| LUDOVIC TRARIEUX
| HISTORICAL ACCOUNT
| 1985 : THE FIRST PRIZE
| PRIZE 2009
| Le Livre d'Or
| INFORMATION
Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize
Prix International des droits de l'homme Ludovic-Trarieux
Premio Internacional de Derechos Humanos
Ludovic Trarieux
Internationalen
Ludovic-Trarieux-Menschenrechtspreis
Pręmio Internacional de Direitos Humanos Ludovic Trarieux
Premio Internazionale per i Diritti Umani Ludovic Trarieux
Ludovic Trarieux Internationale Mensenrechtenprijs
"The
international tribute from Lawyers to a Lawyer"
The
Ludovic Trarieux Lawyers Award
For 25 years
"The most prestigious Prize awarded to a lawyer in Europe"
Nelson Mandela, first Prize winner in 1985 Version pdf
The "Ludovic-Trarieux Human Right award" is the oldest and most prestigious award given to a lawyer in the world, commemorating the memory of the French lawyer, Ludovic Trarieux (1840-1904), who in the midst of the Dreyfus Affair, in France, in 1898, founded the " League for the Defence of Human Rights and the Citizen " ", which is
at the basis of all leagues set up in the world and on the same model since then. Created in 1984, in Bordeaux by
President Bertrand FAVREAU, the Prize is awarded each year to a lawyer,
regardless of nationality or Bar, who, by his work, will have illustrated his
activity or his suffering, the defence of human rights, of defence rights,
the supremacy of law, the struggle against racism and intolerance in any
form, after consulting humanitarian associations and NGO. Evoking the reasons of his commitment
to the DREYFUS cause, Ludovic TRARIEUX said: " IT WAS NOT ONLY THE SINGLE
CAUSE OF A MAN WHICH WAS TO
BE DEFENDED, BUT BEHIND
THIS CAUSE, LAW, JUSTICE, HUMANITY
". The first " LUDOVIC TRARIEUX
PRIZE " was awarded on March 29th 1985 to Nelson MANDELA, then in jail. On February 11th 1990, Nelson
MANDELA was released. Since then, it has been decided to award the Prize. The Prize awarded each year in partnership by the Human Rights Institute of The Bar of Bordeaux, the Human Rights Institute of the Bar of Paris, the Human Rights Institute of The Bar of Brussels, l'Unione forense per la tutela dei diritti dell'uomo (Roma) and the European Bar Human Rights Institute (IDHAE) whose members are the biggest european law societies fighting for human rights such as Rechtsanwaltskamme Berlin, Ordre français des Avocats du barreau de Bruxelles, barreau de Luxembourg or Polish National Council of the Bar (Warsaw). It is presented every year in a city that is home to one of the member Institutes. The following
is the list of prize-winners :
1984-1985 Nelson MANDELA
(South Africa) 1986 Not awarded 1988 Not awarded 1990 Not awarded 1992 Augusto ZÚŃIGA PAZ (Peru) † 1994 Jadranka CIGELJ (Bosnia-Herzegovina) 1996 divided equally between Nejib HOSNI (Tunisia)
and 1998 ZHOU Guoqiang (China) 2000 Esber YAGMURDERELI (Turkey) 2002 Mehrangiz KAR (Iran) 2003 divided equally between Digna OCHOA # # (exceptionnaly
post mortem) 2004 Aktham NAISSE (Syrie) 2005 Henri BURIN des ROZIERS (Brazil) 2006 Parvez IMROZ (India) 2007 2008 2009 Following the Prize award to Nelson Mandela in
1985 and the decision in 1990, after he has been released, the Prize to be
awarded every 2 years, the next winner in 1992 was the Peruvian lawyer
Augusto ZÚŃIGA PAZ, who has dedicated his life working for the support of the
Human Rights in the COMISEDH (Comision de Derechos Humanos ) and because
of that he had also lost his left arm in an explosion. In 1994 the Prize winner was Jadranka
CIGELJ, a Bosnian Catholic , who due to her activities she was among the
"group" of the intellectuals who were detained, violated and
tortured by the other Party in the civil war in Former-Yugoslavia. After
Nelson MANDELA, in 1985, Najib HOSNI was the second
prize-winner. While in detention. Nejib HOSNI was
released by special presidential pardon by President Ben ALI on December 14th
1996, three months after the ceremony award in Bordeaux where the prize had
been handed over to his representative, Dr Helen JAFFE, President of AVRE. The sixth "LUDOVIC-TRARIEUX INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS
PRIZE" was awarded on March 2th
2000, to the Turkish blind writer, lawyer, and human right activist, Esber Yagmurdereli, jailed
since June 1998, for having expressed his views on the Kurdish issue. The Prize was
given to the Prize winner's son, Mr. Ugur Yagmurdereli , on 29th September2000. Esber
Yagmurderelis' son , Ugur Yagmurdereli received
the prize on behalf of his father and read his father's message and
received the prize.(Click to see speeches.)
