This morning Bono presented the 3rd Front Line Award to Gégé Katana a human rights defender for over 25 years in the Democratic Republic of Congo at a ceremony in Dublin’s City Hall.

Further Information

Posted 01/05/2007 The annual Front Line Award honours a human rights defender, who has displayed exceptional courage in working non-violently for the rights of others as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On accepting the award, Gégé Katana said: “For me, winning the award is a recognition of my work as a woman human rights defender and gives me the strength and encouragement to pursue my struggle in the area of human rights and specifically those issues affecting women. I cannot fully express my joy in receiving this award, nor my gratitude towards Front Line for supporting and helping me in my work.” Gégé Katana works in one of the most hostile environments in the world on behalf of victims of sexual violence and she herself has faced ongoing persecution in retribution for her work. She is the founder and president of the Solidarity Movement of Women Human Rights Activists based in Uvira. Gégé Katana’s movements are routinely under surveillance. She was completely banned from travelling between 1996 and 2003. She has been arbitrarily arrested on several occasions and regularly receives death threats. The nominees for this year's award came from Colombia, the Philippines, Azerbaijan and Tunisia, countries where to be a human rights defender is a high-risk occupation. “Front Line pays tribute to the bravery of the four nominees who have all faced persecution in their struggle for human rights,” said Mary Lawlor, Director of Front Line. The biographies of all five nominees are available on the Front Line website