Only those who bring honour and pride should be celebrated

Last week I discussed two of the four awardees of the Right Livelihood Award, otherwise known as the alternative Nobel Prize.

This week we will look at the remaining two, Yetnebersh Nigussie of Ethiopia and Colin Gonsalves from India.

Yetnebersh, a young Ethiopian lawyer, was cited for “working for human rights based on her own experience of being discriminated against coming from a “developing country”, being young, a woman — and blind.

She is fearlessly pushing for women’s and girls’ rights, inclusive education and a vibrant civil society.

EARLY MARRIAGE

Nigussie is an outstanding advocate for the rights enshrined in the UN-Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Her favourite saying is “focus on the person, not the disability. We have one disability, but 99 abilities to build on.”

She became blind at the age of 5 which, ironically, saved her from the early child marriage she was destined for.

She went to school, and gained confidence in her abilities as a student and activist.

After law school, she founded an NGO dealing with the girl child and education, specifically targeted at girls with disabilities.

This is now one of the leading disability organisations in Ethiopia combining material, psychological and emotional support with advocacy on disability rights.

JUSTICE
Colin Gonsalves is an icon in Indian human rights circles, having co-founded the Human Rights Law Network about 30 years ago in 1989.

He is one of the leading public interest litigation lawyers globally, having set precedents in the Indian Supreme Court with his cases.

He is also well regarded for grooming and mentoring young lawyers into public interest litigation across India.

Colin is unabashedly pro-poor, and a fierce believer in the ability and role of the Supreme Court to remedy the social, economic and political problems that exist in India.

He admits that the Indian Supreme Court has been blessed with outstanding judges, with tremendous courage and belief in human dignity.

POOR FARMERS
Some of his most significant cases include one that secured the right to food for poor people, requiring state governments to ensure that poor people were fed and had a regular supply of food by right.

He also confronted the gigantic Tata Corporation that had planned to seize land from some poor farmers to set up a car factory, a case where the Indian Supreme Court ordered the farmers back to their land, and directed that they retain the compensation that Tata had paid to them for the land.

Significantly, and given the culture of extrajudicial killings in Kenya, Colin got the Indian Supreme Court to assert that the military were not exempt from the law and could be held accountable for excessive use of force even in the conflict zones of India.

EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS

The Court also directed a special investigation team to look into some 98 cases of “fake encounter killings” by the military, which had asserted that they killed because they were, to use the language of our police “in a fierce exchange of gunfire”.

Colin was very interested in our Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the August presidential election, which he saw as a major development in public law.

I explained the decision and the warped dissenting opinions as well, and he was struck by the fact that our Supreme Court did not take the necessary step, even on its own motion, to supervise the IEBC to ensure the illegalities and irregularities that led them to overturn the decision were not repeated.

IEBC

He was also astounded that the Court did not follow up on the refusal by the IEBC to open its servers to public scrutiny as it had ordered.

The selection process was detailed and onerous with files created for the nominees.

Jury members had to read the files before our two days of decision-making, and the procedure was cordial but firm with pros and cons listed and debated.

The jury all served pro bono, aiming at celebrating people who have been consistent and courageous in advocating for human dignity.

Now, as we know, there is no transparency or accountability in how Kenyan state honours are dished out, but perhaps a good starting point would be whether someone has brought honour, accomplishments and pride to Kenyans.

Merry Christmas!

Maina Kiai is a human rights activist and co-director at InformAction. [email protected]