Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award
Encyclopedia
The Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award is awarded annually by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies
Institute for Policy Studies
Institute for Policy Studies is a left-wing think tank based in Washington, D.C..It has been directed by John Cavanagh since 1998- History :...

. It is awarded to those advancing the cause of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 in the Americas. The Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award commemorates Orlando Letelier
Orlando Letelier
Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar was a Chilean economist, Socialist politician and diplomat during the presidency of Socialist President Salvador Allende...

 and Ronni Moffitt
Ronni Moffitt
Ronni Moffitt , was a American political activist.-Early Life:She was born in Passaic, New Jersey as Ronni Susan Karpen on January 10, 1951 to Murray and Hilda Karpen. She was the oldest of three children including Harry Karpen and Michael Karpen. Her family owned a restaurant called "Karpen's" and...

, who in 1976 were assassinated in Washington, D.C.
Letelier case
The Letelier case refers to the killing in Washington, D.C. of Orlando Letelier, a Chilean political figure and later United States-based activist, along with his American assistant, Ronni Moffitt...

 by agents of the Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an secret service. It was first presented in 1978.

Award recipients

1978 Samuel Rubin
Reverend Benjamin Chavis, Jr.
1979 The Association of Relatives of Disappeared People, Chile
Alfred "Skip" Robinson, United League of Mississippi
1980 The Legal Aid Office of the Archdiocese of San Salvador
Reverend William Wipfler, National Council of Churches
National Council of Churches
The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA is an ecumenical partnership of 37 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member denominations, churches, conventions, and archdioceses include Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African American, Evangelical, and historic peace...

1981 Jacobo Timerman
Jacobo Timerman
Jacobo Timerman was an Argentine publisher, journalist, and author who was persecuted and honored for confronting the atrocities of the Argentine military regime's Dirty War...


The Congregation of Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic
1982 Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns
Paulo Evaristo Arns
Paulo Evaristo Arns O.F.M. is the Cardinal Archbishop Emeritus of São Paulo.-Early life and education:...

 of São Paulo, Brazil
The Infant Formula Action Coalition
1983 Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) of Argentina
Father J. Bryan Hehir, U.S. Catholic Conference
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...

1984 Dr. Ramon Custodio, President, Committee for Human Rights in Honduras
The Sanctuary Movement
Sanctuary movement
The Sanctuary Movement was a religious and political campaign that began in the early 1980s to provide safe-haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict...



Reverend Charles Harper (Special Recognition Award)
1985 The Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM) of Guatemala
The Free South Africa Movement

Frances Arbour (Special Recognition Award)
1986 The Vicariate of Solidarity (Chile)
Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...

1987 Bishop Mario Melanio Medina (Paraguay)
Washington Office on Latin America
Washington Office on Latin America
The Washington Office on Latin America is an American non-governmental organization whose stated goal is to promote human rights, democracy and social and economic justice in Latin America and the Caribbean....

1988 Radio Soleil (Haiti)
Charles L. Clements, M.D.
1989 The Union of Indigenous Nations of Brazil
The National Labor Committee in Support of Democracy and Human Rights in El Salvador
National Labor Committee in Support of Human and Worker Rights
The National Labor Committee in Support of Human and Worker Rights, commonly known as the NLC, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that investigates human and labor rights abuses committed by U.S. companies producing goods in the developing world...



Robert Scherrer (Special Recognition Award)
1990 The National Human Rights Coordinating Committee of Peru
Richard Trumka
Richard Trumka
Richard Louis Trumka is an organized labor leader in the United States. He was elected President of the AFL-CIO on September 16, 2009, at the labor federation's convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served as the Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, from 1995 to 2009, and prior to that was...

, President, United Mine Workers Union of America
United Mine Workers
The United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners and coal technicians. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the United States and Canada...



Father Jim Felts and Proyecto de Cristo Rey (Special Recognition Award)
1991 Jorge Gomez Lizarazo, President, Regional Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, Barrancabermeja
Barrancabermeja
Barrancabermeja is a city and municipality in Santander Department, in northeastern Colombia. It is located on the banks of the Magdalena River in the Middle Magdalena region, 110 km west of Bucaramanga. Founded in 1536, Barrancabermeja is home of the biggest petroleum refinery in Colombia,...

, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...


La Mujer Obrera, El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...

1992 Evans Paul
Evans Paul
Evans Paul, called K-plimo, is a Haitian politician and former president of the Democratic United Committee . He was elected mayor of Port-au-Prince in the 1990 elections that brought Jean-Bertrand Aristide's National Front for Change and Democracy party to power...

, Mayor of Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....

, Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...


Sam Buffone and Michael Tigar
Michael Tigar
Michael E. Tigar is an American criminal defense attorney known for representing controversial clients. He is also a member of the Duke Law School faculty.-Early life and education:...

