What Peace Prize says about freedom in Russia, Philippines

October 08, 2021

MOSCOW (AP) — The Nobel Peace Prize sometimes recognizes groundbreaking efforts to resolve seemingly intractable conflicts, such as once-sworn enemies who sat down and brokered an end to war. In other years, the recipient is someone who promoted human rights at great personal cost.

The prestigious award also can serve as a not-so-subtle message to authoritarian governments and leaders that the world is watching. What does the selection of two journalists, Maria Ressa, 58, of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov, 59, of Russia, say about freedom of expression and the history of dissent in the countries of the 2021 peace prize winners?

“It is a battle for facts. When you’re in a battle for facts, journalism is activism," Ressa said Friday.

RUSSIA

Dmitry Muratov is part of a historic cycle that links him to two other Russian winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

When Andrei Sakharov, a prominent Soviet nuclear physicist turned political dissident, received the prize in 1975, the Cold War was at its height and the Soviet Union seemed invincible. The country's Communist leaders tolerated no dissent. Five years after becoming a Nobel laureate, Sakharov’s bold criticism of the Soviet regime got him sent into internal exile.

Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev allowed Sakharov to return from exile in 1986, and went on to win the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the Cold War. But while he was earning international accolades, Gorbachev was under attack from both members of the Communist old guard who opposed his reforms and democracy champions such as Sakharov who accused him of being indecisive.

The Soviet Union collapsed after a string of Soviet republics declared their independence and Gorbachev stepped down as president on Dec. 25, 1991. The former leader would use some of his Nobel Prize money to help a group of Russian journalists, including Muratov, buy computers and office equipment for their new independent newspaper in 1993. Gorbachev eventually became Novaya Gazeta's co-owner; Muratov was its editor from 1995 to 2017, and returned to the post in 2019.

Under his leadership, the publication has become the country’s top independent newspaper, broadly acclaimed internationally for its fearless reporting on the bloody separatist war in the Russian republic of Chechnya and on official corruption. The paper has taken a consistently critical look at the rollback of post-Soviet freedoms during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s more than two decades in power.

Several Novaya reporters and contributors were killed. The paper's leading reporter, Anna Politkovskaya, who relentlessly covered human rights abuses in Chechnya, was shot dead in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building on Oct. 7, 2006.

A Moscow court convicted the gunman and three other Chechens in the killing, as well as a former Moscow police officer who was their accomplice. But on Thursday, the 15th anniversary of Politkovskaya’s slaying, Muratov noted that the Russian authorities never tracked down the person who ordered it.

“Regrettably, there is no probe going on now,” Muratov said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We don’t even know when an investigator last touched that criminal case.” He vowed that the newspaper would continue working to track down the mastermind of Politkovskaya’s killing on its own.

Muratov also pledged to use his Nobel Prize to help independent Russian journalists. Many people in Russia voiced hope that the prize, by emphasizing global support for media freedom, would help restrain the government's multi-pronged crackdown on independent media.

PHILIPPINES

The Philippines was one of the few places in Asia where freedom of the press seemed assured when Maria Ressa and other journalists founded the online magazine Rappler in 2012. The government of long-time dictator Ferdinard Marcos had muzzled the media, imprisoned opponents and tortured activists. But after the 1986 “people power” revolution toppled Marcos, a myriad of newspapers, lively radio stations and closely watched TV channels sprang up to chronicle the new chapter in the Philippines.

Their mission: delivering timely information to a Filipino population hungry for news. In the following years, the Philippines remained a dangerous place for journalists, a free-wheeling country where retaliatory violence often accompanied the freedom to speak up due to an abundance of firearms, legal impunity and political instability. It had one of the highest numbers of reporters killed each year.

Then came the election of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016. After campaigning on a promise to deal with widespread crime, he launched a bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, enlisting police and unidentified gunmen who became the judge and jury for thousands of mostly poor suspects in Manila’s sprawling urban slums.

Rappler CEO Ressa and other staff members took to reporting the nighttime raids that left hundreds and then thousands dead in overwhelmed morgues. Police said they were acting in self-defense when officers gunned down alleged drug dealers. Few suspects were questioned in what human rights activists soon described as extrajudicial executions.

