UNESCO: Africans Urge Cancellation of Obiang
Prize

Prize is an Affront
to Efforts to Promote Human Rights and Good Governance in the Continent

Citizens of Equatorial
  Guinea and prominent African figures
including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Graça Machel, Nobel laureate Wole
Soyinka, and author Chinua Achebe wrote to UNESCO’s Executive Board today
urging them to cancel definitively the UNESCO-Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Prize for
Research in the Life Sciences.



The letter, signed by 127 African laureates, scholars, human
rights defenders, and citizens of Equatorial
 Guinea, cited the record of serious abuses and
mismanagement of the country’s wealth by the eponymous funder of the
prize, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.

 

“The continued existence of this prize is inimical to
UNESCO’s mission and an affront to Africans everywhere who work for the
betterment of our countries,” the letter said.

 

Equatorial
  Guinea has the highest GDP per capita on the continent, yet 3 out of 4
Equatoguineans live in poverty. There are no research centers in Equatorial Guinea
that would enable a citizen of the country to qualify for the UNESCO-Obiang
award, and even basic education and health care remain unattainable for the
vast majority. Civil liberties are heavily curtailed: in August, four
Equatoguinean refugees were abducted from neighboring Benin, tortured for months and then
summarily tried and executed.

 

“While Equatorial Guinea’s government has tried to
characterize opposition to this prize as racist and colonialist, in fact many
Africans have been vocal opponents of the prize,” said Tutu Alicante, an
Equatoguinean and Executive Director of the human rights organization EG
Justice. “Not all Africans believe that a dictator should be able to
purchase legitimacy in Paris.
Many recognize that this prize harms Africans.”

 

UNESCO’s Executive Board has a responsibility to protect
the organization’s integrity, which this prize places in jeopardy.

“[T]he diversion of wealth that should benefit Equatoguineans to finance
a prize honoring President Obiang runs counter to the objective of improving
human dignity that underpins the mission of UNESCO,” the letter said.

 

The letter is also available for download in English, French, and Spanish.

 

http://bit.ly/dmaAV4                                      

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