Franz Werfel Human Rights Award

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.

The foundations

The foundations of the prize are considered to be the Fourth Hague Convention 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.

Jury

(as of 2003)
*Erika Steinbach (CDU), a member of the German Parliament and chairwoman of the Federation of Expellees
*Peter Glotz (SPD), a professor, former senator, MP and Secretary General of the SPD (died 2005)
*Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens), chairman of the Green faction in the European Parliament
*Count Otto Lambsdorff (FDP), former chairman of the Liberal Party and member of the German federal cabinet
*Klaus Hänsch (SPD), former President of the European Parliament
*Archduke Dr. Otto von Habsburg (CSU), former member of the European Parliament, Chairman of the International Paneuropean Union, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary
*Ralph Giordano, a writer
*Helga Hirsch, a journalist
*György Konrad, a writer and former President of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin
*Lennart Meri, a writer and former President of Estonia (died 2006)

2003 Laureates

*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 Czech) in Teplice nad Metují, the Czech Republic (Wekelsdorf), for "inaugurating the cross for the Sudeten Germans 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

Reactions in the Czech Republic

Reactions to the 2003 award in the Czech Republic were mixed. Stalinists claimed that Werfel's name was misused, however this is wrong, since the heirs of Werfel has explicitly supported the award.

Attempt to blew up the cross (erected in September 2002) happened ^{[http://www.rozhlas.cz/hradec/zpravy/_zprava/86986]} . Later, a mentally sick retiree, a serial bomber, was identified as the dynamiter. At the moment of arrest he committed suicide ^{[http://www.rozhlas.cz/hradec/zpravy/_zprava/100609]} .

2005 Laureates

*Bishop Franjo Komarica (Croatia)

External links

* [http://www.z-g-v.de/aktuelles/?id=45/ Short information about the award] (in German)