(New York) -- On Wednesday, November 7, Human Rights Watch will give its highest honor to five leading human rights activists from around the world. Those chosen to be human rights "monitors" for the year 2001 have defended civilians in brutal wars in Sudan and Aceh, and worked to build civil society from the ground up in Pakistan, Guatemala and Uzbekistan. Human Rights Watch staff work closely with these brave individuals as part of our defense of human rights in more than 70 countries around the world.
"Those we honor have shown great courage and dedication to the cause of human rights," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "They have worked tirelessly - often in dangerous environments -- to expose rights abuses and to turn the international spotlight on their countries."
The 2001 Human Rights Watch Annual Dinners in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco will honor: a domestic worker from Guatemala, a leading human rights lawyer from Aceh, Indonesia, a recently released political prisoner from Uzbekistan, the head of Pakistan's leading human rights group, and a Sudanese minister working to end slavery and Sudan's 18-year civil war.
Human Rights Watch is a non-profit, international monitoring group with headquarters in New York. It accepts no financial support from any government.
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The 2001 Human Rights Watch Honorees are:
Afrasiab Khattak (Pakistan)
Afrasiab Khattak heads the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), one of the country's leading non-governmental organizations. In this role, Khattak has been one of the most outspoken advocates for the protection of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, challenging government policies and practices aimed at deporting existing refugees and curbing further inflows. HRCP has also been a standard-bearer in calling for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan since the military coup in October 1999. Khattak's work as an activist extends back to previous elected and military governments. Arrested for his opposition to the martial law regime of General Zia ul-Haq, he was convicted by a military court in 1979 and sentenced to a year of labor in prison. Following his release, he spent nearly a decade in exile, returning in 1989 after Zia's death. In the current crisis in Afghanistan, Khattak has publicly articulated the need for Afghan civil society actors to play a prominent role in the country's reconstruction.
Ismail Adylov (Uzbekistan)
Ismail Adylov is a long-time human rights activist and political dissident in Uzbekistan. After he was arrested in 1994, he joined the Independent Human Rights Organization of Uzbekistan and investigated cases of illegal arrest, monitored trials, and conducted dozens of interviews with victims of torture and their families. In the spring of 1999, the Karimov government launched an aggressive campaign against Adylov and his colleagues, apparently aimed at silencing their revelations regarding religious repression and mass violations of human rights by state authorities. In July of that year, Tashkent police took Adylov into custody and raided his home. A court hearing that lasted only three hours and mimicked Soviet-era show trials declared him guilty; Adylov was sentenced in September 1999 to six years in prison. For most of the time he was in prison, Adylov was subjected to torture and denied medical treatment. After a large-scale international campaign calling for Adylov's release, President Karimov finally granted his freedom on July 3, 2001.
Dr. Haruun Ruun (Sudan)
Dr. Haruun Ruun is the head of the New Sudan Council of Churches, which comprises Catholic and Protestant churches in rebel-held areas of southern Sudan. Sudan is in the eighteenth year of a civil war that pits the Arab and Muslim-dominated central government against marginalized African peoples. He has done significant human rights-related work in connection with the People-to-People peace and reconciliation process, which aims to bring together citizens in southern Sudan to promote an end to the conflict between ethnic groups in the south. In this role, Ruun, a U.S.-educated Presbyterian minister, has helped address such problems as returning abducted women and children to their families, attempting to implement a local system of law and order, and searching for funds for the rebuilding of villages destroyed in the conflict. The New Sudan Council of Churches has taken a brave stand against oil exploration in southern Sudan, which has caused the forced displacement of countless citizens who have not been compensated at all for their land, the destruction of their homes and livelihoods, or the death or injury of their relatives.
Abdul Rahman Yacob (Indonesia)
Abdul Rahman Yacob is a lawyer in Aceh, Indonesia with a coalition of human rights organizations, known by its Indonesian name of Koalisi HAM. Aceh is in the midst of a war between Indonesian army and police on the one hand, and guerrilla forces of the Free Aceh Movement on the other. In such a situation, human rights documentation and advocacy is not only crucial, it is extremely dangerous; one Koalisi lawyer was shot to death in March 2001. Under the leadership of Rahman, Koalisi is producing some of the most thorough, timely, and accurate reporting on human rights violations in Aceh. He has taken on the defense of some of Aceh's highest-profile political prisoners. These include a student leader imprisoned for actively campaigning for a referendum on Aceh's political status and GAM officials arrested for rebellion in the midst of negotiations with the Indonesian government. Rahman is so accustomed to receiving threats that he treats them as commonplace, but in a hazardous occupation, Rahman takes on more hazards than most.
Rosa Isabel García (Guatemala)
Rosa Isabel García, a 22-year-old K'iche' woman, has been a domestic worker for seven years. García is on the executive council of CENTRACAP, an organization run by current and former domestic workers. It provides services to domestic workers and focuses on literacy, self-improvement, and vocational classes. CENTRACAP sponsors activities to improve workers' knowledge of their rights in the workforce and engages in advocacy with Congress and other state institutions to promote these rights. García represents the thousands of indigenous girls and women who migrate every year to the capital in search of employment as live-in household workers. Both indigenous and non-indigenous domestic workers encounter legal discrimination and daily exploitation. While her story is typical, García herself is exceptional. In addition to working full-time, García is studying to become a teacher so that she may return to her home province and expand the opportunities for young girls there.
