Kofi and team up for human rights award

Date: 11/09/03

UNITED Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and UN staff have been nominated for the European Parliament's Sakharov prize. The prize is awarded each year, in memory of Soviet nuclear scientist-turned-human rights campaigner Andrej Sakharov, to honour work in the field of human rights and the tackling of injustice.

Leader of the European People's Party, Hans-Gert Pöttering, said his group wanted to honour Sergio Vieira de Mello, theUN's envoy to Iraq, who was killed in August in a terrorist attack against UN headquarters in Baghdad.

"The employees of the UN often work in the crisis areas of the world in an exemplary way and, as in Iraq, they risk their lives in the cause of human rights and democracy."

The Socialists' leader, Enrique Barón Crespo, said: "The recent terrorist attack ... reinforces our desire to pay tribute to the staff of this organization who have given their lives in the service of a noble cause."

Previous award winners include former South African president Nelson Mandela, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Kurdish rights fighter Leyla Zana, imprisoned in Turkey.

Annan will be asked to accept the prize on behalf of all UN employees at a ceremony at the European Parliament in December.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and UN staff have been nominated for the European Parliament's Sakharov prize. The prize is awarded each year, in memory of Soviet nuclear scientist-turned-human rights campaigner Andrej Sakharov, to honour work in the field of human rights and the tackling of injustice.