Franz Werfel Human Rights Award
Encyclopedia
The Franz Werfel Human Rights Award (German: Franz-Werfel-Menschenrechtspreis) is an international human rights
award in Europe
. It is awarded to individuals or groups who, through political, artistic, philosophical or practical work, have opposed breaches of human rights by genocide
, ethnic cleansing
and the deliberate destruction of national, ethnic, racial or religious groups.
of 1907, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
of 1948, the International Agreement on Civilian and Political Rights of 1966, the resolution of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
of 1998 as well as the consequences of the meeting of the European Council of the Heads of State and Governments in Copenhagen of 1993 and other statements issued by the European Union.
The award is named after the famous Austrian author Franz Werfel
(1890–1945), whose novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
famously portrayed the displacement of the Armenians
from Turkey
and the genocide
of the Armenians in 1915/16.
The award includes €
10,000 of prize money, and is awarded in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt every second year. It was first awarded in 2003.
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
award in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. It is awarded to individuals or groups who, through political, artistic, philosophical or practical work, have opposed breaches of human rights by genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
, ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic orreligious group from certain geographic areas....
and the deliberate destruction of national, ethnic, racial or religious groups.
The foundations
The foundations of the prize are considered to be the Fourth Hague ConventionHague Conventions (1899 and 1907)
The Hague Conventions were two international treaties negotiated at international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands: The First Hague Conference in 1899 and the Second Hague Conference in 1907...
of 1907, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
of 1948, the International Agreement on Civilian and Political Rights of 1966, the resolution of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...
of 1998 as well as the consequences of the meeting of the European Council of the Heads of State and Governments in Copenhagen of 1993 and other statements issued by the European Union.
The award is named after the famous Austrian author Franz Werfel
Franz Werfel
Franz Werfel was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet.- Biography :Born in Prague , Werfel was the first of three children of a wealthy manufacturer of gloves and leather goods. His mother, Albine Kussi, was the daughter of a mill owner...
(1890–1945), whose novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh is a 1933 novel by Austrian-Jewish author Franz Werfel based on the defense of a small community of Armenians living in the Musa Dagh of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 during the height of the Armenian Genocide. The book was originally published as Die Vierzig Tage des Musa...
famously portrayed the displacement of the Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
from Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and the genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
of the Armenians in 1915/16.
The award includes €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
10,000 of prize money, and is awarded in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt every second year. It was first awarded in 2003.
Jury
- Archduke Dr. Otto von HabsburgOtto von HabsburgOtto von Habsburg , also known by his royal name as Archduke Otto of Austria, was the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 until the dissolution of the empire in 1918, a realm which comprised modern-day Austria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,...
(CSUChristian Social Union of BavariaThe Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany...
), former member of the European Parliament, Chairman of the International Paneuropean UnionInternational Paneuropean UnionThe International Paneuropean Union claims to be the oldest European unification movement and is also referred to as the Paneuropean Movement and the Pan-Europa Movement...
, former Crown Prince of Austria–Hungary - Klaus HänschKlaus HänschKlaus Hänsch is a German Politician. He is a Member of the European Parliament representing the SPD, and sits with the Party of European Socialists group....
(SPD), former President of the European ParliamentPresident of the European ParliamentThe President of the European Parliament presides over the debates and activities of the European Parliament. He or she also represents the Parliament within the EU and internationally. The President's signature is required for enacting most EU laws and the EU budget.Presidents serve... - Helga Hirsch, a journalist, former Poland correspondent of Die ZeitDie ZeitDie Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
and Die WeltDie WeltDie Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times... - Milan HoráčekMilan HorácekMilan Horáček , is a Czech-born German politician, a founding member of the German Green Party, a former member of the Bundestag and a former Member of the European Parliament .From 1965 to 1967 his political activism got him into trouble with the Czechoslovak communist regime, and he was arrested...
, a founding member of the German Green Party, former MEPMember of the European ParliamentA Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,... - Hilmar KopperHilmar KopperHilmar Kopper is a German banker and former Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Bank .Kopper was born in Osłonino to a Mennonite family, he was expelled after World War II He was employed as a trainee in Deutsche Bank in 1954 and spent his whole career there...
, former Chairman of Deutsche BankDeutsche BankDeutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets... - Rüdiger SafranskiRüdiger SafranskiRüdiger Safranski is a German philosopher and author.- Life :...
