November 26, 2008	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 27, 1429

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25: Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto would be given the prestigious United Nations Human Rights Award posthumously on December 10, the UN Human Rights Day, well-informed sources at the UN have told Dawn.

According to the sources, the President of United Nations General Assembly, Mr Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, is in the process of informing President Asif Ali Zardari who took over the reins of Pakistan People’s Party as its co-chairman after Ms Bhutto’s murder.

The award, which is given to individuals or organisations once every five years for “outstanding achievements in the field of human rights”, was first given out 40 years ago on the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will present the award at a ceremony at the world body headquarters.

Ironically, Begum Rana Liaquat Ali Khan, the wife of Pakistan’s first prime minister who was assassinated in 1951 in Liaquat Bagh (Rawalpindi), was one of the recipients.

The award has usually been given to a group of six winners, although in 1993 it was shared by nine individuals and organisations, and the 1978 one by eight. There have been 47 winners in all.

Some other winners, such as Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter are household names all over the world. Others, such as Egyptian writer Taha Hussein, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, former UN secretary general U. Thant of Myanmar and Anna Sabatova of the Czech Republic (a founding member of ‘Charter 77’) are well known in their home regions or in human rights or humanitarian circles.

Eleanor Roosevelt, who played a key role in creating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and legendary US civil rights leader Martin Luther King were both honoured posthumously, as was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil, who received the award four months after he was killed along with 21 other people in the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad.

Organisations that have won the prize include Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Mano River Women’s Peace Network in West Africa. Established by the General Assembly in 1966, it was first awarded on December 10, 1968.