(NAIROBI/NEW YORK) – Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai has been chosen to receive the United Nations Foundation’s 2016 Leo Nevas Human Rights Award, and will travel to New York to accept the prize at the Foundation’s Global Leadership Dinner on Oct. 19. Fellow honorees at the event will include United States President Barack Obama – who will receive the foundation’s Champion for Global Change Award – and Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director of the World Food Programme. The Leadership Dinner is co-sponsored by the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA). The award honors Kiai’s work advancing civil liberties worldwide as UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. Kiai has served in the position since May 1, 2011. “I am honored and humbled to receive the 2016 Leo Nevas award for my work as Special Rapporteur,” Kiai said. “But in truth, this award recognizes something far beyond me personally: it is a validation of our collective global fight to restore civil society to its rightful place at the center of democracy and development. And it is an opportunity to spotlight this fight, because it is far from over. Peaceful protests continue to be put brutally down; members of civil society continue to be harassed,... Continue reading →
