Today, March 30, 2006 the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has nominated three outstanding widows of human rights defenders to receive jointly the prestigious 2006 , awarded by the May 18 Memorial Foundation, Korea. The three are: Angkhana Neelaphaijit, wife of disappeared Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit; Suciwati Munir, wife of murdered Indonesian human rights lawyer Munir Said Thalib; and, Padma Perera, wife of murdered Sri Lankan human rights activist Gerald Perera. All three of these exceptional women are close to the heart of the AHRC, and represent the true spirit of the Gwangju May 18 Uprising of 1980, which the prize celebrates. All three stand for common values and actions. All three are equally deserving of our respect and recognition.
Why are Angkhana, Suciwati and Padma so important? Why were their husbands so important?
In 1998 the United Nations adopted the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. This document recognised that a major problem the world over–especially in countries with repressive regimes and scant regard for the rule of law–is the need to provide protection for people who fight for human rights.
Human rights defenders throughout Asia today risk their lives. The decision to kill human rights defenders and the manner of killing are done in secret. Laws, courts and civic organisations cannot stop the killers. In most cases, state agents and agencies are involved in the killing.
The murder of each human rights defender is the attempted murder of a human rights movement. It is also an attack on the whole of society. The aim is to create and intensify fear. Where fear exists, there are more opportunities for further killings, and fewer opportunities for redress. This is a method aimed at silencing not only one person but silencing everyone.
Today this intense fear smothers many parts of Asia. It has been created by a history of repression, and a trail of killings. Intimidation and cruelty are the fare of ordinary people’s lives. Our human rights defenders daily confront and overcome this fear, intimidation and cruelty. The May 18 Uprising, together with the subsequent struggle of the Korean people for justice and redress, has become an important and enduring part of this fight against fear and intimidation in Asia.
The global human rights movement has an obligation to support and protect these human rights defenders. One very important way to do this is to celebrate the memory of those who have been killed because of their work, and to assist their families and colleagues to bring the perpetrators to justice and prevent the killings from continuing. This should not be confused with simple expressions of sentimentality and regret over their deaths. It is rather about protecting and nurturing a healthy, living society that can overcome the fear left in the wake of such deaths, and intensifying demands for a new society built on human rights and the rule of law. The people of Gwangju have understood this principle in the rebuilding of their society after the dictatorship was toppled and darkness lifted, through constant commemorations of the struggle for human rights and democracy.
The most important part of this work, as is made clear every May 18 in Gwangju, is the work with the families of the victims. When a human rights defender is killed, their spouse, children, parents and other close relatives come under intense pressure. They are the key to the strategy. After the target is dead, the wife, the son, the mother are the ones who are left behind. The message to society is obvious: “You and your family will end up like this if you dare to do what this person did.” The family becomes the living exhibit of the perpetrators’ ruthlessness.
So we cannot talk of human rights defenders and the fight against fear and then forget the families of those who have been killed. The defence of human rights must include ways to work with the families, help them to recover from their traumatic experience, and become capable of reasserting the ideas and values that the deceased articulated and represented. In this way, they regain dignity and worth, despite the unimaginable adversity that they have faced.
Very often, as happened in Korea, it is the wife or husband of the dead person who becomes the most outspoken advocate of the dead person. In this way, she or he also becomes the next primary target for threats. All three of the joint nominees for the 2006 have risked their own lives to carry on with the work begun by their husbands. It is important for the perpetrators of these killings that their spouses also are silenced. If they become more vocal, then the objective of the killing cannot be achieved. The threat to the perpetrators may also become greater.
When voices of protest come from the wives or husbands of the dead, lost voices attain an even more vibrant expression. Society is obliged to respond and protect these persons and their voices. This obligation is owed both to the families of the victims and to the society itself. The only way that society can regain its dignity is through this response and support. It was this obligation that was felt by the people of Gwangju in 1980 and far beyond, and it is that which gives significance to the work of the May 18 Memorial Foundation in awarding this prize annually.
