Egyptian rights defender to receive 'Alternative Nobel Prize' in Cairo on March 25

Friday 03-02-2017 PM 04:37
Egyptian rights defender to receive 'Alternative Nobel Prize' in Cairo on March 25

Egyptian rights defender Mozn Hassan featured in the Right Livelihood Award ceremony. Photo from the Right Livelihood Award website

CAIRO, Feb 3 (Aswat Masriya) - The Right Livelihood foundation has set March 25 - 26 to give Egyptian Feminist and human rights defender Mozn Hassan its award , which is dubbed as the "Alternative Nobel Prize".

Hassan, who shared the award with her organisation Nazra for Feminist Studies, will receive the award in Cairo.

She was supposed to receive the award in November 25, 2016 in Stockholm but she was unable to attend the ceremony then due to the travel ban imposed on her by Egyptian authorities, the foundation said in a statement.

Hassan, among other human rights defenders, underwent an interrogation over her involvement in the case known as the foreign funding case.

The case dates back to 2011 and has brought heavy criticism to Egypt since it started with Egyptian authorities raiding several NGOs and launching an investigation into foreign funding allegedly received by them. It later on simply came to be known as the NGO trial, in which 43 Egyptians and foreigners were convicted in 2013.

Egypt reopened investigation in the case in March 2016 and Hassan was summoned shortly after.

"In a show of solidarity with Hassan and other Egyptian civil society activists who have been prevented from travelling freely abroad, the Foundation will send a high-level delegation to Cairo to present her with the Right Livelihood Award instead,” the Foundation’s Board Chair Dr. Monika Griefahn said.

The Right Livelihood Award, which was established in 1980, honours people and organisations offering visionary and exemplary solutions to the root causes of global problems, according to the foundation's website.

Hassan is the third Egyptian recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, after Ibrahim Abouleish who were awarded in 2003 and Hassan Fathy in 1980.

Designed and Developed by Whalesys