UNESCO Must Reject Obiang Prize
Freedom House strongly opposes the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s bid to reconsider the life sciences prize named after Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has blatantly ignored human rights abuses in his country for the past 30 years, and calls on the UNESCO Executive Board to remove the prize from consideration permanently.
The $3 million Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences was proposed in 2008, and then indefinitely suspended by UNESCO in October 2010 after an unprecedented global outcry seeking its cancellation. Prominent African leaders, Latin American literary figures, Nobel laureates, scientists and public health professionals, press freedom groups, Cano World Press Freedom Prize winners, and rights organizations challenged the prize. They cited a record of corruption, abuse, and restricted press freedom under President Obiang that is well documented, including by UN reports and foreign government investigations. In May 2011, UNESCO rejected a request to reverse its prior decision and award the prize immediately. Earlier this month, the African Union put forth a proposal to reinstate the prize, which UNESCO took into consideration. UNESCO's executive board will now revisit its decision to suspend the prize, and could decide whether to reinstate it as early as September 29. A number of noted public figures, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Congressman Howard Berman publicly pleaded to UNESCO to reject the Obiang Prize.
The $3 million Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences was proposed in 2008, and then indefinitely suspended by UNESCO in October 2010 after an unprecedented global outcry seeking its cancellation. Prominent African leaders, Latin American literary figures, Nobel laureates, scientists and public health professionals, press freedom groups, Cano World Press Freedom Prize winners, and rights organizations challenged the prize. They cited a record of corruption, abuse, and restricted press freedom under President Obiang that is well documented, including by UN reports and foreign government investigations. In May 2011, UNESCO rejected a request to reverse its prior decision and award the prize immediately. Earlier this month, the African Union put forth a proposal to reinstate the prize, which UNESCO took into consideration. UNESCO's executive board will now revisit its decision to suspend the prize, and could decide whether to reinstate it as early as September 29. A number of noted public figures, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Congressman Howard Berman publicly pleaded to UNESCO to reject the Obiang Prize.
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