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16-Apr-2002

Chadian woman receives highest award of human rights movement

by: World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

Worldwide: Jacqueline Moudeina, lawyer for the victims of the former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré, received the 2002 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) on 11 April. She took enormous risks by filing complaints in Chad against a number of Habré's accomplices, many of whom are still in positions of power. She also is one of the lawyers in the case against Habré himself in Senegal, where he lives in exile.

As one of the few women lawyers in Chad, Moudeina gives much of her time to the local NGO, the Chadian Association for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (ATPDH). On 11 June 2001, when she took part in a peaceful sit-in to protest against the fraudulent elections, a security squad, led by one of the men she is suing, threw a grenade at her. Moudeina had to go to Paris for treatment.

The award was handed to her by the Senegalese singer Cheikh Lô, himself a human rights activist. The ceremony took place in studio 4 of the Télévision Suisse Romande in Geneva in the framework of the Festival Media North-South.

The MEA is a unique collaboration among ten of the world's leading non-governmental human rights organizations. Created in 1993, the award carries a money component of 20,000 CHF. It is granted annually to an individual or an organisation who has displayed exceptional courage in combating human rights violations. The members of the jury of the MEA are: Amnesty International, Defence for Children, German Diakona, Human Rights Watch, HURIDOCS, International Alert, International Commission of Jurists, International Federation for Human Rights, International Service for Human Rights and World Organisation Against Torture.

Martin Ennals (1927-1991) was instrumental to the modern human rights movement seeking cooperation and solidarity among NGOs. A fiercely devoted activist, he was the first Secretary-General of Amnesty International and the driving force behind many other organisations.

Contact Secretariat of the Martin Ennals Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland (tel:+ 41 76 366 2043 (Nadja Houben) or +30 94 475 8678, email: info@huridocs.org, website: http://www.martinennalsaward.org)

Source: World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)