PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release: Wednesday 2 September 2015
UN High Commissioner Prince Zeid announced as
2015 Stockholm Human Rights Award recipient
Today, Prince Zeid Raʿad Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan is announced as the recipient of the 2015
Stockholm Human Rights Award in recognition of his work in the pursuit of advancing
international justice and for strengthening respect for human rights. Prince Zeid, the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, will receive the Award – conferred annually by
the Swedish Bar Association, the International Bar Association and the International Legal
Assistance Consortium – at a ceremony on 24 November in Stockholm, Sweden.
Unanimously elected to the position of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid
has a robust track record on accountability for grave crimes; fighting against sexual and
gender-based violence; condemning and leading investigations into abuses allegedly
committed by UN peacekeeping personnel including rape, the trafficking of human beings
and illicit narcotics, and insisting on a zero-tolerance policy for such offences. He is an avid
advocate in the fight against impunity, and was a key figure in the establishment of the
International Criminal Court. His career also includes work for the UN in the former
Yugoslavia, following which he helped ensure the creation of a report documenting the
causes of the genocide in Srebrenica.
Prince Zeid served as Jordan’s Deputy Permanent Representative, and then Permanent
Representative, at the UN from 1996 to 2007. Then for three years he was Jordan’s
Ambassador to the United States of America, before returning to the UN in 2010 as Jordan’s
Permanent Representative. He has a reputation of working to unveil widespread human
rights violations and steering countries away from victor’s justice.
As the first UN High Commissioner from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region,
many MENA Coalition members agree that his appointment signalled the international
community’s commitment to the defence of human rights in the Arab world. With tensions
escalating in many parts of the MENA region, the challenges he has faced, and continues to
face, in addressing injustice and human rights violations are significant.
Prince Zeid has spoken extensively of the need for greater moral courage to ensure equality
and human rights for all, and has stated, as reported by Haaretz, that: ‘the solution for
avoiding atrocities such as the Holocaust was human rights education for every child in the
world, beginning before the age of nine. He said, “In this way, from Catholic parochial schools
to the most secular public institutions, and indeed Islamic madrassahs, children could learn –
even in kindergarten – and experience the fundamental human rights values of equality,
justice and respect.”’
The 2015 Stockholm Human Rights Award will be presented to Prince Zeid on Tuesday
24 November 2015 at Berwaldhallen, Dag Hammarskjölds väg 3, Stockholm, Sweden.
The Stockholm Human Rights Award was established in 2009 by the Swedish Bar Association,
the International Bar Association (IBA) and the International Legal Assistance Consortium
(ILAC). It is awarded annually to a person or an organisation for outstanding services in the
support of human rights and the rule of law.
Past recipients of the Award:
 2014 B'Tselem
 2013 Professor Cherif Bassiouni
 2012 Thomas Hammarberg and European Roma Rights Centre
 2011 George Soros and Aryeh Neier
 2010 Navi Pillay
 2009 Richard Goldstone
For further information on the Stockholm Human Rights Award, please contact
Anne Ramberg, Secretary General, the Swedish Bar Association
Telephone +46 70 548 12 44
E-mail: anne.ramberg@advokatsamfundet.se
www.stockholmhumanrightsaward.org
Arabic:
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