On May 23 2002, the jury of " Ludovic Trarieux
International Human Rights Prize " awarded the Prize 2002 to the iranian lawyer Mehrangiz KAR,
a human rights lawyer, writer, essayist, and former editor of the
now-banned Zan literary review whose work as an
activist for women's rights often put her in conflict with Iranian authorities.
The Award was given on October 24
2002, by the First Judge of the French Court of Cassation Mr Guy CANIVET
during a Ceremony in the House of Lawyers in Paris in presence of 200
lawyers from France and main countries of Europe .( On June 13, 2003 the 21
European lawyers members of the Jury of the "LUDOVIC-TRARIEUX
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE 2003" meeting in Brussels Court's
House, awarded the eighth " Ludovic-Trarieux
" 2003 jointly to . Digna Ochoa y Plácido (post mortem) and to Bárbara Zamora Lopez. The Jury called the Mexican authorities to ensure
an effective, independent and thorough investigation into the killing of Digna Ochoa and expressed deep concern for the safety
of Barbara Zamora and urged to give her immediately an appropriate
protection. The Prize was presented on October 3rd , 2003,
in the Main Hall of the National School of the Judiciary of France in
Bordeaux to Jesus Ochoa y plácido, brither of Digna Ochoa and to
Bárbara Zamora by Jean Cruyplants, Chairman of
the Brussels Bar Association.
The 21 European lawyers members of the Jury* of
the "LUDOVIC-TRARIEUX INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE " meeting
in Paris House of Lawyers, on on April 26th
2004 awarded the nineth " Ludovic-Trarieux " Prize to Aktham
Naisse (written also Nu'aysa),
53 year old, a human rights defender and lawyer, chairman of the Committee
for the Defence of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria (CDF),
and Vice President of the Arab Commission for Human Rights, because of his
struggle for human rights in Syria At the risk of his own liberty. Aktham Naisse presented the
Prize in Brussels on October 8th from the hands of Court of Cassation
highest Judge, Premier President Michel Lahousse
in the main hearing room of the Court in the Law Courts' of Brussels
(Belgium). Following an international campaign, the Supreme State Security
Court dropped the charges against Aktham Naisse on April, 26, 2005.
On May 23rd,
2005 the Jury of the "LUDOVIC-TRARIEUX INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS
PRIZE » meeting in Paris Bar House awarded the tenth « Ludovic-Trarieux
» Prize, created in 1984 (first prize winner Nelson Mandela then in jail)
and awarded every year to a lawyer, to Henri Burin des Roziers,
75 years old, a lawyer and a Dominican. Since 1977, he lives and works in
Brazil as a lawyer for the Pastoral Land Commission, the body that
advocates the human rights of the rural workers The Prize was presented on
October 27th 2005, in Paris to Henri Burin des Roziers
.(
The
Jury of the "LUDOVIC-TRARIEUX INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE »
meeting in Brussels Court’s
House, on Friday 2 June 2006 awarded
the eleventh « Ludovic-Trarieux
» Prize to Parvez
Imroz, a human rights lawyer and a civil rights activist in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, who, since the end of the eighties, has initiated
and led campaigns for human rights in a context of grave violations, including
killings, tortures and rapes,
or forced "disappearances"
with impunity . Parvez Imroz is also founder and President of the J&K Coalition of Civil Society
(JKCCS) that works to build local alliances between
Kashmiri civil society groups. The
Award was presented in Bordeaux, in The National School of the Magistracy opf France, by Mr Dean Spielmann,
Judge at the European Human Rights Court,on October 13th, 2006
to Rukhsana, the Wife
of Parvez Imroz, on behalf
of her husband because Indian authorities refused to give a passport to Parvez Imroz himself in spite
of several requests since July 2006. (Photo Jean-René Tancrčde- ADS).(
The 12th “LUDOVIC-TRARIEUX INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE “ for 2007 was awarded on May 11th 2007 to Cuban lawyer René Gómez Manzano , 63 years-old, who created the "Corriente Agramontista de Abogados Cubanos", an independent professional organization of lawyers in Cuba, that seeks to reform Cuba’s judicial system from within by requiring the Cuban government to obey its own laws and will to litigate political cases against the state.
