Sri Lanka has been announced as one of the Laureates
for the 2007 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA).

Accordingly Rajan Hoole and Kopalasingham Sritharan, co-founders of the University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) of Jaffna, have monitored and documented in regular reports the human rights abuses committed in the home grown conflict. At great personal risk they have reported on the effects of armed conflict on children, women, minorities and displaced persons over the past 18 years.

Since the last upsurge in fighting, the UTHR has conducted groundbreaking investigations into the most serious atrocities, including the Mullaitivu bombing that killed some 51 young women and girls, and the execution-style slaying of 17 humanitarian aid workers.

Often alone in exposing abuses civilians are facing, both men are under death sentences from the LTTE. Since the assassination of their colleague, Rajani Thiranagama, the two men have been forced to work underground for more than a decade, but their reports are well known in Sri Lanka and abroad.

Along with the Sri Lankan pair, Pierre Claver Mbonimpa who served as a policeman in Burundi until December 1994 is also announced as a Laureate.

The Chairman of the Jury of the MEA, Hans Thoolen, described the laureates as "symbols of the human rights movement in their respective countries, where standing up for human rights and democracy is a dangerous activity." He drew attention to the laureates' principled stand to effectively cover abuses committed by both sides in the conflict. The 11 organizations on the Jury of the Martin Ennals Award called on the governments of Sri Lanka and Burundi to ensure the safety of the laureates and allow them to work without harassment. The ceremony to bestow the Martin Ennals Award will take place in Geneva in October.

The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders ( www.martinennalsaward.org ) is a unique collaboration among 11 of the world's leading human rights organizations to give protection to human rights defenders worldwide.