All three of these joint nominees for the 2006 symbolise the struggle against intolerable cruelty and deep repression in Asia that embodies the spirit of the May 18 Uprising. Together they are the highest embodiment of human rights defence in Asia. By honouring them, we recognise not only their determination to protect human rights, but also our obligation to do the same. By honouring them, we acknowledge that this is a lasting obligation, and a commitment that we cannot allow to be forgotten. By honouring them as one, we give recognition to the commonality of their struggle and give rise to genuine solidarity for that struggle into the future, across the region.
About the joint nominees
Angkhana Neelaphaijit
is the wife of Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, who was abducted by the police on 12 March 2004. At the time, Somchai was defending clients who had accused the police of torture. His body has never been found. Angkhana has been at the forefront of the campaign to get justice for his disappearance. In January 2006, one police officer was sentenced to three years in jail, but his accomplices and the masterminds of the crime have never been identified. She has received death threats because of her continued work. She has met UN officials both in Thailand and abroad to pursue the case. On International Women’s Day 2006 she was given an award by the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand as an “outstanding woman human rights defender”. On 11 March 2006 she received the 2nd Asian Human Rights Defender Award of the AHRC on behalf of her husband, which was also given in recognition of her own work since his disappearance two years ago. Angkhana is now an inspiration to large numbers of people in Thailand, as well as internationally. She is supported in her work by her five children.
Suciwati Munir
is a labour union leader and wife of Indonesian human rights lawyer Munir Said Thalib, who was poisoned on a Garuda airline flight to Amsterdam on 6 September 2004. Munir was at the centre of his country’s human rights movement, and had made many powerful enemies. He died before reaching Europe, where an autopsy confirmed that he was murdered, apparently by a high-level conspiracy involving the national intelligence agency and staff of the airline. Throughout the days and months that followed, Suciwati was at the forefront of the struggle for justice, both inside and outside Indonesia’s malfunctioning investigative and judicial system. In December 2005 a pilot was sentenced to 14 years in jail for his murder, but Suciwati continues the struggle to have the whole truth about her husband’s death revealed. She is now opening a civil complaint in the courts against Garuda. She has travelled both nationally and internationally to raise Munir’s case, including to Geneva and countries throughout Asia. She has set up a group for solidarity among families of victims in Indonesia. Like Angkhana, she has received death threats because of her work. In 2005 she received an “Asian Hero” award from Time magazine. Suciwati has become a leading light in the human rights movement of her country. By advocating tirelessly on her husband’s case she has created a sense of obligation and accountability that had not earlier existed among the authorities there. Despite her numerous activities, still she finds time to raise her two young children.
Padma Perera
is the wife of Gerald Perera, who on 3 June 2002 was tortured almost to death by the Sri Lankan police, in a case of mistaken identity. Gerald’s life was on that occasion saved only by the quick and determined intervention of his wife. It was also through Padma’s contact with a local human rights group that her husband’s case soon became a subject for advocacy. Then, as she helped him back to health, Gerald and Padma became staunch human rights defenders themselves. They refused to back down in their determination to have the torturers prosecuted, despite many attempts to coerce and threaten them. Gerald won a case for damages and was due to give evidence in a criminal case against the police officers who had tortured him when on 21 November 2004 he was shot dead. Despite very real threats to her and her two young sons and daughter, like Angkhana and Suciwati, Padma stood up and refused to be intimidated. She took an active role in the campaign to have the killers arrested. Five police and an accomplice were charged within a month. Padma went to court and testified against them without a trace of fear, and with enormous dignity. Since then she has become a symbol of resistance to police violence and oppression in Sri Lanka, especially among the victims of torture and their families. Like her counterparts in Indonesia and Thailand, she represented her husband’s case before senior officials. In December 2005 she was a lead figure in human rights day celebrations organised by a local organisations.
About the
The keeps alive the spirit of the May 18 Uprising against military dictatorship by the people of the southern city of Gwangju, Korea in 1980, and their subsequent struggle for justice and democracy. It is awarded to persons or groups throughout Asia in acknowledgement of the solidarity that the people of Gwangju received from abroad in support of their own fight for human rights. Past recipients have included Xanana Gusmao, the East Timorese resistance leader; Basil Fernando, executive director of the Asian Human Rights Commission; and Dandeniya Gamage Jayanthi, organiser of the Families of the Disappeared in Sri Lanka. The prize is awarded annually on May 18.