, philosopher and author - Erika SteinbachErika Steinbach' is a German conservative politician and president of the Federation of Expellees. She has been representing the Christian Democratic Union and the state of Hesse as a member of the Parliament of Germany, the Bundestag, since 1990...
(CDUChristian Democratic Union (Germany)The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is regarded as on the centre-right of the German political spectrum...
), a member of the German Parliament and chairwoman of the Federation of ExpelleesFederation of ExpelleesThe Federation of Expellees or Bund der Vertriebenen is a non-profit organization formed to represent the interests of Germans who either fled their homes in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, or were expelled following World War II....
Former jury members
- Peter GlotzPeter GlotzPeter Glotz was a German social democratic politician and social scientist.Glotz was born in Eger, Sudetenland , to a German father and a Czech mother. His father, an insurance-clerk and member of the Nazi party, worked for an "aryanized" Jewish factory in Prague...
(SPDSocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
), a professor, former senator, MP and Secretary General of the SPD (2003-2005, deceased) - Daniel Cohn-BenditDaniel Cohn-BenditDaniel Marc Cohn-Bendit is a Franco-German politician, active in both countries. He was a student leader during the unrest of May 1968 in France and he was also known during that time as Dany le Rouge...
(GreensAlliance '90/The GreensAlliance '90/The Greens is a green political party in Germany, formed from the merger of the German Green Party and Alliance 90 in 1993. Its leaders are Claudia Roth and Cem Özdemir...
), chairman of the Green faction in the European Parliament - György KonrádGyörgy KonrádGyörgy Konrád is a Hungarian novelist and essayist, known as an advocate of individual freedom. He was a dissident under the communist regime.- Life :...
, a writer and former President of the Akademie der KünsteAkademie der KünsteThe Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
in BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
(2003-2007) - Ralph GiordanoRalph Giordano (writer)Ralph Giordano is a German writer and publicist.Giordano was born to a Sicilian father and a Jewish mother....
, a writer - Lennart MeriLennart MeriLennart Georg Meri was a writer, film director and statesman who served as the second President of Estonia from 1992 to 2001. Meri was a leader of the Estonian independence movement.-Early life:...
, a writer and former President of EstoniaPresident of EstoniaThe President of the Republic is the head of state of the Republic of Estonia.Estonia is a parliamentary republic, therefore President is mainly a symbolic figure and holds no executive power. The President has to suspend his membership in any political party for his term in office...
(2003-2006, deceased) - Otto Graf LambsdorffOtto Graf LambsdorffOtto Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von der Wenge Graf Lambsdorff, known as Otto Graf Lambsdorff, was a German politician of the Free Democratic Party.- Biography :...
, former chairman of the Liberal Party and member of the German federal cabinet (2003-2009, deceased)
Laureates
2003
- Dr. Mihran Dabag (Germany), "for his scientific work in the field of genocide research, on the history of the persecution of Armenians and its current implications"
- The initiators of the "Cross of Reconciliation" (Kříž smíření in CzechCzech languageCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
) in Teplice nad MetujíTeplice nad MetujíTeplice nad Metují is a small town in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has around 1,800 inhabitants.Villages and hamlets Bohdašín, Dědov, Dolní Teplice, Horní Teplice, Javor, Lachov, Skály and Zdoňov are administrative parts of Teplice nad Metují.-External links:*...
, the Czech RepublicCzech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
(Wekelsdorf), for "inaugurating the cross for the Sudeten GermansSudeten Germans- Importance of Sudeten Germans :Czechoslovakia was inhabited by over 3 million ethnic Germans, comprising about 23 percent of the population of the republic and about 29.5% of Bohemia and Moravia....
murdered on the Buková hora (Buchenberg) in 1945 and for all the victims of national conflicts from this region and for making a courageous gesture of dialogue between Germans and Czechs".- Věra Vítová, the mayor of Teplice nad Metují
- Petr Kulíšek, a political activist
- Jan Piňos, a political activist
2009
- Herta MüllerHerta MüllerHerta Müller is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet and essayist noted for her works depicting the effects of violence, cruelty and terror, usually in the setting of Communist Romania under the repressive Nicolae Ceauşescu regime which she experienced herself...
, in particular for her novel Everything I Possess I Carry With MeEverything I Possess I Carry With MeEverything I Possess I Carry With Me is a novel by German Nobel Prize-winning author Herta Müller, published in 2009 by Carl Hanser Verlag....