ID :
23162
Tue, 10/07/2008 - 17:57
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U.S. human rights activist receives Seoul Peace Prize
By Kim Boram
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- U.S. human rights activist Suzanne Scholte was awarded South Korea's peace prize on Tuesday for her effort to improve North Korean people's human rights and status by attracting international attention to the issue.
"Through speaking the truth and promoting human rights, and working to empower
the North Korean defectors, we can end the suffering of the North Korean people
peacefully," Scholte, head of the non-profit Defense Forum Foundation, said in
her acceptance speech.
She is the ninth recipient of the Seoul Peace Prize.
Scholte has dedicated her work to publicizing the dire human rights condition of
the communist country, organizing the first U.S. Senate hearing on the North's
political prison camps a decade ago and playing a key role in passing the North
Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 in the U.S. Congress.
"I also believe that those of us who live in freedom have a moral obligation to
strive to ensure that every person, whether born in Pyongyang or Seoul or in
occupied Western Sahara or in a refugee camp in the Sahara desert has that
God-given right to freedom, human rights, and dignity," said Scholte.
"World peace and harmony is achievable only when these God given rights are
secure, and all men and women can pursue their dreams without being enslaved by
dictators or kings."
The biennially-awarded Seoul Peace Prize was established to commemorate the 1988
Seoul Summer Olympics and is given to recognize those who devote themselves to
building world peace surpassing race and ideology. Among previous winners are
former International Olympic Committee Juan Samaranch, former U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan, and Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Scholte will also be granted honorary citizenship of Seoul City on Friday.
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- U.S. human rights activist Suzanne Scholte was awarded South Korea's peace prize on Tuesday for her effort to improve North Korean people's human rights and status by attracting international attention to the issue.
"Through speaking the truth and promoting human rights, and working to empower
the North Korean defectors, we can end the suffering of the North Korean people
peacefully," Scholte, head of the non-profit Defense Forum Foundation, said in
her acceptance speech.
She is the ninth recipient of the Seoul Peace Prize.
Scholte has dedicated her work to publicizing the dire human rights condition of
the communist country, organizing the first U.S. Senate hearing on the North's
political prison camps a decade ago and playing a key role in passing the North
Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 in the U.S. Congress.
"I also believe that those of us who live in freedom have a moral obligation to
strive to ensure that every person, whether born in Pyongyang or Seoul or in
occupied Western Sahara or in a refugee camp in the Sahara desert has that
God-given right to freedom, human rights, and dignity," said Scholte.
"World peace and harmony is achievable only when these God given rights are
secure, and all men and women can pursue their dreams without being enslaved by
dictators or kings."
The biennially-awarded Seoul Peace Prize was established to commemorate the 1988
Seoul Summer Olympics and is given to recognize those who devote themselves to
building world peace surpassing race and ideology. Among previous winners are
former International Olympic Committee Juan Samaranch, former U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan, and Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Scholte will also be granted honorary citizenship of Seoul City on Friday.
