Germany: HRW Wins Prestigious Theodore Wanner Award

(Berlin) – The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, accepted the 2016 Theodore Wanner Award in Berlin on June 21, 2016. The prize was awarded to Human Rights Watch for 38 years defending and advancing human rights around the world.

“In such times of insecurity, there is a tendency to retrench, to seek shelter among those who seem most like you, to close the door to others,” Roth said at a ceremony to accept the award. “That instinct provides the platform for the growing voices of hate… We must urgently reject this movement of hatred, exclusion and intolerance.”

Since 2009, the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) has awarded the Wanner prize to those who significantly contribute their scientific, social, socio-political, artistic, entrepreneurial, or financial expertise to foster dialogue among cultures.

The prize money of €10,000, sponsored by the Klett Group, has been given to a project chosen by Human Rights Watch, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. The coalition, chaired by Human Rights Watch and Save the Children, advocates to keep schools free from military use, so children in conflict zones can learn in safety. One early success is the international Safe Schools Declaration, which was launched in 2015 and has been endorsed by 54 nations.