As the death toll mounted, so did Rappler’s stories, some of which suggested that weapons could have been planted on the people killed. In a Nov. 9, 2020, story, Rappler reporter Rambo Talabong quoted the last words of Vicent Adia, a 27-year-old man who was labeled a drug pusher and initially survived “a vigilante execution” only to be slain by a gunman at a hospital near Manila. According to Rappler, Adia had told his close friend: “The police are about to kill me.”

Duterte’s fury at journalists increased as well. The tough-talking president declared that “corrupt” journalists were not “exempted from assassination.” “In 2016, it was really, really laughable. And I thought, ‘Oh, doesn’t matter.’ I laughed,” Ressa said in a 2020 interview, recalling her disbelief that the president would make good on his lethal threats in a country where democracy and human rights had been restored.

Any hint of humor evaporated when she became a target. She was arrested and held for a night, prosecuted in a series of criminal cases, including tax evasion, and convicted of libel. She remains free on bail while the libel case is on appeal, but faces up to six years in prison.

At about the same time, Ressa began wearing a bulletproof vest because of threats. In the 2020 documentary “A Thousand Cuts,” by Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz, she is seen pleading with Facebook representatives to delete violent posts against her and to remove livestreams of Duterte supporters protesting outside Rappler's offices.

“The Philippine government filed 10 arrest warrants against me. In the last year, the government has prevented my travel four times, including when my mother was diagnosed with cancer and I needed to go to see my aging parents,” Ressa said in a Zoom interview after she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Duterte and other Philippine officials have said the criminal complaints against Ressa and Rappler were not a press freedom issue but a part of normal judicial procedures arising from their alleged violations of the law.

In June, a Manila court dismissed a cyber-libel case against Ressa arising from a complaint filed by a wealthy businessman. A 2012 Rappler article included allegations that the businessman was linked to illegal drugs and human trafficking, and that a car registered in his name had been used by the country’s chief justice.

The law under which Ressa was charged by the government, the Cybercrime Prevention Act, did not go into effect until months after the article appeared, according to Rappler. In August, another case against her was dismissed. Ressa has pleaded not guilty to charges of breaching a ban on foreign ownership and control of media outlets in the Philippines, as well as tax evasion charges.

“You don’t know how powerful government is until you come under attack the way we have. When all the different parts of government work against you, it’s kind of shocking,” Ressa said.

Associated Press writer Hrvoje Hranjski reported from Bangkok and has previously reported from Manila. Anna Frants in Moscow contributed to this report.

2 Nobel literature prizes to be awarded after 2018 scandal

October 10, 2019

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two Nobel Prizes in literature will be announced Thursday after the 2018 literature award was postponed following sex abuse allegations that rocked the Swedish Academy. The chemistry prize went Wednesday to three scientists for their work leading to the development of lithium-ion batteries. That was a day after the physics award was given to a Canadian-American and two Swiss, and on Monday the Physiology or Medicine award went to two Americans and one British scientist.

So far, nine Nobel prizes have been awarded this week and all the laureates are men. The coveted Nobel Peace Prize is Friday and the economics award on Monday. In March, the foundation behind the Nobel Prize in literature said the Swedish Academy had revamped itself and restored trust. The Nobel Foundation had warned that another group could be picked to award the prize if the academy didn't improve its tarnished image.

The literature prize was canceled last year after a mass exodus at the exclusive Swedish Academy following sex abuse allegations. Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of a former academy member, was convicted last year of two rapes in 2011. Arnault allegedly also leaked the name of Nobel Prize literature winners seven times.

Among the favorites for the literature award are Canadian poet Anne Carson, novelists Maryse Condé of Guadeloupe, Can Xue of China and Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, author of "The Handmaid's Tale," which has been made into a hit TV series.

In his will, Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel specifically designated the Swedish Academy as the institution responsible for the Nobel Prize in literature. Other institutions in Sweden and Norway were given the task to find winners for the other Nobel Prizes.

