Basil Fernando of the AHRC receives Right Livelihood Award, known also as “Alternative Nobel Prize”

The Asian Human Rights Commission wishes to inform you that The Right Livelihood Foundation has announced the laureates for 2014.

They are Mr. Edward Snowden, Mr. Alan Rusbridger, Ms. Asma Jahangir, Mr. Basil Fernando, and Mr. Bill McKibben. This award is also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”

For further information about the award and this year's laureates, please visit:

www.rightlivelihood.org/index.html

Basil Fernando is a Sri Lankan based in Hong Kong and the Asian Human Rights Commission has its headquarters in Hong Kong. The Announcement relating to Basil Fernando of the AHRC is as follows:

 “… for his tireless and outstanding work to support and document the implementation of human rights in Asia.”

Basil Fernando is a leading Asian human rights defender. In a career spanning three decades, he has been pivotal in linking ordinary citizens striving for human rights principles at the grassroots to institutions working for structural reform at the policy level. Fernando, and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) that he led for nearly two decades, have developed one of the world’s most sophisticated “Urgent Appeals” systems. Through its Human Rights School and training initiatives, the AHRC has educated countless lawyers and activists on the principles of fair trial and the rule of law, thereby greatly advancing an Asian movement working towards the realisation of human rights for all.