UNESCO prize for Desmond Tutu
FRANCE: Archbishop Desmond Tutu was Monday awarded the UNESCO/Bilbao
human rights prize for "his exceptional contribution to building a
universal culture of human rights at the national, regional and
international levels." The jury highlighted the role he played in
building the new non-racial South Africa and his contribution as head of
the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to national reconstruction which
became a model for other post-conflict societies, UNESCO said in a
statement.
Tutu's daughter was in the UN cultural organisation's Paris
headquarters to receive the award on behalf of her father. The biennial
UNESCO/Bilbao Prize was established in 2008 after an endowment from the
city of Bilbao in Spain. It includes a $30,000 cheque, a diploma and a
bronze trophy.
Tutu and two other Nobel Peace laureates last month wrote to the
Nobel foundation in protest at the decision to award the 2012 prize to
the European Union. The "EU is clearly not 'the champion of peace' that
Alfred Nobel had in mind when he wrote his will," they said in an open
letter.
AFP
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