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UN Refugee Chief Honoured With Prestigious Rights Award
Scoop Independent News (New Zealand)
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Press Release: United Nations
NEW YORK, NY -- António Guterres, the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has been awarded this year's
Calouste Gulbenkian International Prize for his efforts to promote
human rights and inter-cultural dialogue.
The Prize, created in 2007, is awarded to individuals or institutions
whose thoughts or actions have decisively contributed to
understanding, defending or fostering universal human values.
The ?¬100,000 prize, presented at a ceremony in Lisbon,
Portugal, earlier this week, will be shared by Mr. Guterres and the
co-winner, the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME),
which is a non-governmental organization (NGO) bringing Palestinian
and Israeli researchers together to further mutual co-existence and
peacebuilding.
This year's recipients of the award ` created two years ago and named
after Calouste Gulbenkian, the Armenian Turk who was a pioneer in the
oil industry, an art collector, diplomat and philanthropist ` were
selected by a six-member panel of judges, led by former Portuguese
President Jorge Sampaio.
The High Commissioner dedicated half of the prize to humanitarian aid
workers who have lost their lives during the course of helping others
around the world.
In the past six months, three UNHCR staff members have been killed in
Pakistan, while Natalia Estemirova, murdered last week in Russia,
worked with UNHCR through the NGO Memorial.
The award comes as `a great encouragement at such a difficult time,'
Mr. Guterres said.
This is the second honour for UNHCR in two weeks, with the agency
receiving the Francisco de Vitoria medal at a ceremony last week,
bestowed by the municipality of Vitoria-Gasteiz, in northern Spain,
and the University of the Basque Country for exceptional commitment to
human rights and international understanding.
UNHCR is the second winner of the annual award, with the first being
the the principal judicial organ of the UN.
The prize is named after the 16th century Spanish Roman Catholic
philosopher, theologian and jurist, who is regarded as one of the
founding fathers of international law.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0907/S0037 3.htm
Scoop Independent News (New Zealand)
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Press Release: United Nations
NEW YORK, NY -- António Guterres, the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has been awarded this year's
Calouste Gulbenkian International Prize for his efforts to promote
human rights and inter-cultural dialogue.
The Prize, created in 2007, is awarded to individuals or institutions
whose thoughts or actions have decisively contributed to
understanding, defending or fostering universal human values.
The ?¬100,000 prize, presented at a ceremony in Lisbon,
Portugal, earlier this week, will be shared by Mr. Guterres and the
co-winner, the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME),
which is a non-governmental organization (NGO) bringing Palestinian
and Israeli researchers together to further mutual co-existence and
peacebuilding.
This year's recipients of the award ` created two years ago and named
after Calouste Gulbenkian, the Armenian Turk who was a pioneer in the
oil industry, an art collector, diplomat and philanthropist ` were
selected by a six-member panel of judges, led by former Portuguese
President Jorge Sampaio.
The High Commissioner dedicated half of the prize to humanitarian aid
workers who have lost their lives during the course of helping others
around the world.
In the past six months, three UNHCR staff members have been killed in
Pakistan, while Natalia Estemirova, murdered last week in Russia,
worked with UNHCR through the NGO Memorial.
The award comes as `a great encouragement at such a difficult time,'
Mr. Guterres said.
This is the second honour for UNHCR in two weeks, with the agency
receiving the Francisco de Vitoria medal at a ceremony last week,
bestowed by the municipality of Vitoria-Gasteiz, in northern Spain,
and the University of the Basque Country for exceptional commitment to
human rights and international understanding.
UNHCR is the second winner of the annual award, with the first being
the the principal judicial organ of the UN.
The prize is named after the 16th century Spanish Roman Catholic
philosopher, theologian and jurist, who is regarded as one of the
founding fathers of international law.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0907/S0037 3.htm