Nobel decided the physics, chemistry and medicine should be awarded in Stockholm, and the peace prize in Oslo. His exact reasons for having an institution in Norway handing out the peace prize is unclear, but during his lifetime Sweden and Norway were joined in a union, which was dissolved in 1905.

Wednesday's chemistry prize went to John B. Goodenough, a German-born engineering professor at the University of Texas; M. Stanley Whittingham, a British-American chemistry professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton; and Japan's Akira Yoshino, of Asahi Kasei Corporation and Meijo University.

On Tuesday, Canadian-born James Peebles, 84, an emeritus professor at Princeton University, won the physics prize for his theoretical discoveries in cosmology together with Swiss scientists Michel Mayor, 77, and Didier Queloz, 53, both of the University of Geneva. The latter were honored for finding an exoplanet — a planet outside our solar system — that orbits a solar-type star, the Nobel committee said.

A day earlier, two Americans and one British scientist — Drs. William G. Kaelin Jr. of Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Gregg L. Semenza of Johns Hopkins University and Peter J. Ratcliffe at the Francis Crick Institute in Britain and Oxford University — won the prize for advances in physiology or medicine. They were cited for their discoveries of "how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability."

With the glory comes a 9-million kronor ($918,000) cash award, a gold medal and a diploma. The laureates receive them at an elegant ceremony on Dec. 10 — the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896 — in Stockholm and in Oslo.

Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, contributed to this report.

Nobel Peace winners urge global action vs. sexual violence

December 10, 2018

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Congolese doctor who shares this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the use of rape and sexual violence as weapons of war called Monday for strong international action against the abuse, including reparations for victims.

Dr. Denis Mukwege, founder of a hospital in eastern Congo that has treated tens of thousands of victims of the country's conflicts for two decades, and Iraqi activist Nadia Murad received the prize at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital, Oslo. They split the 9-million-kronor ($1 million) amount.

In an address interrupted by frequent applause, Mukwege criticized the international community for allowing Congolese to be "humiliated, abused and massacred for more than two decades in plain sight."

"I insist on reparations, measures that give survivors compensation and satisfaction and enable them to start a new life," he said. "I call on states to support the initiative to create a global fund for reparations for victims of sexual violence in armed conflicts."

He said countries should take a stand against "leaders who have tolerated, or worse, used sexual violence to take power. ... This red line would consist of imposing economic and political sanctions on these leaders and taking them to court."

Dozens of armed groups in Congo profit from mining the country's trillions of dollars' worth of mineral resources, many of which are crucial to popular electronic products such as smartphones. "As consumers, let us at least insist that these products are manufactured with respect for human dignity. Turning a blind eye to this tragedy is being complicit," Mukwege said. An outspoken critic of Congo's government, he added: "My country is being systematically looted with the complicity of people claiming to be our leaders."

Murad, a member of Iraq's Yazidi minority, was kidnapped and sexually abused by Islamic State militants in 2014. She became an activist after escaping and finding refuge in Germany. She told the ceremony that she wants world leaders to translate sympathy for victims into action against the abusers.

"The fact remains that the only prize in the world that can restore our dignity is justice and the prosecution of criminals," Murad said. "Young girls at the prime of life are sold, bought, held captive and raped every day. It is inconceivable that the conscience of the leaders of 195 countries around the world is not mobilized to liberate these girls," she said.

"What if they were a commercial deal, an oil field or a shipment of weapons? Most certainly, no efforts would be spared to liberate them," she said. Berit Reiss-Andersen, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that chooses the peace laureates, also said action was necessary.

"This award obligates Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad to continue their vital work. But the award obligates us to stand side by side with them in the struggle to end wartime sexual violence," she said. Back in Iraq, Murad's sister and brother who live in a camp for displaced Yazidi people in Dohuk in northern Iraq expressed their happiness for their sibling's Nobel Prize.

