AHRC - Basil Fernando of AHRC awarded 2001 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights

AHRC takes the great pleasure to announce that its executive director, Basil Fernando has been awarded with 2^nd Gwangju Human Rights Award. The first Gwangju Prize for Human Rightswas given to East Timor independence leader Xanana Gusmao in the year 2000. The award ceremony will take place on the 18 of May, 2001 in the Gwangju city in the Republic of Korea.

AHRC believe this well deserved award for Mr. Basil Fernando is a sign of recognition of his long-standing and intensive work and deep commitment for human rights in the Asian region.

Asked of the selection of him for the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights 2001, Mr. Fernando said, "I feel both honored and humbled by this decision. I accept this award on behalf of myself and my colleagues and associates of the Asian Human Rights Commission and Asian Legal Resource Centre with whom by my work is intertwined." He also said, "I hope the occasion of this award will provide us with a further opportunity to rededicate ourselves for a future in which all of us, men, women, children can live with dignity and without humiliation."

Asked of his vision for human rights movement Mr. Fernando said, "There should be an intense dialogue between the people of goodwill in the South and the North on all issues affecting human rights. The powerful governments and the multinational companies left to them will continue with extremely destructive policies to the society and environment. Only strong movements of people will be able to obstruct such a course and to ensure sustainable and harmonious development."

Mr. Fernando also believes that the human rights have to become a people’s movement. He said, "For long time human rights movement have been small groups often from the more educated classes. However, it is time for the ordinary people to participate in these movements and the human rights to become a topic that is discussed in everyday life. This is even more necessary as in almost all parts of Asia there is a rapid breakdown of law an order and increase of intense violence. The people themselves have to take initiative in reforms such as police reforms, judicial reforms and reforms of the justice systems. Further, the human rights of the most neglected groups should be given prominence, for example, the issue of Dalits in India who have been at the bottom of the society for thousands of years. There are such groups in all parts of Asia. Unless people themselves take initiative to develop and expand the human rights movement, the elite groups will engage in displacing democracy because the elite in Asia finds the expansion of social equality as a threat to them."

Attached are the press release issued by the May 18 Memorial Foundation of Gwangju in Republic of Korea on the 10 April 2001 with regards to the selection of Basil Fernando for Gwangju Prize for Human Rights and a brief background of Basil Fernando.

Press Release by the May 18 Memorial Foundation

The Selection of the Second Winner of the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights

The spirit of the May 18 Gwangju uprising has become a light of hope to Asia’s people who are struggling against an anti-democratic and inhuman order today. To overcome this oppressive order, an indomitable courage to stand against brutal violence is required. In addition, one must have a devotion to examine the truth and to push for the punishment of those responsible for the violence that is perpetrated against other human beings and to endeavor to promote political and socio-economic democracy. This then is what is necessary to overcome the massacre of Asia’s people and to develop democracy, a feat which often seems impossible in Asia.

The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights that is given to a person or organization that reflects the spirit of the Gwangju uprising was first awarded last year to Xanana Gusmao, chairman of the CNRT (National Council of Timorese Resistance) in East Timor. This year’s recipient of the second Gwangju Prize for Human Rights is Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission (ARHC) in Hong Kong.

First of all, we would like to say that all of candidates and organizations that were recommended by local or international human rights activists or organizations have made many contributions to the human rights movement in Asia. Those who have promoted peace and the reunification of Korea are equally qualified to be the winner of this year’s award as well.

In granting the award, the original purpose of the prize must always be kept in mind: to recognize a person or organization that best promotes and protects human rights in the Asian region, a part of the world that shares with us in Korea a similar historical experience. It is for this reason that Basil Fernando has been chosen this year as he is one of the most prominent and passionate human rights activists in the region. He has tirelessly sought to promote the human rights of Asia’s people, especially those who have been the most neglected and oppressed.

Mr. Fernando also has a strong belief that the Gwangju uprising on May 18, 1980, is a positive symbol of the commitment and courage of the human rights movement in Asia and of what it can achieve. Because of this conviction, he has organized many seminars, workshops and international events in order to spread the spirit of the Gwangju uprising to others in Asia. He has thus significantly contributed to enhancing the international image of Gwangju through these activities that he has promoted and organized.

Reflecting the desire to spread the spirit of Gwangju on May 18, 1980, throughout the world, we cannot but feel a deep sense of thanks and friendship for his endeavor to recognize Gwangju as "the city of human rights and peace" to all of Asia’s people beyond the Korean Peninsula through organizing the Asian Conference to Declare the Asian Human Rights Charter that was held in Gwangju from May 13 to 20, 1998, at which more than 30 Asian human rights leaders attended.

As a prominent human rights activist, he has criticized the bureaucratic system of existing international human rights organizations, including the U.N. Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR). He has sought to overcome the problems associated with these large bureaucratic organizations by trying to establish a human rights organization which is rooted in the people and that places the people themselves at the center of the human rights movement.

We believe that his selection as the recipient of the second Gwangju Prize for Human Rights will give courage and hope to all of those who are actively struggling for human rights, peace and democracy in Asia.

***

A Brief Background of Basil Fernando

Born on 14 October 1944 in, Hendala, Sri Lanka, Basil Fernando has been active in human rights and social action issues continuously from his youth years. Mr. Fernando graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Ceylon, Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1972 and then taught English to second language students at the University of Sri Jayawardanapura, Sri Lanka, for eight years. He practiced law from 1980 to 1989 at the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka with an emphasis in Criminal Law, Employment Law and Human Rights Law. He was an Appeals Counsel for Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong, for a project sponsored by the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from 1989 to 1992. From 1992 to 1993, he was a Senior United Nations Human Rights Officer-In Charge of the Investigation Unit in Cambodia under

the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). He was the Officer In Charge and the Chief of the Legal Assistance at the Cambodia Office of United Nations Center for Human Rights from 1993 to 1994.

He has been the Executive Director of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) from 1994 up to the present. He is the author of several books on Human Rights related issues and legal reform issues and he is an editor of Human Rights SOLIDARITY, the monthly magazine of AHRC. Mr. Fernando has conducted numerous workshops and consultations on reconciliation issues as well as on diverse aspects of human rights and legal reform.

He initiated the Judicial Assistance Program for Cambodia and the Religion and Human Rights Programme of the Asian Human Rights Commission. Mr. Fernando is also the author of several books social issues, legal reforms, poems and short stories. His latest publication, Kalyana Mittata: Beautiful Friendship (published in February 2001) is a collection of largest number of poems in English language by a Sri Lankan.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) was founded in 1986 by a prominent group of jurists and human rights activists in Asia. The AHRC is an independent, non-governmental body, which seeks to promote greater awareness and realisation of human rights in the Asian region, and to mobilise Asian and international public opinion to obtain relief and redress for the victims of human rights violations. AHRC promotes civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights. Its sister organization, Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) is an organization with General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Commission of the United Nations. AHRC and ALRC has its offices in Hong Kong. For more information on AHRC and its activities, please visit its web site at: www.ahrchk.net and for ALRC at: www.alrc.net .

Asian Human Rights Commission
Asian Legal Resource Centre
Unit 4, 7 Floor, Mongkok Commercial Centre
16 Argyle Street, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
Tel: +(852)-2698-6339
Fax: +(852)-2698-6367
E-mail: ahrchk@ahrchk.org
E-mail of Basil Fernando: basilfwp@ahrchk.org

Asian Human Rights Commission
Email: ahrchk@ahrchk.org
Last updated May 24, 2001 11:40 AM.
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