Homo Homini Award | Film Festival One World 2011
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Homo Homini Award

People in Need presents the Homo Homini Award annually to exceptional individuals who have made a significant contribution to promotion of human rights and democracy. The 2010 award goes out to the Kyrgyz activist, Azimjan Askarov, for his continued work in human right defense. Askarov himself was sentenced to life imprisonment last year in a manipulated trial. The Homo Homini Award will be presented to his son in his absence during the One World Festival opening ceremony, which is to take place at the desecrated Church of Saint Anna in Prague on Tuesday 8th March, 2011.
"Mr. Askarov receives the award for extraordinary personal courage which inspires him to sustain a rather lonely but even more fierce fight for the observance of human rights and legality in a relatively remote part of one of the Kyrgyzstan provinces," said Simon Panek, Director of People in Need. "The perseverance with which he has followed his path despite threats, detention and imprisonment along with physical abuse he suffered is admirable. Besides awarding his long-term and dangerous work in human rights promotion, we believe the award will direct some attention to Mr. Askarov's currently very serious situation," added Panek.
 In addition to awarding Askarov for his long and often dangerous work in human right promotion, we hope that this award can be used as a tool to help those concerned "Although it is of small consolation for one suffering in prison, perhaps it will help improve his conditions there and bring his cause to the attention of journalists and diplomats," said Panek.

Along with Askarov, severe prison sentences were also given to seven other people. The award is intended as a symbol for all other human rights defenders in the region of Central Asia, where some of the most repressive regimes in the world can be found. "Kyrgyzstan, where Askarov has warned of torture occurring in prisons and a strong police presence, has one of the more moderate regimes in the region," said Mark Svoboda, director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights, People in Need. "The human rights situation in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan is dismal, and numbers of political prisoners there are in the thousands. That is why we would also like to give this Homo Homini Award as a symbol to all the brave people in Central Asia who do not hesitate to fight for their human rights whilst risking their own freedom and lives."
 

Azimjan Askarov, Winner of the Homo Homini Award - A Profile

Azimjan Askarov has been dedicated to human right protection since the 1990’s. In 2002 he founded his own organization called Vozduh (Air), monitoring human rights conditions in Kyrgyz prisons and the treatment of those accused by the police; he is actively involved in defending the unjustly prosecuted.
Askarov’s work has resulted in a number of tangible accomplishments (mostly in the Kyrgyz region of Bazar-Korgon). In a number of cases, involving confessions obtained by torture, unfair charges, sudden deaths of detainees in custody and sexual abuse, he was able to initiate new investigations leading to the prosecution or dismissal of the responsible police officers and state investigators.
Askarov was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment immediately after the bloody riots in June 2010 which culminated in a prolonged ethnic conflict between the Kyrgyz and the Uzbeks. During the unrest in the Bazar-Korgon region a policeman was killed by rioters. Askarov, along with seven other defendants, was convicted in court in September 2010 of organizing mass unrest that led to the death of the policeman.
 
"Despite there being no credible evidence connecting him with the crime, Askarov found himself in police cells, along with his former clients, and in the hands of some of the police officers who had been punished in the past based on the investigations he had initiated into police crimes, " Marek Svoboda, Director of the Center for Human Rights of People in Need, explains the circumstances of the detention.
 
The manipulated trial in November 2010 was marked by physical violence and threats by local police and their relatives. The defendants and their lawyers were attacked physically while the police took no action. The court did not hear any of the defense witnesses and decided solely on the basis of prosecution’s version of events. According to his testimony (supported by fresh bruises on his face during the trial), Askarov himself had been tortured and beaten while in custody.
 
Representatives of international organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and FIDH have condemned the trial as manipulated and politically motivated and demand that Askarov is released. „ We think that the accusations against Azimjan Askarov are fabricated with the goal of punishing him for his long and very brave work, in which he defended the unjustly imprisoned and killed, using non-violent and legal methods“, Svoboda added. „His case is also an illustration of the trend in which state authorities seek to eliminate opposition and activists by applying serious criminal charges.“