"We are very happy, because on this date, Daesh was defeated in Iraq, on the same day Nadia is receiving her award ... This is like a tumor in the chest of Daesh. We are very glad, and very proud," her sister Khayriya Murad told The Associated Press at the family's caravan where a photo of Nadia hung on the wall. She was busy receiving congratulations from friends and camp management staff. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

The winners of the medicine, physics, chemistry and economics Nobels received their awards Monday in Stockholm; no winner of the literature prize was named this year. In comments at the awards banquet, William Nordhaus, an American who shared the economics prize for his work studying the consequences of climate change and proposing carbon taxes, took a swipe at those who are unwilling to address global warming.

"Some obstacles are unnecessary and manmade, such as those posed by the financial interests of polluters or the ludicrous arguments of some of our politicians," he said. He shared the prize with Paul Romer, also of the United States, who was honored for studying how economies can encourage innovation.

The chemistry prize went to Americans Frances Arnold and George Smith and Britain's Gregory Winter for work that speeds up the evolution of proteins and enzymes. James Allison of the United States and Japan's Tasuku Honjo shared the medicine prize for discoveries in activating the body's immune system to fight cancer. The physics prize was awarded to Donna Strickland of Canada, Gerard Mourou of France and Arthur Ashkin of the U.S. for developments in laser technology.

Associated Press writer David Keyton reported in Stockholm and AP writer Jim Heintz reported from Moscow. AP writer Rashid Yahya in Dohuk, Iraq, contributed to this report.

Nobel Peace Prize awarded to anti-nuclear campaign group

October 06, 2017

OSLO, Norway (AP) — The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a group of mostly young activists pushing for a global treaty to ban the cataclysmic bombs.

The award of the $1.1-million prize comes amid heightened tensions over both North Korea's aggressive development of nuclear weapons and President Donald Trump's persistent criticism of the deal to curb Iran's nuclear program.

The prize committee wanted "to send a signal to North Korea and the U.S. that they need to go into negotiations," Oeivind Stenersen, a historian of the peace prize, told The Associated Press. "The prize is also coded support to the Iran nuclear deal. I think this was wise because recognizing the Iran deal itself could have been seen as giving support to the Iranian state."

The Geneva-based ICAN has campaigned actively for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted by the United Nations in July, but which needs ratification from 50 countries. Only three countries have ratified it so far. It organized events globally in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversaries of the World War II U.S. atomic bombings of the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Last month in Berlin, ICAN protesters teamed up with other organizations to demonstrate outside the U.S. and North Korean embassies against the possibility of nuclear war between the two countries. Wearing masks of Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, protesters posed next to a dummy nuclear missile and a large banner reading "Time to Go: Ban Nuclear Weapons."

The group "has been a driving force in prevailing upon the world's nations to pledge to cooperate ... in efforts to stigmatize, prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons," Norwegian Nobel Committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said in the announcement.

The prize "sends a message to all nuclear-armed states and all states that continue to rely on nuclear weapons for security that it is unacceptable behavior. We will not support it, we will not make excuses for it, we can't threaten to indiscriminately slaughter hundreds of thousands of civilians in the name of security. That's not how you build security," ICAN executive director Beatrice Fihn told reporters in Geneva.

She said that she "worried that it was a prank" after getting a phone call just minutes before the official Peace Prize announcement was made. Fihn said she didn't believe it until she heard the name of the group proclaimed on television.

ICAN leaders later popped open some bubbly to celebrate the prize, and held up a banner with the name of the organization in their small Geneva headquarters. "We are trying to send very strong signals to all states with nuclear arms, nuclear-armed states — North Korea, U.S., Russia, China, France, U.K., Israel, all of them, India, Pakistan — it is unacceptable to threaten to kill civilians," she said.

Reiss-Andersen noted that similar prohibitions have been reached on chemical and biological weapons, land mines and cluster munitions. "Nuclear weapons are even more destructive, but have not yet been made the object of a similar international legal prohibition," she said.

Reiss-Andersen said "through its inspiring and innovative support for the U.N. negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons, ICAN has played a major part in bringing about what in our day and age is equivalent to an international peace congress."

Asked by journalists whether the prize was essentially symbolic, given that no international measures against nuclear weapons have been reached, Reiss-Andersen said "What will not have an impact is being passive."

Jamey Keaten in Geneva, George Jahn in Vienna and Jim Heintz in Stockholm contributed to this story.

