The 20th award ceremony of the Bruno Kreisky Foundation’s Honorary Prize for Services to Human Rights will take place on October 4, 2024.
This year, we are once again delighted to honor remarkable and highly committed award winners.
Here you will find more detailed information about the ceremony and the award winners.
// find the English version here
“We mourn the loss of emer. O. Univ.-Prof.in drin Eva Kreisky
Pioneer of German-speaking feminist political science who died in Vienna on August 14, shortly before her 80th birthday.
Eva Kreisky has dedicated her life to science and carried out groundbreaking work in the field of women's and gender studies and in matters of equality in the workplace, for which she has received recognition both across party lines and far beyond national borders. She has anchored gender as a social and political category in political science and, with her work, has made a significant contribution to progressive women's politics in Austria.
Eva Kreisky was, among other things, the long-time director of the Institute of Political Science at the University of Vienna and conducted research in the fields of parliamentarism and democracy research and anti-Semitism in Austria. She made a significant contribution to making women visible and at the same time demonstrated and documented how the state functions as a male-dominated society. For many students, Eva Kreisky was a role model and leading figure for progressive and militant science.
Eva Kreisky developed the scientific foundations and basis for political decisions. Like no other, Eva Kreisky made it clear that structural, systemic and systematic changes are needed to achieve gender equality and thus safeguard democracy and freedom.
Kreisky was, among other things, the recipient of the Käthe Leichter State Prize for women's studies, gender studies and equality in the world of work. With her work in these areas, she repeatedly made it clear which hurdles women still have to overcome on the way to real equality.
Her extensive research work is our mission to lead the fight for gender equality as a fight for democracy. Our condolences go out to Eva Kreisky's family and friends."
Der Standard, September 13, 2024, p. 7.
The Board of Trustees and the Executive Board of the Bruno Kreisky Foundation for Services to Human Rights mourn the loss of Professor Dr. Eva Kreisky. Here you can find the official obituary of the University of Vienna.
On June 23, 2022, the Bruno Kreisky Foundation for Services to Human Rights awarded the oldest and most renowned human rights prize in Austria, named after former Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, for the 19th time at the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue.
The jury of the Bruno Kreisky Prize for services to human rights, composed of independent experts, awarded the international Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Prize 2022 to the Belarusian opposition politician and activist Maria Kalesnikawa for her commitment to democracy and safeguarding human rights in Belarus .
In addition to Maria Kalesnikawa, the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, the asylum coordination Austria and Martin Hochegger, especially for his work in Tanzania, were also honored. Former Austrian Foreign Minister and Ambassador Dr. In his laudatory speech, Peter Jankowitsch recognized Maria Kalesnikawa's commitment to democracy in Belarus. The Lebanese writer and journalist Elias Khoury gave the eulogy for Al-Haq, Father Wili Maningi, pastor in Moshi (Tanzania) and project partner of Martin Hochegger, emphasized Martin Hochegger's work, and Ms. Mag.a Nina Horaczek, political scientist and chief reporter of the weekly newspaper FALTER pointed out the important work done by the Austrian Asylum Coordinator on all aspects of asylum and flight.
The honorary award of the Bruno Kreisky Foundation for services to human rights has been awarded since 2007 for very special commitment and sustainable services to the implementation, promotion and further development of human rights.
In 2019, the independent jury and board of trustees of the Bruno Kreisky Foundation for services to human rights unanimously decided to award Michael Landau, the President of Caritas in Austria, with the honorary award of the Bruno Kreisky Foundation for services to human rights for his very special commitment to human rights award. The prize was awarded on October 21, 2019 in the Ringturm in Vienna.
Msgr. DDr. Michael Landau, who was ordained to the priesthood in 1992, as head of Caritas Vienna from 1995 and since 2013 as president of Caritas Austria, has worked sustainably and with great commitment always - also publicly acting against the cultural and political zeitgeist - for the unrestricted maintenance and enforcement of human rights in Austria and in the world. In the spirit of the Foundation's statutes, President Landau has not only continued the tradition of his predecessors in Caritas through humanitarian or charitable aid in an extraordinary dimension, but has expanded it further.
Previous award winners were Kofi Annan for his commitment to enforcing human rights as UN Secretary-General, lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck in special recognition of his legal work within the framework of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Manfred Nowak for his lasting life's work as a tireless human rights defender within the framework of the United Nations and in Austria, as a human rights teacher at the University of Vienna and internationally, and as a successful institute founder.
Born in Kumasi, Ghana on April 8, 1938, Annan graduated from Kumasi University of Science and Technology and completed his undergraduate degree in economics at Macalester College in the United States in 1961. From 1961 to 1962 he completed bachelor's degrees in economics at Institut universitaire des hautes études Internationales in Geneva. As a Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1971-1972), Annan received a Master of Science in Management.
Kofi Annan started working for the UN World Health organization in 1962 in Geneva. At the UN-Headquarters in New York he worked in various areas in senior-level positions. Some of these sectors included: human resources management, budget and finance, and peacekeeping.
Kofi Annan was part of many important undertakings of the UN before becoming the UN Secretary General. For example, he initiated a project in which the profits of oil in Baghdad were put towards humanitarian causes. Once he became Secretary General Annan took on even more complicated political situations. He has worked with both Iraq, and Libya to try and get them to cooperate with the UN. Both countries were refusing to conform to Security Council resolutions. Annan was also a crucial actor when violence resumed in the Middle East in 2000. He promoted the Security Councils standards, and tried to get Israelis and Palestinians to come to embrace their differences and achieve peace.
