Blind Chinese Dissident Wins Courage Award
| Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese activist, received the 2014 Geneva Summit Courage Award yesterday from an international assembly of human rights groups, where dissidents shared harrowing testimonies of human rights abuses ahead of Monday’s gathering of foreign ministers at the United Nations Human Rights Council.Hundreds of dissidents, activists, diplomats and journalists gathered from around the world yesterday for the 2014 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, the annual civil society forum that works to place urgent situations on the UN agenda.
The summit was organized by the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, supported by a cross-regional coalition of 20 NGO co-sponsors. UN Watch chairman Alfred H. Moses presented the award to Chen, a former political prisoner who escaped house arrest in 2012, « for inspiring the world with his extraordinary courage in the defense of truth, justice and human rights. » Chen, who has been blind since childhood, taught himself law and exposed forced abortions and sterilizations in his native Shandong Province before his imprisonment by local authorities. In a drama covered on front pages worldwide, Chen escaped house arrest in China in May 2012 and sought refuge at the U.S. embassy in Beijing before moving to the United States. « People who live in democracy and freedom don’t realize how important they are to them, but people who are oppressed understand that democracy and freedom are very important, » he said. Dissidents or members of their families from countries including Syria, Iran and Cuba were present at Tuesday’s conference. With the world’s spotlight trained on North Korea following a stinging UN report into the regime’s mass atrocities, prison camp guard turned human rights activist Ahn Myong Chul explained that 90 percent of inmates don’t even know the reason for their incarceration, punished for « crimes of their grandfathers. » |
