The 1999 Human Rights Watch Annual Celebration honored four human rights defenders – from Chile, Kosovo, Mozambique and Rwanda – who have helped advance the cause of international justice. Since 1988, Human Rights Watch has honored 146 human rights defenders from around the world for their courageous work, often at grave personal risk, promoting the human rights cause. These men and women are among our closest allies. We work intensively with them to conduct investigations and pursue advocacy strategies to end abuses.

Peter Osnos, Co-chair of the Annual Celebration in New York.

In recent years, the human rights movement and the struggle for justice have been buoyed by the work of the War Crimes Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the adoption of a treaty to create the International Criminal Court, and Britain’s arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. It is on these pillars that Human Rights Watch and the activists we honor are building an international system of criminal justice.

Sevdie Ahmeti (Kosovo), a veteran human rights activist, risked her life during the Kosovo crisis by remaining in Pristina to document human rights abuses against Kosovar Albanians, especially the sexual assault of women. Sevdie’s name was put on a blacklist for her human rights activities, forcing her and her family into hiding. To the extent possible, she spoke out courageously about the use of rape by Serbian troops as an instrument of terror against Albanian women. Since the end of the conflict, Sevdie, the co-director of the Center for the Protection of Women and Children in Pristina, has worked tirelessly to support women who were assaulted in Kosovo. She has sought out and counseled victims, taken their testimonies, and provided concrete assistance to help them begin the healing process.

Aloys Habimana (Rwanda), who lost loved ones during the Rwandan genocide, works to ensure fair trials for those accused of the most egregious human rights crimes. Aloys was originally part of a team recruited and trained with the assistance of Human Rights Watch to serve as interpreters for foreign lawyers who were expected to observe the trials. When the delegation failed to appear, Aloys and his colleagues took on the task of observing and reporting on the trials themselves. Despite public hostility and political pressure to treat the accused as automatically guilty, Aloys and the observers have spoken out and advocated fair trials for all. They have documented the varying quality of the trials, commending those jurists who upheld due process and criticizing those who violated the rights of the accused and the victims.

Sofia Prats (Chile), the daughter of Carlos Prats, President Salvador Allende’s military commander who was slain while in exile in Argentina, has worked for many years to help bring a case against former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet for the death of her father. She has spoken out in Chile on behalf of the thousands of other victims of Pinochet’s regime and contributed to the international case against Pinochet that was initiated in Spain and England. Sofia is the vice-president of Chile’s Party for Democracy and serves on various municipal, national, and international committees on women’s issues.

Boia Efraime Junior (Mozambique) works with children, families, and communities traumatized by the civil war in Mozambique. As a teacher in the early 1980s, Boia found that some of his students were not attending his class because they had been kidnapped by armed groups or killed. He began training in psychology and has been working with former child soldiers since 1984. His organization, Rebuilding Hope, is a member of the International Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. Working with traditional healers and community leaders, Rebuilding Hope uses therapy and self-help programs to rehabilitate former child soldiers and assist their families.