WikiLeaks nominated for 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

Wed, 02 Feb 2011

Oslo - Whistle-blower site WikiLeaks has been nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian politician who cited its role in freedom of speech, news agency NTB reported Wednesday.

"WikiLeaks is one of this century's most important contributors to freedom of speech and transparency," parliamentarian Snorre Valen said in his nomination.

Valen cited WikiLeaks role in disclosing the assets of Tunisia's former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his nearest family, contributing to the protests that forced them into exile.

The member of parliament for the Socialist Left Party, part of Norway's ruling red-green coalition, also noted WikiLeaks publication of documents relating to corruption by authorities, governments and corporations as well as "illegal surveillance, war crimes and torture committed by a number of states."

The five-member Nobel Committee advises those making nominations not to reveal their proposals in advance.

However, there are no formal rules against doing so, allowing for plenty of speculation before the winner is announced, normally in early October.

The 2010 prize was awarded to imprisoned Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, who was unable to collect his award.

Parliamentarians, academics, former peace prize laureates as well as current and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee are among those who have the right to nominate candidates for the coveted award.

The Peace Prize is one of several prizes endowed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/365449,2011-nobel-peace-prize.html.

Give Nobel peace prize to Julian Assange: Russia

Friday, December 10, 2010

Moscow, Dec 10: Expressing a surprise support to the jailed WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, Russia has suggested that he should be awarded the Nobel peace prize.

Russia urged non-governmental organizations to nominate Julian Assange as a Nobel Prize laureate for the release of United States diplomatic cables.

"Public and non-governmental organizations should think of how to help him. Maybe, nominate him as a Nobel Prize laureate," the source from inside president Dmitry Medvedev's office told Russian media.

Earlier, Russia President Dimitry Medvedev's spokesman slammed WikiLeaks releases by saying, "not worthy of comment." But the latest comment from Russia came after the release of the cable which described Russia as a "mafia state".

In one cable US diplomat said that "Criminal elements enjoy a krysha (protection racket) that runs through the police, the federal security service, ministry of internal affairs and the prosecutor's office, as well as throughout the Moscow city government bureaucracy."

In another cable from Feb 2010, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said "Russian democracy has disappeared".

Source: One India.
Link: http://news.oneindia.in/2010/12/10/give-nobel-peace-prize-to-julian-assange-russia.html.

Jailed Chinese Nobel Peace laureate 'speaks' from prison - Summary

Fri, 10 Dec 2010

Oslo - An empty chair served as a stark reminder of the absence of Nobel Peace Prize laureate, jailed Chinese political activist Liu Xiaobo, at Friday's ceremony at Oslo City Hall.

Liu's optimism about political change in China and calls for reconciliation were however strong themes in the award ceremony that was boycotted by China and several other nations.

The ceremony included a performance by a children's choir, in keeping with a wish Liu had managed to convey to organizers. A large portrait of the 54-year-old activist was displayed in the hall.

Liu is serving an 11-year sentence for sedition, a result of his role in organizing the Charter '08 manifesto democratic reform in China.

Nobel Committee head Thorbjorn Jagland said Liu was being honoured for his "long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."

Jagland expressed "regret" over the absence of Liu, who is "in isolation in a prison in north-east China" and also noted the absence of the laureate's wife Liu Xia and other close relatives.

After paying tribute to Liu and his efforts, Jagland placed the laureate's medal and diploma in the empty chair.

In the absence of an acceptance speech, Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read a statement released by supporters of the activist after his sentencing a year ago.

In the document, titled "I Have No Enemies," Liu underlines the importance of the 1989 democracy movement in China - where he took part in a hunger strike - that ended with a crackdown in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. He observes that "the ghosts of June 4 (1989) have not yet been laid to rest."

He also says he is convinced that China will change and that "there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme."

He also pays tribute to his wife, now under house arrest in Beijing, saying her love "is the sunlight that leaps over high walls and penetrates the iron bars of my prison window."

The Chinese government, angered by the selection of Liu as the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, called him a "criminal" and urged countries to stay away from the prize ceremony.

