights defenders as a fifth column within the state. Who seek to label human rights defenders as enemies of the state under the excuse of the “war against terror” . The publication of the EU Guidelines on Human Rights Defenders was a milestone in protection of human rights defenders but they will only be useful if there is the political will to implement them fully. Recently, Le Monde ran a headline on the need for Europe to become a center for the protection of human rights defenders. This is absolutely vital if we are to break out of the endless cycle of poverty, underdevelopment and violence. We believe the oppressors will ultimately lose. They have to keep winning every day to maintain their power. Human rights Defenders only have to win now and again to keep hope alive and hope is always a stronger force than fear.

The Talmud tells us that he who saves a single life saves the world entire and in every country there are brave people who live up to that standard, who refuse to be silenced, who resist injustice and who seek to uphold the rights of their fellow people. People like Gégé and Mudawi.

Human Rights Defenders are golden people who shed light on the darkest corners of the world. Their invincible spirit helps us all rise up and be counted. Nowhere is this spirit more evident than in the words of Anna Politkovskaya as she talked about Chechnya.

“So each time I go there, people tell me things. They do so in the sincere hope that, if I record what is actually happening, it will lead to change, to peace. Obviously, I am not to blame for what is going on, but the more I think about it, the more I would be betraying these people if I walked away. The only thing to do is to take this to the bitter end, so that no one can say that when things became difficult, I ran away."