Honoring ceremony of outstanding human rights activist Kamal Jendoubi
The ceremony of presenting the “Amman Center Award for Excellence in Human Rights” to Tunisian human rights activist Kamel Jendoubi, President of the Euro-Mediterranean Network for Human Rights, and Chairman of the Independent High Electoral Committee, took place in Amman and was attended by a number of personalities, activist and working in the field of human rights, from Jordan and other Arab countries like Egypt, Palestine, Iraq, and Tunisia in addition to a number of international institutions and organizations.
At the beginning of the celebration meaning and the importance of the award was explained, as it is given to individuals and organizations in recognition for their in promoting and protecting human rights, and is granted by the Amman Center every two years.
The award allows the Centre to publicly praise the special contributions of the winners, and honor the winner by giving him a certificate of appreciation, the shield of Amman Center for Human Rights Studies, and a symbolic sum of money worth 1948 Swiss francs, for the number symbolizes the year of announcing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A number of speeches were delivered on this occasion, where lawyer Hani Dahleh, on behalf of civil society organizations in Jordan, Chairman of the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Jordan and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Cairo, delivered a speech in which he expressed the importance of the human rights organizations activity in different countries and entities for human dignity, he expressed concerns over the inability of the civil society institutions sometimes to overcome the restrictions imposed by states on their activities, and added that, in order for the civil society organizations to take their role, the role of the United Nations and international human rights organizations must be activated, and work to increase cooperation between the countries of the world to improve the living standards for Arab citizens, in addition to increasing the area of freedom and dissemination of the principles of democracy.
Dahleh praised the struggle of Jendoubi in the political field and the field of human rights, for which he paid the price of exile and alienation outside his country, until he returned to the new Tunisia as president of the Independent Commission for the elections of the Constituent Assembly of Tunisia, and gave a successful experience in the management of free, transparent, and fair elections.
Mr. Mark Poulsen, Executive Director of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, expressed through a speech delivered by the director of his office, Susanna Fritland, real pride in the choice of the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies to granted this prestigious award to an Arab and international character that fought and defended human rights, he said in his speech that Jendoubi was, and still is, a leading force in the European social movement to defend the rights of migrants in Europe, and that he is highly respected, as a big defender for human rights in the Arab world, who has contributed in bringing together the civil societies in Europe and the Mediterranean, through his participation in developing the Euro- Network for Human Rights.
There was one thing fixed in Jendoubi’s head, which is to return to his native Tunisia, which he was denied entering for 17 years, to build a new Tunisia committed to human rights and democracy, and this made him earn the trust of its citizens who elected him Chairman of the Independent High Committee to supervise elections.
A speech was delivered on behalf of the Syrian human rights activist, Daniel Saud, Chairman of the Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights Defense Committee in Syria, who was unable to obtain approval from the Syrian authorities to attend the ceremony. In the speech, he pointed out the role of Jendoubi in the birth of more than twenty organizations, center, and institute for human rights in the Arab region and the Diaspora, and an observer of the biography of Jendoubi cannot but bow to his ability and history of struggle, describing the experience of Jendoubi as human and struggle experience, rich in the ability to combine, in one human being, the practice and thought in the defense of the noble values of human rights and freedoms, for freedom, bread, and dignity.
Jendoubi grew up in a national environment, spent his life in noble humanitarian work, as the seeds of struggle had been planted in him since his childhood, and in his youth the thought of democracy was rooted. Saud added that Kamal Jendoubi is one of the most important human rights figures, who has put the idea of opposition to a peaceful democracy not associated with any Arab or Western regime, struggled to achieve democracy pluralism that recognizes the rights of all citizens, whatever their political and ideological inclinations were, and profoundly defended women and their rights, whom he considered the first victim of the authoritarian state. Jendoubi the person who called and fought that rights are for all.
Then Dr. Mohammed Al-Tarawneh, Member of the Scientific Council in the Center delivered the speech for Amman Center where he congratulated Jendoubi for ” Amman Center Award for in the of Human Rights in 2010,” as one of the most prominent activists in the field of human rights in the Arab region and internationally, and as a recognition by Amman Center and all participating and supporting of this celebration for the big efforts of Jendoubi in the dissemination of a culture of human rights, and lobbying in the European community for the benefit of Arab human rights. It is worth mentioning that the ” Amman Center Award for Excellence in Human Rights”, was found in the Center in 2008, when Dr. Mohammed Al-Tarawneh presided the Committee specialized for the Selection of the winner for 2010 in October, and Kamal Jendoubi was chosen to be awarded in 2010, but Jendoubi health conditions in December 2010 prevented him from the ceremony marking the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Rights and receive the award at that time.
