Pakistan: HR activist gets Huston Award-2007 in US

June 21, 2007 – (Daily Times) Pakistani women rights activist and documentary filmmaker Samar Minallah was awarded the Perdita Huston Human Rights Award for 2007 in Washington DC at The Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics. The Institute of International Economics gave her the award on June 6, 2007.

“The nomination has come from the United Nations Association for an advocate of women’s rights in the region,” Minallah told Daily Times by phone on Monday.

Minallah became famous for writing on ‘Swara’, a bad custom being practiced in tribal areas. Through her organisation called “Ethnomedia”, she uses video advocacy to combat Swara, Vanni, Sang Chatti or Irjaai, a custom where young girls and women are given as compensation to end disputes. The Supreme Court of Pakistan heard many cases on the petition filed by Samar Minallah relating to girls who are offered as compensation to end disputes.

Through electronic media, Samar Minallah has been trying to highlight the issues like HIV/AIDS, child labour, peace and security, economic empowerment of women, cultural diversity, cultural heritage, Afghan refugees and culturally sanctioned forms of violence. Her documentaries have been screened nationally and internationally.

The Perdita Huston Human Rights Award was set up by the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area in order to celebrate the life of Perdita Huston and recognise the work of outstanding advocates for human rights in the developing world. The award seeks to encourage visionary men and women working to protect rights for their communities.

Each year the recipient is given cash award and a certificate of recognition. The travel expenses for Samar Minallah’s trip were supported by the CIDA’s Programme for the Advancement of Gender Equality (PAGE).

After receiving the award, Samar was also invited to the United Nations Secretariat in New York, where her videos were shown. Zipporrah Sein from Burma and Bishnu Pariyar from Nepal were also awarded for their work.

The previous award recipients came from South Asia and Africa. The 2003 inaugural award was won by Dr Sima Samar, the chair of Afghan Human Rights Commission and was followed by Fatoumata Tuiore (Mali, Africa), Ranjana Gaur (Saarc), and Dr Sunitha Krishna (India).

From:http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C06%5C19%5Cstory_19-6-2007_pg7_13