Cathy Fitzpatrick speaks with Sadako Ogata and Mary Robinson

Each year, the International League for Human Rights presents its Human Rights Award to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to international human rights and justice. This year's award honors Dr. Sadako Ogata, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Dr. Ogata is widely recognized for her extraordinary efforts in protecting the rights of refugees and displaced persons, particularly those caught in the crossfire of armed conflict, and for galvanizing governments to raise their financial donations for refugee care. The League award also acknowledges Dr. Ogata's efforts to make human rights a critical component of the work of UNHCR, a significant development in the UN's emerging role as a human rights defender. Recipients of previous Human Rights Awards include Nelson Mandela, Kim Dae-jung, Elie Wiesel, Andrei Sakharov, Mario Soares, Roger Baldwin, George Mitchell, and Mary Robinson.

The Human Rights Award: Dr. Sadako Ogata

Dr. Sadako Ogata retired December 2000 after serving 10 years as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. During her distinguished career, Dr. Ogata-one of the first women to head a UN operational division-has worked to address the root causes of refugee situations, including human rights violations. Dr. Ogata has a longstanding commitment to human rights issues: from 1982 to 1985 she was Japan's representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights, and in 1990 she served as the Independent Expert to the UN in examining the human rights situation in Myanmar (Burma). Her career at the UN also includes two years as Minister to the Permanent Mission of Japan and two years as the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.
From the beginning, she has placed a strong and unique emphasis on the human rights problems that arise from the mass exodus of people from their homes. She has also recognized that internally displaced people, as well as those who become refugees when they cross borders, need to have their rights defended and protected. Dr. Ogata has seen to it that UNHCR is active in providing aid and assistance to such persons caught up in the aftermath of war and turmoil.

The Defenders Award: Femi Falana

Femi Falana, lawyer and Secretary General of the African Bar Association, is one of Nigeria's leading human rights attorneys. He has been detained by successive military regimes on numerous occasions because of his non-violent work in defense of human rights and his pro-democracy activities, and has been charged with treason on two separate occasions. Mr. Falana has been involved in a series of legal challenges against Nigerian governments dating back to 1985. He was one of the principal defense attorneys during the military trial that resulted in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni nationals in November 1995. Mr. Falana was a founding President of Nigeria's National Association of Democratic Lawyers and a founding member of the Campaign for Democracy, organizations that were prominent in the struggle for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria. Mr. Falana is currently president of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, one of Nigeria's leading human rights organizations.

Speaker: Francis M. Deng

Francis M. Deng, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, serves as the United Nations Secretary General's Special Representative on Internally Displaced Persons, a mandate that has been extended every three years by the Commission on Human Rights. He is a Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and an expert on Africa. Mr. Deng studies African law and the problems of nation-building, regional security, the cultural dimension of development, and U.S.-African relations. He is also an expert in conflict resolution, human rights, and foreign affairs.
Mr. Deng was a member of the Sudanese foreign service from 1967 to 1983. He served as Minister of State for foreign affairs, 1976-80; his country's Ambassador to Canada, 1980-83, the United States, 1974-76, and Scandinavian Countries, 1972-74; and a Human Rights Officer in the United Nations Secretariat, 1967-71. He has had a distinguished academic career including fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the United States Institute of Peace. He was also a lecturer at Yale Law School where he gave a seminar on Law and the Challenge of Nation Building. Mr. Deng has been published extensively in the fields of law, anthropology, history, politics and folklore. Recent books include Masses in Flight: The Global Challenge of Internal Displacement with Roberta Cohen, and The Forsaken People: Case Studies of the Internally Displaced.

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