Former President and opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed will join a line of distinguished dissidents, as the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy sets him up to receive this year’s courage award.
The annual NGO-backed summit – partners include the UN Watch, Freedom House, and 18 other organizations - will present the award on February 21st, on its 9th sitting. The summit aims to raise global awareness about human rights issues from all over the world.
In February 2015, Nasheed was convicted on contentious terrorism charges to 13 years in prison, a verdict condemned by the international community, including the European Union and the United States. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) had, in October 2015, ruled that Nasheed's arrest and sentencing was arbitrary, and called on authoritites to immediately release the former President.
In 2016, the British government had granted Nasheed asylum after he was released from jail on the grounds of ill-health, where he has lobbied strongly against President Abdulla Yameen’s ‘attempts to slide the nation into authoritarianism’.
The Geneva-based UN Watch, which holds itself to monitor the United Nations’ performance, primarily its human rights council, where it acts as a consultant, had last year called for Nasheed’s release citing that the trials were heavily politicized, and condemned the Yameen administration’s prosecution of his opposition.
Earlier this week, Nasheed – often dubbed the ‘Mandela of Maldives’, had ended an eventful visit to Colombo where he met with foreign missions and called on heads of the Sri Lankan government.
He had held a press conference there, and told journalists that he was confident in the international community’s intention to aid Maldives in holding free and fair elections. Nasheed will leave to Switzerland on the 19th of February.
Documentary-makers, journalists, human rights activists, and political prisoners are to speak at this year’s summit; including Zhanna Nemstova, daughter of the assassinated Russian stateman and liberal politician who strongly criticized the Putin administration.
In 2014, the award was given to Chinese civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng, often called the ‘barefoot lawyer’, who was imprisoned for a lawsuit against authorities, and in 2015 to Raif Badawi.
Admission to the summit for the media and the public is free.