The 13th International Human Rights Prize "Ludovic Trarieux" 2008 ("The award given by lawyers to a lawyer") was awarded by the Jury of 21 european lawyers on May 17th 2008 in Luxemburg, to burmese labour lawyer (Myanmar)
U Aye Myint
Lawyer U Aye Myint and eight other persons arrested on 17 July 2003 by members of the Military Intelligence was sentenced to death for having contacts with political organizations in exile partly on the basis that he had communicated with the ILO. After pressure by International Labour Organisation (ILO), the death sentence was commuted to three years’ imprisonment, for treason. U Aye Myint was released in January 2005.
In 2005, U Aye Myint was re-arrested and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment allegedly for helping farmers report to the authorities and the ILO that local officials had confiscated their land. Because of his conviction, government authorities acted on 13 May 2006 to strip him of his licence to practice law and ensured his dismissal from the Bar Council, in contravention to Council regulations.The ILO made the release of Aye Myint an explicit condition of continued cooperation with Burma, and set a deadline for his release. The award was presented personally to Prize winner in secret in Rangoon in September 2008, by Mr Mario Lana, president of Unione Forense per la Tutela dei diritti umani (UFTDU), and then presented in abstentia on October 22nd, 2008 in the Italian Senate, by Sra Emma Bonino, vice presidente of the Italian Senate.(Photo UFTDU).
( The fourteenth "LUDOVIC-TRARIEUX INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE » 2009 was be presented to Beatrice Mtetwa,
immediate past president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe for for her trailblazing role in defending freedom of peaceful assembly , of association and freedom of speech and the rule of law in Zimbabwe at the Bar Association in Paris, on October 29th 2009 by Mr Gérard LARCHER, President of the Sénat (the upper house of the bicameral French Parliament).
It was officially handed over to his daughter, Zenani
Mandela Dlamini, on April 27th 1985. 
Archives
Dalila MEZIANE (Algeria).
and Bárbara ZAMORA (Mexico).
The fifth Prize was awarded on May 25th 1998, to the Chinese
lawyer ZHOU Guoqiang. After Nelson
MANDELA and Nejib HOSNI, ZHOU Guoqiang
was the third prizewinner not able to come to
France in order to receive his Prize, as stipulated by the rules of the
Prize. Because of the risks to his family and to himself, and notably that of
being forced into exile, like many other Chinese dissidents prevented from
going back to China if he left the territory to come and receive his Prize in
France, ZHOU Guoqiang had no other choice but to
mandate Mr. LIU Qing, Chairman of HUMAN RIGHTS in CHINA, who has been living
in exile in New York since 1991, to go and receive the Prize in his name.
Thus, the reward was given to him by M. Robert BADINTER on Friday 2nd October
1998 in the amphitheater of the National school of
Judiciary (Ecole Nationale
de la Magistrature) in Bordeaux and on that
occasion Mr LIU Qing read the speech written by ZHOU Guoqiang
for the Ceremony award.
Ugur Yagmurdereli reading the speech of his father. Photo
BAP
Ceremony award of the 2002
Prize to Mehrangiz Kar).
More : The Ceremony
Award 2003.
Presentation of
the 2005 Award to Henri Burin des Roziers)
Presentation of the 2006 Award)
Mr. Gomez Manzano petitioned Cuban immigration authorities to grant him the "permission"to attend the award ceremony . but Cuban authorities haven't authorized René Gómez Manzano, to attend the ceremony held in his honor in Brussels, to receive the award. René Gómez Manzano gave mandate to three exiliated Cuban lawyers members of "Corriente Agramontista", Juan ESCANDELL RAMIREZ, Luis FERNANDEZ et Pedro FUENTES CID, in order to receive all together the Award on behalf of him.
Prize was presented on October 19th, 2007 by Mr Armand DE DECKER, President of the Belgian Senate and Mr Robert DE BAERDEMAEKER, bâtonnier de l'Ordre français des avocats au barreau de Bruxelles in the main Hall of the Belgian Senate, in Brussels.
(Prize Winner Ceremony 2007 )
(Prize Winning Ceremony 2008 on Youtube.)
First African Prize Winner since Nelson Mandela jailed in 1985, Beatrice Mtetwa a prominent media lawyer and also one of Zimbabwe's foremost lawyers defending opponents of Robert Mugabe's regime, all at great personal risk.
(The Prize Winning Ceremony 2009)
Beatrice Mtetwa (Zimbabwe) : Ludovic Trarieux Prize 2009
And to learn more :
"The Ludovic Trarieux
Prize on the Web"
