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Rights lawyer Opiyo, Dr Kalema win global awards
Nicholas Opiyo, human rights lawyer
What you need to know:
- The awards include the United Nations’ highest environmental award and a top Dutch government human rights award.
Two Ugandans have received international awards this week in recognition of their outstanding service in their respective fields.
The awards include the United Nations’ highest environmental award and a top Dutch government human rights award.
Human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo was awarded The Human Rights Tulip 2021, an annual award of the Dutch government that supports human rights defenders in their work advancing and protecting human rights around the globe.
Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka was named among the 2021 Champions of the Earth alongside Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, the Sea Women of Melanesia from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, and Maria Kolesnikova of Kyrgyz Republic.
They were recognised for transformative impact on the environment and their leadership in advancing bold and decisive action on behalf of people and the planet.
“By amplifying the significant work being done on the environmental frontlines, the Champions of the Earth awards aim to inspire and motivate more people to address the triple planetary crisis -- climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution, chemicals and waste,” a statement by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reads in part.
Dr Kalema, who bagged the honour in the Science and Innovation category is the first wildlife vegetarian of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).
The CEO and the co-founder of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) is a recognised world authority on primates and zoonotic diseases.
Mr Opiyo, who is also the executive director of Chapter Four Uganda, received the award from the foreign affairs minister Ben Knapen.
Mr Opiyo received Shs404 million (100,000 euros) and a bronze sculpture of a tulip.
Chapter Four is one of the more than 50 NGOs that were suspended by government.
The organisation subsequently sued government in a case before the High Court in Kampala.
Mr Knapen praised human rights defenders as key workers who help protect basic rights and advance society.
Accomplishment
In a citation, the Dutch Foreign Ministry lauded Mr Opiyo for playing an “important role in criminalising torture in Uganda” and successfully campaigning against an anti-gay law.
“Thanks to Nicholas, that law was not enacted. His work has made the LGBTI community in Uganda feel stronger, in the knowledge that they have allies who support them,” Mr Knapen said.
The other two nominees for the Human Rights Tulip were Nunca Más, a collective of human rights defenders, who protested against injustice and persecution in their home country, Nicaragua, and Russian lawyer Mari Davtyan.
Davtyan has for years been working to secure the safety of thousands of women in Russia in her campaign to make domestic violence there a criminal offence again rather than a misdemeanor.
