Speaking Notes
Hans Thoolen, Martin Ennals Award
for Jacqueline Moudeina

Press Release in English
Exerpts from Jacqueline's speech
Speaking Notes of Hans Thoolen
Short Report on the 2002 MEA ceremony and follow up
Communiqué de Presse en Français
Discours de Jacqueline Moudeina
Paroles de Cheikh Lô
Emissions sur TV5 à propos de Jacqueline Moudeina
Comunicado de Prensa en Español

Friends,

This is the 9th ceremony of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders and the third consecutive one here in Geneva in cooperation with the North-South Media Festival and Jean-Philippe Rapp. This longevity is in itself a clear sign of sustainability. The impressive list of previous award winners (see our new posters and the video wall in this studio) is further evidence that the very idea of an award specifically for human rights defenders makes sense.

The Jury of the MEA is composed of the following 10 international human rights organizations (I know any list is boring but this one reads like the 'Who Is Who' of the human rights movement): Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Federation for Human Rights, Defence for Children Int'l, Human Rights Desk of German Diakonia, International Alert, International Commission of Jurists, International Service for Human Rights, the World Organisation Against Torture, and, of course, HURIDOCS, which provides a home to the MEA.

Martin Ennals was instrumental to the modern human rights movement and helped to found many of the organisations mentioned above. His deep desire was to see more cooperation and solidarity among NGOs. Their cooperation in this award I see very much as a posthumous response to his wish.

According to gender politics, the winner of the MEA should have been a man this year, but it is again a woman: Jacqueline Moudeina, one of the few women lawyers in Chad. She works for a local NGO, the Association Tchadienne pour la Promotion et la Défense des Droits de l'Homme, where she is daily engaged in providing free legal advice and human rights awareness training. And I am very glad to see other human rights NGOs from Chad present here, because the MEA wants to extend its recognition to all human rights activists in Chad.

Jacqueline is also the lawyer for the victims of the former dictator of Chad, Hissène Habré. She took enormous risks by filing complaints in Chad against a number of Habré's accomplices many of whom are still in positions of power. She also is one of the lawyers in the case against Habré himself in Senegal, where he now lives in exile.

Exactly 10 months ago, on 11 June 2001, Jacqueline took part in a peaceful sit-in to protest against the fraudulent elections. A security squad, led by one of the men she is suing, threw a grenade at her. Jacqueline Moudeina almost lost a leg, not to mention her life, and had to go to Paris for treatment. Still, she plans to return soon to continue her work against impunity and her quest for justice. My predecessor, as chairman of the MEA, Adama Dieng is now the Registrar of the Arusha Tribunal. He will be thrilled to see the MEA go to the quest for international justice.

As Chairman of the small Martin Ennals Foundation, I would also like to express some public thanks. To Geneva-based team of Laura Faehndrich, Nadja Houben, Adrian Kosmaczewski and Nejib and Nadia Ghali. The Festival staff and this year's donors: the Dutch section of Amnesty International, the Oltramare Foundation, Elisabeth Ahmadi, the German Ambassador in to the UN in Geneva, and the Barbara Hendricks Foundation, specifically also to mark today's creation of the International Criminal Court. (I would also like to thank already the Canton de Geneve, which has not yet decided on our application for funding!)

Every year the MEA seems to get better known and gets more publicity. In the case of Jacqueline even the state-controlled media in Chad could not refrain from talking about her receiving the award, thus taking a bizarre pride in seeing the thorn in their flesh getting honoured. That is the kind of publicity that brings protection to HRDs and that is what the MEA is ultimately all about.

Thank you for coming tonight.

The short documentary you are now going to see was made by Robert Brouwer and Willem Offenberg for the Martin Ennals Foundation. It demonstrates better than any words in a Jury report, the reasons why Jacqueline Moudeina deserves the MEA of the year 2002.