MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti) - Four human rights advocates have been selected as 2014 recipients of the prestigious Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.
"The Alison Des Forges Award honors people of extraordinary compassion and courage who work on behalf of some of the world's most vulnerable people," the organization quoted its executive director Kenneth Roth as saying.
"The award winners have spoken out and intervened in the face of opposition, indifference, and at times life-threatening danger," Roth added.
The recipients of award are Shin Dong-hyuk, who experienced brutality and starvation growing up in one of North Korea's forced labor camps and has worked to alert the world to this situation since his escape in 2005; Father Bernard Kinvi, a Catholic priest who saved the lives of hundreds of Muslims targeted during sectarian violence in the Central African Republic; Arwa Othman, a leading advocate working to end child marriage and promote equality for women in Yemen; and Dr. M.R. Rajagopal, a leading palliative care physician from India who, for more than 20 years, has worked on treating conditions that cause patients to suffer severe pain unnecessarily.
All the nominees will be awarded at the HRW annual dinner "Voices for Justice" held in 20 cities worldwide in November and from March to April.
The award is named for Dr. Alison Des Forges, senior HRW adviser for almost two decades. Des Forges was the world's leading expert on Rwanda, the 1994 genocide, and its aftermath.