, lawyers for the Letelier-Moffitt Case

Saul Landau
Saul Landau
Saul Landau is journalist, filmmaker, and commentator. He is Professor Emeritus at California State University, Pomona. He is a senior Fellow at and Vice Chair of the Institute for Policy Studies.-Career:...

 (Special Recognition Award)
1993 Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia and Fray Bartolome de las Casas Human Rights Center in Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...

, Mexico
Marian Kramer and the National Welfare Rights Organization
1994 Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...

 (Special Recognition Award)
Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras

CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

)
1995 Jennifer Harbury
Jennifer Harbury
Jennifer K. Harbury is an American lawyer, author, and human rights activist.Her personal story, writing, and activism are significant in revealing the complicity of the CIA in human rights abuses, particularly in Central America....

 (Special Recognition Award)
Rose Johnson, Georgia Project Director of the Center for Democratic Renewal

Haitian Human Rights Platform
1996 Pharis Harvey (Special Recognition Award)
Asian Immigrant Women Advocates

Leo Valladares
1997 The Rev. Dr. Mac Charles Jones (Special Recognition Award, posthumously)
Sin Fronteras Organizing Projet

Alianza Civica
1998 Rose Sanders
Coordinacion Colombia-Europa
1999 Juan Garces
Kensington Welfare Rights Union
Kensington Welfare Rights Union
The Kensington Welfare Rights Union is a progressive social justice, political action, and advocacy group of, by, and for the poor and homeless operating out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and led by Galen Tyler...

2000 Oscar Olivera, Coordinator in Defense of Water and Life (Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

)
November Coalition
November Coalition
The November Coalition is a non-profit grassroots organization, founded in 1997, which fights against the War on Drugs and for the rights of the prisoners incarcerated as the effect of that war. It publishes a bulletin called Razor Wire.-Tyrone Brown:...

2001 25th Anniversary
All prior recipients honored
2002 Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini (Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

)
Jobs with Justice
Jobs with Justice
Jobs with Justice is a national campaign for workers' rights in the United States. It was founded in 1987, and includes both individual members and affiliated organizations....



Naúl Ojeda (Special Recognition Award, posthumously)
2003 Nancy Sanchez Mendez
CASA de Maryland

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...

 (Special Recognition Award)
2004 Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh
Seymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...


Military Families Speak Out
Military Families Speak Out
Military Families Speak Out is a US based anti-Iraq war group.Military Families Speak Out was founded by two military families in November, 2002 to speak out against the planned US invasion of Iraq to try to prevent the invasion....

2005 Judge Juan Guzmán
Juan Guzmán Tapia
Juan Salvador Guzmán Tapia is a retired Chilean judge who gained international recognition for being the first judge to prosecute former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on human rights charges, after Pinochet's return to Chile following more than a year of house arrest in London, in...


Barrios Unidos
2006 Maher Arar
Maher Arar
Maher Arar is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who resides in Canada. Arar's story is frequently referred to as "extraordinary rendition" but the U.S. government insisted it was a case of deportation.Arar was detained during a layover at John F...

 and Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Constitutional Rights
Al Odah v. United States:Al Odah is the latest in a series of habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The case challenges the Military Commissions system’s suitability as a habeas corpus substitute and the legality, in general, of detention at...


Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign
2007 Senator Gustavo Petro
Gustavo Petro
Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego is a Colombian politician of the Political Independent movement Progresistas . As a young man he fought with the 19th of April Movement, which later evolved into the Alianza Democrática M-19. He then became active in newly-established Alianza Democrática M-19...

 (Colombia)
Appeal for Redress
Appeal for Redress
Appeal For Redress is a group of United States military personnel opposed to the Iraq War.The group is sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War , Military Families Speak Out, and Veterans for Peace ....



DC Vote (Special Recognition Award)
2008 Francisco Soberón
Francisco Soberón
Francisco Ricardo Soberón Garrido is a human rights activist in Peru. In 1983 he founded APRODEH, the non-governmental organization of which he is currently a director. He previously led the National Human Rights Coordinator's Office and was a member of the steering committee of the Coalition for...

 and the Asociación Pro-Derechos Humanos
APRODEH
Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos is a Peruvian human rights organization. It was established in 1983 by a group of professionals who had been providing information to Peruvian congressmen involved with the Congressional Human Rights Commission, such as Javier Diez Canseco...

 (Peru)
Indian Workers Congress
2009 Domestic Workers United
La Mesa Nacional Frente a la Minería Metálica en El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

2010 National Day Laborer Organizing Network
National Day Laborer Organizing Network
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network is an American organization dedicated to improving the lives of day laborers. It was founded in Northridge, California in July 2001 and is based in Los Angeles, California...

(NDLON)
Honduras Human Rights Platform
Guatemalan Police Archives
2011 Wisconsin Progressive Movement
Bethlehem, The Migrant's Shelter (Mexico)
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