A dissident Iranian journalist, Akbar Ganji, and a lawyer and broadcaster in Zimbabwe, Arnold Tsunga, will share a leading international human rights award this year, advocacy groups announced on Tuesday.
”They are symbols of the human rights movement in their respective countries, where standing up for human rights and democracy is a dangerous activity,” said Hans Thoolen, chairperson of the jury for the 2006 Martin Ennals Award for human rights defenders, in a statement.
The award is presented every year by 11 of the world’s major human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the World organisation against torture (OMCT), to give protection to local activists who brave acute pressure or danger.
The human rights groups called on the governments of Iran and Zimbabwe ”to ensure the safety of the laureates and allow them to work without intimidation and harassment”.
Ganji (46) was detained at Tehran’s Evin Prison in 2000 after he wrote articles implicating several regime officials in a string of murders of opposition intellectuals and writers in 1998. He was later sentenced to several years in jail for undermining national security and for propaganda against the Islamic state.
Ganji was beaten up by his guards and placed in solitary confinement, the groups added. After a hunger strike last year and a spell in hospital, he was released in March.
Tsunga, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (Zimrights), suffered constant threats and harassment after he repeatedly denounced the legal system and the human rights situation there, the groups said.
He was arrested in January along with five other trustees of the Voice of the People radio station for broadcasting without a licence and was released on bail.
Later that month, a man ”who seemed to be linked with the army” visited the Zimrights office, alleging that military intelligence officers had received orders to hunt Tsunga down and kill him, the groups said.
The organisers plan to present the Martin Ennals Award at a ceremony in Geneva on October 12.
The 20 000-Swiss franc ($15 300) award is named after first head of Amnesty International, who was regarded as a driving force for the modern human rights movement and received the Nobel peace prize in 1977.
Previous winners have come from Syria, Chechnya, Colombia, Chad and ex-Yugoslavia. – Sapa-AFP