Annan was also committed to solving issues in Africa. He began the Call to Action program in April 2001 to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic within Africa. With his support the program turned into the founding of the Global AIDS and Health Fund. Since its creation the Global AIDS and Health Fund has received approximately $1.5 billion in donations.
During his decade as UN Secretary General he had an unprecedented effect on international human rights. His initiation of the Global Compact program is especially significant. This program encourages the international business community to uphold environmental regulations. He is also responsible for a report, which was the basis for the UNs Millennium Development Goals. Since 2007 he is the president of the World Organisation Against Torture and founded the Kofi Annan Foundation for peace building and sustainable development. He is a member of the Global Elders founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007.
More:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2001/annan-bio.html
Uri Avnery was born on September 10, 1923 to a Jewish family in Beckum, Germany. When he was ten, his family moved to Israel to escape Nazi rule.
Avnery founded Gush Shalom in 1993 because he felt that the other peace groups were not strong enough to effectively oppose Yitzhak Rabin's new government. Gush Shalom means Peace Block. This organization strives for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. She is not affiliated with any political party and her focus is changing public opinion in Israel. Gush Shalom recommends the "Green Line" that existed before 1967, with Jerusalem as the capital of both countries. Gush Shalom has only a few hundred active members but is supported by thousands of people. Not only do they organize many protests against human rights violations in Israel, but also training programs for peace activities. Uri Avnery became known as an author with his book In the Fields of the Philistines. It is a diary from the 1948 war. In the years that followed, he acquired the journal haOlam haZeh and remained its editor-in-chief for forty years. In it, he proves the government's cases of corruption. The government threatened him with the dissolution of the newspaper. As a result, supporters of the magazine founded a political party that even won a seat in the Knesset in 1965. Avnery himself was a member of the Knesset for ten years. He currently writes a weekly online column that Gush Shalom publishes. Here he discusses important political issues.
Vienna (OTS) - The "Ari Rath Prize for Critical Journalism" was set up on the basis of a private initiative, in the spirit of the well-known former editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, who died in January 2017, to honor journalists whose work focuses on a critical and reporting on flight, expulsion and asylum that is committed to protecting human rights in an outstanding manner. The committed and successful publicist Ari Rath was expelled by force on November 2, 1938 as a child at the age of 13 after the National Socialists took power and found a new home in Palestine and later in the State of Israel. He belonged to the generation of well-known politicians Yitzchak Rabin, Teddy Kollek and Shimon Peres and was an advisor to Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister from 1948. In recent years, Ari Rath has lived mostly in Vienna and has acted as a critical admonisher for democratic and peaceful cooperation between the people in Israel and in Austria. As a witness to the National Socialist terror, he repeatedly pleaded for the absolute rejection of racism and xenophobia, which he conveyed as a message in many lectures and discussions with schoolchildren, going beyond anti-Semitism.
A jury of experts chaired by Gertraud Auer Borea d'Olmo, Secretary General of the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue and a close confidante of Ari Rath, unanimously awarded Dr.in Alexandra Föderl-Schmid the first "Ari Rath Prize for critical journalism". “ awarded. She helped shape the daily newspaper “Der Standard” for almost three decades, being the first woman in Austria to be editor-in-chief since 2007 and co-editor since 2012. Since November 1, 2017 she has been working as a correspondent in Israel for the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Since the beginning of her professional journalistic work in 1990 - first in Linz, then in Berlin and in Brussels - Föderl-Schmid has always emphatically campaigned for the defense of human rights in the migration and asylum debate, which has been fiercely politically contested since 1990, and precisely that humanistic ideal that Ari Rath upheld throughout his life. It is no coincidence that she has met him many times over the past few years to seek his advice in the turbulent present. In this sense, there is a close personal connection to the namesake of the award. The fact that she is reporting from Israel today presents the award winner with new challenges that also have to do with the life story of Ari Rath, who is committed to a peaceful and permanent solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The prize, donated by a friend of Ari's, will be presented on May 3, 2018 - on Press Freedom Day - at Radio Kulturhaus in cooperation with ORF III. Federal Chancellor aD Dr. Franz Vranitzky will hold the laudatory speech for the award winner.
Questions & contact:
Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue
Gertraud Auer Borea d'Olmo
Mobile: 0664 831 0060
kreiskyforum@kreisky.org
www.kreisky-forum.org
https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20171102_OTS0006/ari-rath-preis-fuer-kritischen-journalismus
The international jury of the Bruno Kreisky Prize for services to human rights unanimously awarded the Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Prize to the Turkish author Aslı Erdoğan for her outstanding services to safeguarding human rights. The Bruno Kreisky Prize for Human Rights was named after the late Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and is the oldest renowned human rights prize in Austria (http://www.kreisky.org/human.rights/index.htm).
Throughout her life, the woman who Aslı Erdoğan did research as a physicist at CERN in Geneva and who was a “writer in exile” guest at the International House of Authors in Graz from 2012 to 2013, has been actively and unreservedly committed to the implementation of human rights .
In all her publications, the committed human rights activist Erdogan uses the manifestations of suffering and injustice, which she traces again and again, as a benchmark for orientation.
Ms. Aslı Erdoğan is currently being prosecuted in Turkey. She was charged with four separate crimes, including her column and membership of an advisory board in a Kurdish newspaper. She was arrested on charges of destroying the unity and integrity of the state and membership of a terrorist organization. She was released on bail on December 29, 2016, but is banned from traveling abroad. The next trial date is March 14th.
The Bruno Kreisky Human Rights Prize for the writer Aslı Erdoğan is also a sign against massive restrictions on human rights.
