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Hrant Dink Award to Diyarbakir Bar Association and Malawi activist

2016 edition

Diyarbakir Bar Association, a civil society organization working for human rights and the rule of law in Turkey, and Theresa Kachindamoto, a tribe chief from Malawi struggling to stop child marriages and to ensure children's right to education, won the International Hrant Dink Award 2016, established in memory of the Turkish-Armenian journalist murdered in 2007 and now in its 8th edition. The award is given "to people who work for a world without discrimination, racism and violence, take personal risk for their ideals, speak a language of peace and thus inspire and encourage others. With this award the Hrant Dink Foundation wants to remind to them that they are not alone and that their voices are heard."

In the presentation ceremony in Istanbul, Theresa Kachindamoto told about her efforts to create a fund to support the tuition of daughters from poor families and avoid them an early marriage, which in Malawi in 2012 still involved almost half of the girls under 18 years, according to UN data. After working for 27 years as a secretary at a college in the town of Zomba, Theresa Kachindamoto in 2003 was called back in her native village and elected head of a district with 900,000 inhabitants. A role in which she launched a campaign for children's rights, banned "marriage camps" (where children are abused under the name of sexual education) and convinced 50 tribe chiefs to sign an agreement to prohibit child marriages and to annul 850 marriages. Thanks also to her initiatives, involving women's groups and NGOs, Parliament of Malawi last year passed a law that prohibits marriage before age 18, although customary laws and the constitution allow it with the consensus of parents. Receiving the Hrant Dink award Theresa Kachindamoto said that in Malawi there is still much to be done to guarantee all children the opportunity to complete their studies.

Diyarbakir Bar Association, represented by Ahmet Özmen, was recognized for "its impartiality, its sensitivity to human rights issues, its opposition to all manners of violence no matter who employs it or for what reason, for standing as a role-model in the region, for making constant and determined efforts to ensure effective investigation of human rights violations, its determined fight to prevent cases from being time-barred and to prevent impunity, for being able to use the language of peace at all times and never giving up its ideals for peace despite the heavy prices it had to pay."

The award was also a tribute to Tahir Elçi, the former Chairman of the Association, a Kurdish lawyer and activist for human rights, killed on Nov. 28, 2015 in a gun battle in unclear circumstances. In a video on the history and activities of the Association, Tahir Elci is taken up in many images, even on the day of his death, in the Sur district of Diyarbakir, while talking to reporters to denounce the damages, caused by the fighting between the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK) and the security forces, and to ask for peace in areas inhabited by civilians.

INSPIRATIONS 2016

During the award ceremony it was also shown the video "Inspirations 2016"with the stories of people and organizations in Turkey and other parts of the world who, by their actions, raise hope for the future. Among them, the Association of Bridging People from Izmir who supports refugees; Rana Choir from Israel formed by Arab and Israeli women; Khalil Hasan and Ameena Saeed, a husband and wife from Iraq, who work to save Yazidi women kidnappeded by ISIS; Wang Yan, from China, who spent all his money to turn a slaughterhouse in a shelter and rescue center for abandoned dogs, saving them from death; Academics for Peace from Turkey, the Turkish professors who launched the appeal to end the violence in the eastern provinces.

The jury was composed of Saudi human rights activist Samar Badawi and Turkish LGBT association KAOS GL, winners of 2015 International Hrant Dink Award, director, scenarist and producer Atom Egoyan, philosopher Étienne Balibar, Reporters Without Borders Secretary General Christophe Deloire, philosopher Michel Marian, poet, writer and literature critic Murathan Mungan, feminist author and human rights activist Şirin Tekeli and the President of Hrant Dink Foundation Rakel Dink.

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