Representatives of least 15 countries were absent from Friday's ceremony, according to the Nobel Institute.

Beijing meanwhile blocked live broadcasts from Oslo by by foreign media.

The more than 1,000 guests and dignitaries at the ceremony included outgoing speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway.

In the US, President Barack Obama, last year's surprise winner of the coveted award, also called for Liu's release and stressed that he was "far more deserving of this award than I was."

Similar calls were issued by European Union foreign policy Catherine Ashton and former Czech president Vaclav Havel, a signatory of the Charter '77 petition for human rights in the former Communist country.

Jagland reminded guests of previous occasions when laureates were unable to collect the award in person, including 75 years ago when German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky won the award to the fury of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Russia's Andrei Sakharov in 1975, Poland's Lech Walesa in 1983, and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar in 1991 were represented by relatives.

Jagland said the prize to Liu was not a prize against China and underlined that the country's growing power "entails increased responsibility" and it must be prepared to accept "criticism" - just as was the case for the United States in the past.

He referred to criticism voiced against the US over its role in the Vietnam War and the lack of civil and political rights for blacks Americans.

In 1964, the Peace Prize was awarded to US civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King, Jr, for his non-violent campaign for those rights, Jagland observed, adding "we can see the US grew stronger when the African-American people obtained their rights."

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the awards endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite. A separate ceremony was due later Friday in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, for winners in the fields of medicine, chemistry, literature and economics.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357584,speaks-prison-summary.html.

Rights organizations urges UN to attend Liu's Nobel award ceremony

Thu, 09 Dec 2010

New York - International human rights organizations on Thursday asked the top UN human rights defender to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Liu is this year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate and is serving an 11-year prison sentence for campaigning for human rights in China. Chinese authorities barred him and relatives from traveling to Oslo, where the award ceremony will be held on Friday.

Friday is also UN Human Rights Day, which each December 10 is an occasion to renew support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, was invited to Oslo, but declined apparently under pressure from China not to attend. China has called on governments to boycott the ceremony. Neither Pillay nor UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for Liu's release since he was named the Nobel Peace Prize recipient in October.

In Geneva, a total of 24 human rights groups signed a petition urging Pillay to attend the Oslo ceremony.

"We urge the high commissioner to go to Oslo, attend the award ceremony, and convene a press conference that will spotlight the plight of the 1.3 billion Chinese citizens who are systematically denied the basic guarantees of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," said the petition.

The Geneva-based rights group UN Watch said the petitioners include the World Movement for Democracy from the United States, SOS Racisme of France, and activist organizations from India, Venezuela and Liberia.

"The world spotlight in Oslo tomorrow will be exceptional - it's a golden opportunity that the UN should not squander," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

Neuer said Yang Jianli, the exiled Chinese dissident who represents Liu's family, has strongly criticized the UN's absence in Oslo.

The petitioners said, "We fully reject China's attempt to describe this courageous champion of human rights as 'subversive and criminal,' and its denunciation of the award as an 'obscenity'. On the contrary, no award could be more fitting on international Human Rights Day."

Pillay said in remarks for the UN Human Rights Day issued in Geneva: "Every year thousands of human rights defenders are harassed, abused, unjustly jailed and murdered. Often their families are targeted as well."

"That is why, Human Rights Day is dedicated to human rights defenders and their magnificent battle to stop discrimination," she said.

Pillay cited Russian rights advocate Natalia Estemirova, who was kidnapped and murdered in 2009; Rogelio Martinez of Colombia, who was gunned down this year; and Gennadiy Pavluk, a Kyrgyz journalist who fell to his death from a high rise building with hands and legs bound a year ago.

Pillay said one positive development this year was the release from house arrest of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in November by the military government in Myanmar.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357450,lius-nobel-award-ceremony.html.

Rights group slams Philippines for boycott of Nobel Prize ceremony

Thu, 09 Dec 2010

Manila - A New York-based human rights group on Thursday criticized the Philippines for deciding not to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Human Rights Watch said it was "shocked and disappointed" that the Philippines, a staunch advocate of democracy and human rights in Asia, would be skipping the gala Friday in Oslo, Norway.

