FORUM-ASIA congratulates Pakistani human rights lawyer, Muneer A. Malik for the award of the 2008 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights. Muneer received the honorable award at this year's Gwangju International Peace Forum on 18 May 2008 in Gwangju, South Korea.
He was chosen for his work in promoting and protecting human rights, preservation of Pakistan's judicial system, rule of law and democracy by fighting against the military dictatorship in his country.
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Pakistani human rights defender wins 2008 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights
(Bangkok) FORUM-ASIA congratulates Pakistani human rights lawyer, Muneer A. Malik for winning the 2008 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights award. Muneer received the honourable award at the recent Gwangju International Peace Forum on 18 May in Gwangju, South Korea. He was chosen this year because of his work in promoting and protecting human rights, preservation of Pakistan’s judicial system, rule of law and democracy by fighting against the military dictatorship in the country. The Gwanju Prize for Human Rights Committee sees a parallel in the situation in Pakistan now to how Korea was in the early 1980s.
This award is given by the South Korea-based May 18 Memorial Foundation to individuals and groups recognized for their commitment in the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy and freedom. The Gwangju Prize was established in 2000 to commemorate the main tenets of the spirit of the 18 May 1980 uprising when students and citizens of Gwangju protested and sacrificed their lives against a military dictatorship so that peace and respect for human rights may prevail.
In the 1980s, Muneer was the Secretary General for a local lawyers’ association where he took the lead in popular movements that demanded the restoration of democracy and opposing the military dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq. He was later imprisoned in 1981 on charges of engaging in anti-government activities.
From 2006-2007, Muneer was president of Pakistan’ Supreme Court Bar Association, where he led a lawyers movement which protested against President Pervez Musharaff for the undemocratic ousting and house arrest of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary on March 2007.
This move was highly supported by many citizens. Muneer was arrested and then imprisoned at Attack Jail under the custody of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s military intelligence agency. He almost lost his life when he was given drugs, which he was initially told to be painkillers, but turned out to cause him to suffer renal failure.
In his acceptance speech, Muneer underlined the importance of international solidarity when he said that the “concepts of human rights and peace are intertwined and indivisible” and that “what happens in one part of the world is in this global age relevant to what happens in the rest of the world”.
Muneer is also the recipient of the 3rd Asian Human Rights Defender Award in May 2008 and the 2006 Dorab Patel Award from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. FORUM-ASIA views with importance the role of Muneer and other human rights defenders in Asia in the promotion and protection of human rights, democracy and peace.
Previous Awardees of the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights are:
2000: Xanana Gusmao, former President of East Timor
2001: Basil Fernando, Executive Director of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Hong Kong
2002: Korean Association of Bereaved Families for Democracy
2003: Dandeniya Gamage Jayanthi, Monument for the disappeared, Sri Lanka
2004: Aung San Suu Kyi, National League for Democracy (NLD) General Secretary, Burma)
2005: Wardah Hafidz, Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) Secretary General, Indonesia
2006: Malalai Joya, Organisation of Promoting Afghan Women's Capabilities (OPAWC), Afghanistan and Angkhana Neelaphaijit, Thailand
2007: Irom Sharmila, Journalist, India and Lenin Raghuvanish, Peoples' Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), India
