Aung San Suu Kyi among the laureates to have received the award
Srinagar: Parveena Ahangar, founder and chairperson of Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), and Parvez Imroz, noted human rights lawyer and JKCCS founder and president, have been awarded this year’s Rafto Prize by the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights.
Based in Bergen, Norway and run by a small team of professionals and volunteers, Rafto Foundation was established in 1986 in memory of Thorolf Rafto, a professor of economic history at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) and a human rights activist.
The award has been awarded to the two noted Kashmiri human rights activists for “decades of campaigning for human rights” in Kashmir.
The award statement by Rafto Foundation on its website reads: “Parveena Ahangar and Imroz Parvez have long been at the forefront of the struggle against arbitrary abuses of power in a region of India that has borne the brunt of escalating violence, militarisation and international tension.”
Myanmar’s current State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi, has also received the Rafto Prize for Human Rights in 1990.
The criterias established by Rafto Foundation for selection of the chosen laureate include –
A candidate should be active in the struggle for the ideals and principles underlying the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
A candidate’s struggle for human rights should represent a non-violent perspective.
A candidate may be a person or an organisation, and two or more candidates may share the prize.
