Sunday Times 2
UN Human Rights Award for former Maldivian Foreign Minister
View(s):Even as the Maldives is in political turmoil with a state of emergency and allegations of attempted political assassinations, a former Maldivian Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed is keeping his country’s flag flying– internationally.
Last week, the UN Foundation’s Leo Nevas Human Rights Task Force bestowed its 2015 Human Rights Award on Dr Shaheed at a glittering award ceremony in New York attended by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Dr Shaheed, who is working on a global research project at the University of Sussex Human Rights Centre and runs a think tank called Universal Rights Group in Geneva, is the “UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran.”
Last week, he not only addressed the General Assembly’s Third Committee (dealing with human rights issues) but was also grilled by the press corps at a UN news conference — and came out unscathed.
The citation on his award reads: “For a lifetime of achievement effectively advancing human rights in his own country and abroad, through citizen action, governmental support for that action, and through the United Nations. For his personal courage and conviction and his steadfast support for human rights for all.”
Additionally, he was also recognized for his service “as an agent of change in advancing universal human rights, including as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran through which he focused unparalleled world attention on human rights violations committed there and the measures needed to bring them to an end”.