"The Philippines prides itself on its democratic values, which is why it is shocking to see this government turning its back on Liu Xiaobo's non-violent struggle for free expression in China," said Elaine Pearson, the group's deputy director for Asia.

"By declining the invitation to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, the Philippines is failing to live up to its promises to promote human rights in Asia," she charged.

The Philippines is among 19 countries that have said they would not be sending representatives to the ceremony. Others include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq and Vietnam.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the Philippines would not attend the ceremony but declined to state the reason.

A senior diplomat who requested anonymity said the Philippines decided not to attend the event because it "does not want to further annoy China."

China has expressed dismay over the Philippine government's handling of the investigation into a tour bus hostage-taking that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead in August in Manila.

Beijing and Hong Kong reacted angrily when President Benigno Aquino III rejected recommendations to file criminal charges against close allies for alleged mishandling of the hostage crisis.

Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang denied there was pressure from China on the Philippines not to attend the Nobel ceremony.

"Our ambassador is going to be attending another function, so he won't be able to go to the peace prize awarding," he said. "Attendance is optional, so I don't think that should be a big issue."

Chinese Ambassador to Manila Liu Jianchao said China did not pressure the Philippines but added, "We appreciate the understanding of the Philippine government."

"Every country has the right not to attend the event," Liu said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357311,boycott-nobel-prize-ceremony.html.

China chooses Taiwan politician for rival 'peace prize'

Wed, 08 Dec 2010

Beijing - A group of Chinese scholars on Wednesday said they had chosen veteran Taiwanese politician Lien Chan for the first Confucius Peace Prize, a rapidly organized award that some have touted as a potential rival to the Nobel Peace Prize.

Lien, the honorary chairman of Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, was chosen for the prize because he had "built a bridge of peace between the mainland and Taiwan," the group said.

It said Lien was selected from eight candidates, including Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas; Microsoft founder Bill Gates; former South African President Nelson Mandela; former US President Jimmy Carter; and Yuan Longping, an agricultural scientist known in China as the "father of hybrid rice."

The award of the Confucius Peace Prize would be announced formally in Beijing on Thursday, Tan Changliu, the head of the organizing committee, told the German Press Agency dpa.

An award ceremony for the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for subversion, is scheduled for Friday in Oslo.

China's ruling Communist Party was angered by the award to Liu, who co-organized the Charter '08 for democratic reform.

It has lobbied other nations to boycott Friday's ceremony in Oslo and placed dozens of prominent rights activists under house arrest or close surveillance.

But Tan denied the Confucius award had any links to the government or that it was intended to rival the Nobel prize.

"We are not rivals to anyone. We are just developing peace through peace. We are not willing to counter or criticize," he said.

Tan, 49, is a writer and editor of philosophy books, while at least three of the other members of the Confucius prize committee are professors at Beijing universities.

The committee said it agreed to award the prize to Lien on Sunday after a "very long discussion."

It said the Confucius prize was designed to give China "a greater voice on the issue of world peace."

The idea of creating the prize was apparently first mentioned publicly in an opinion piece in the state-run Global Times newspaper on November 15, five weeks after the announcement of Liu as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

"The Nobel Peace Prize Committee won Liu Xiaobo while losing the trust of 1.3 billion Chinese people," Liu Zhiqin, the chief representative in Beijing for Switzerland's Zurich Bank, said in the commentary.

Setting up a Confucius Peace Prize would be "the best opportunity for the Chinese to declare China's view of peace and human rights to the world," Liu said.

Lien is a former vice-president of Taiwan and former chairman of the KMT, which has ruled Taiwan under President Ma Ying-jeou since May 2008.

The Communist Party sees Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be "reunified" with mainland China, by force if necessary.

Lien is credited with building ties with the Communist Party while the KMT was in opposition.

He has held several high-profile meetings with President Hu Jintao and other Communist Party leaders since a landmark visit to China in 2005.

Taiwan and China have been rivals since the KMT fled to the island at the end of a civil war in 1949, after which the Communist Party founded the People's Republic of China.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/357144,politician-rival-peace-prize.html.