Father Stan Swamy, a Jharkhand Jesuit priest and tribal rights campaigner who was arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case and died in July 2021, will be honoured at the Martin Ennals Award in Geneva on Thursday with a “special, posthumous homage.” The prize is known as the Nobel Prize for human rights defenders. Daouda Diallo of Burkina Faso, Pham Doan Trang of Vietnam, and Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja of Bahrain are the winners this year.
“Father Stan was nominated for the Award in the spring of 2021, but he regrettably died before it could reach him,” stated Hans Thoolen, Chair of the Award Jury.
Swamy had spent a lifetime working with Adivasi tribes on land, forest, and labour rights before dying at the age of 84. He had launched a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in response to the detention of thousands of teenage adivasis who had been labelled “Naxals” by investigating agencies. Swamy was a member of the banned CPI, according to the NIA, which detained him together with other activists such as lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj in 2020 under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act . “The jury wanted to highlight Father Stan’s numerous achievements to human rights, which cannot be overshadowed by his unfair imprisonment by Indian authorities,” Thoolen added.
The prize is known as the Nobel Prize for human rights defenders. Daouda Diallo of Burkina Faso, Pham Doan Trang of Vietnam, and Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja of Bahrain are the winners this year.
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