The Syrian human rights defender Daniel Saud Wins Amman Center Award for Excellence in Human Rights for 2012

The Amman Center for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS) has the pleasure of announcing the Syrian human rights defender Daniel Saud as the winner of the “Amman Center Award for Excellence in Human Rights” for 2012. The ceremony will be held once the executive Syrian authorities stop preventing him from leaving the country. The motivation for awarding Daniel Saud the award is as follows:

•A symbolic tribute to a personal humanitarian campaigner who is one of the leading human rights activists in Syria and the Arab world, who does not seek reward or fame, who has his own philosophy believing only in the value of hard work, and who prefers to speak selflessly of his work rather than about himself.

•He has devoted years of his life in defense of public freedoms, democracy, and human rights in Syria and the Arab world.

•In the early eighties, he left the study of medicine, and committed to the struggle for civil and political liberties in his country Syria, where he was arrested and spent more than a decade in prison for his political views from the mid-eighties to the late nineties of the last century; a person who does relent and does not compromise, he was released from prison in the late nineties and has dedicated himself fully to the human rights struggle within the committees for the defense of democratic liberties and has assumed several managerial and administrative positions.

•He is a key participant in the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organization Against Torture and a member of the Executive Committee of the Euro-Mediterranean Network for the years 2009-2012.

•He is a founding member of the Election Network in the Arab Region (ENAR), the Network of Trainers on Human Rights in the Arab world, and the Arab organizations alliance for the signing of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

•He is characterized by his devotion to the struggle against tyranny and defense of public freedoms, fighting for the idea of all rights for all people, and was a human rights defender that aimed for linking of human rights defense in Syria in coordination and partnership between the organizations and bodies defending human rights in Syria.

•He played a significant role in the coordination between the bodies defending human rights in Syria, and has played a remarkable role in establishing the Syrian Coalition against the Death Penalty, establishing the Syrian platform for non-governmental organizations, and establishing the National Council for Human Rights in Syria, and agreed to be the Coordinator of the Council.

•He is distinguished in the Syrian crisis by his professional and vocational struggle in human rights inside Syria despite all the difficulties and threats to his life from the security forces, away from the spotlight.

•He is an industrious struggler for human rights who does not know the meaning of vacation, rest, or getting away from public concerns and the defense of human rights and public freedoms, and has exemplary experiences that have enriched the Syrian and Arab human rights movement with an active and dynamic presence. The history of struggle in the defense of freedoms and democracy granted Daniel Saud great opportunities that cost him a lot, in terms of his own life, his professional choices, and in his everyday role.

•The executive Syrian authorities continue to prevent him from leaving the country, and have done for more than three years.

•Daniel Saud, was born in 1961 in Damascus, he studied medicine at the University of Aleppo and did not complete his studies because of his arrest for more than a decade, after his release from prison he obtained a degree in international law, and he practiced his human rights training in more than one place, and was a fundamental contributor for many years in many international and regional conferences for the defense of human rights.

It is worth mentioning that the ” Amman Center Award for Excellence in Human Rights”, was found in the Center in 2008, and the Human Rights activist Kamal Jendoubi (Tunisia) was chosen to be awarded in 2010.