Prague, March 6 (CTK) – The Russian non-governmental Committee for the Prevention of Torture received the annual prize Homo Homini for human rights activists at the opening of the 19th annual One World festival of human rights documentaries in Prague yesterday.
The festival wants to highlight the art of cooperation to the audience. It will last until March 15.
“The people from the committee document the cases of torture, actively helping their victims although they risk their own lives,” Simon Panek, director of the People in Need NGO, said.
“At the time when the space for the work of civic societies and NGOs is being constantly constrained in the post-Soviet region and Russia in particular, we considered it logical to appreciate the collective efforts and to give the prize to this organisation,” Panek said.
People in Need awarded the Homo Homini Prize in 1994 for the first time.
In the past, the prize went to the personalities such as Azeri lawyer Intigam Iliyev, Kyrgyz defender of unjustly prosecuted people Azimzhan Askarov, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who later won the Nobel Peace Prize, Cuban Catholic priest Oswaldo Paya Sardinas and Syrian teacher Suad Naufal, who openly criticised both the Bashar Assad regime and Islamic State.
Last year, the group awarded 11 Cuban dissidents.
“The decoration with Homo Homini gives us the hope that the international community is really interested in the human rights question in Russia,” Igor Kalyapin, the founder and current head of the committee, said.
“As a result, it greatly supports the people who have become victims of torture,” Kalyapin said.
Thanks to the efforts of the committee, 793 illegal decisions have been revoked, 127 sentenced persons were released from prison and it had 51 million roubles adjudged in compensation to the victims.
This year, the Art of Cooperation is the main topic of the festival.
Festival director Hana Kulhankova said in this way, the festival wanted to react to the division of society, populism and fomented fear of the unknown.
The organisers divided the 121 competing films into 15 categories.
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