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Filipina human rights defender among those honored with Franco-German Human Rights award
Former Secretary-General of the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) Mary Aileen Bacalso has won the 2019 Franco-German Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law award last December 12.
Bacalso, who served as the AFAD secretary-general from June 1988 to July 2019, is the second Filipina to win the prize since Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) Secretary-General Rosemarie Trajano received it in 2017.
French Ambassador Nicolas Galey and German Ambassador Anke Reiffenstuel presented the award to Bacalso in a ceremony in Manila for her work in "lobbying for greater national and international action against enforced disappearances, as well as providing assistance to victims of enforced disappearances and their families in the Philippines and all over the world."
Bacalso's husband disappeared in November 1988 at the height of the anti-insurgency campaign led by the Philippine government and during his detention, he was heavily tortured.
This experience inspired Bacalso to work with victims of enforced disappearances.
Through Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND), she and other human rights defenders lobbied for the enactment of the Philippines’ Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, the first law of its kind in Asia.
She led the formation of AFAD, which fosters solidarity in a region that submitted the highest number of cases of enforced disappearances to the United Nations.
When she was the AFAD secretary-general, she was also the focal person of the International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED), which comprises over 30 organizations nationwide.
As secretary-general and focal person, Bacalso contributed to the drafting of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICCPPED), which was adopted in Paris in 2006.
In 2013, she received the Patrick Rice Human Rights Award given by the Torture Abolition and Survivors’ Support Coalition and the Emilio F. Mignone International Human Rights Prize awarded by the Argentinian Government.
She completed her bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication at St. Theresa’s College, Cebu City, while her master’s degree in Philippine Studies, major in Foreign Relations was from the University of the Philippines.
Aside from Bacalso, 14 other recipients were selected by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and Germany’s Federal Foreign Office for the award.
Other recipients were:
- Ales Bialiatski (Belarus)
- Li Wenzu (China)
- El Nadim Center (Egypt)
- Ameha Mekonnen Asfaw (Ethiopia)
- Robin Chaurasiya (India)
- Nasrin Sotoudeh (Iran)
- Amina Hanga (Nigeria)
- Miluska Del Carmen Luzquinos Tafur (Peru)
- Irina Biryukova (Russia)
- Delphine Kemneloum Djiraibe (Chad)
- Asena Gunal (Turkey)
- Luz Mely Reyes (Venezuela)
- Vu Quoc Ngu (Vietnam)
The Franco-German Human Rights and the Rule of Law Prize, created in 2016, is given every year to "human rights defenders around the world, but also to lawyers who represent the human rights defenders and journalists who work to make the truth known," according to the French diplomatic service website.
The award reaffirms the constant commitment of France and Germany to human rights and the rule of law and helps strengthen their cooperation in this area.
