Human Rights Award

2010 International Human Rights Award Call for Nominations

The Human Rights Coalition of North Carolina invites you to submit nominations for the 15th annual International Human Rights Award. The nominee must be a resident of North Carolina who has made a significant contribution to international human rights. A list of previous recipients is below.

Nominations must be received on or before Tuesday, September 21, 2010. The nomination should include the following information:

1.nominee’s work and activities in support of international human rights
2.impact of nominee’s human-rights activities
3.biographical information about the nominee, including any previous awards
4.nominator’s relationship to nominee
5.supporting letters (1-3) and any other supporting documentation
6.name, address, phone number and email address of the nominee and of the nominator.

Nominations and inquiries should be directed to the Human Rights Coalition of North Carolina,
c/o Joyce Scapicchio, 5400 Neuse Forest Road, Raleigh, NC 27616; or by email to jmscapicchio@yahoo.com; phone and fax: (919) 876-0501

2009 International Human Rights Award

The Human Rights Coalition of North Carolina is pleased to announce Jerry Markatos as the recipient of its 2009 International Human Rights Award. Jerry is a “long-time unsung hero” in providing support for the human-rights struggles in Latin America and the Middle East. Here are some of his activities:

(a) extensive and unselfish service for 20 years on the board of Witness for Peace, Southeast and

(b) for Carolina Interfaith Taskforce on Central America,

(d) since the 1990s, hosting and organizing fundraising events each year for Pastors for Peace “to help them carry much-needed medical, educational and construction supplies to Cuba” and

(e) co-founding in 1991 and continuing to chair Balance and Accuracy in Journalism, a co-sponsor of many programs that have focused on human-rights abuses in the Middle East and in Latin America.

Thus, it is with great pride that we present this award to Jerry Markatos.

Previous Recipients of HRCNC’s International Human Rights Award

1996 — Gail Phares (Raleigh)

Gail Phares has dedicated many years of personal service on behalf of victims of human rights abuse in Central America and Haiti. She is a co-founder of the Witness for Peace program, which has sent hundreds of U.S. citizens into high-risk areas of Central America with the goal being to silence the guns solely by their presence. She founded the Carolina Interfaith Task Force for Central America (CITCA) and continues as its director. In this role she has promoted knowledge and action to reduce human-rights abuses in all areas of Central America.

Gail is an inspiration and role model for anyone involved in human-rights work. She has been courageous in her fight against human-rights abuses, risking her own life to defend the rights of others. She has been willing and effective in confronting government officials. She has raised the conscience of many and involved them in dramatic efforts in support of human rights.

1997 — Joe Straley (Chapel Hill)

Joe Straley has devoted 53 years in North Carolina as an untiring advocate of human rights. He has “witnessed” in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and now devotes considerable energy to planning and organizing fund-raising events to help people in those countries. He writes and publishes the Newsletter of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chapter of the Carolina Interfaith Task Force on Central America, keeping several hundred people in the Triangle area informed about current problems and events.

Although Central America has been a focus of Joe's work, he also extends his help to the less fortunate in many other countries — the former Yugoslavia, Iraq and the Philippines, to name just a few. For a number of years he has also led the Charles M. Jones Peace and Justice Committee of the Community Church of Chapel Hill, where he has often organized events to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. and the Holocaust.

1998 — Evelyn Mattern (Wake Forest)

Evelyn Mattern has helped advance human rights not only in our country (e.g., abolition of the death penalty, passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, justice for farm workers) but also in Latin America and in Iraq. Among her international human-rights contributions are these:

1.She was one of the founders and a very active member over many years of the Carolina Interfaith Task Force in Central America, “a faith-based movement dedicated to changing U.S government policies that contribute to poverty and oppression in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
2.She also was a major contributor for two decades to the work of Witness for Peace in supporting through nonviolent means “… peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas….”
3.In 1991 she was part of a group that traveled to Iraq in an attempt to prevent the First Gulf War. While there, she and other members of the group offered to take the place of hostages being held by the military in buildings that were likely targets of American bombers. As a result of this action, some of the hostages were released.

Says one of her colleagues, “…let me just note her passionate commitment to justice, her righteous indignation at injustice, her faithful siding with the outcast, her belief in the way of peace, her deep spirituality, her gentle spirit, her humility, her courage….”

1999 — Rania Masri (Raleigh)

Rania Masri is coordinator of the Iraq Action Coalition, an informational network dedicated to distributing news on the effects of the war and sanctions on the people of Iraq. The Iraq Action Coalition also assists in the coordination of activities and events nationwide and worldwide in opposition to the continuing military action against Iraq.

For several years she has written about the situation in Iraq for local, national and international news magazines and has spoken about it extensively at conferences and universities throughout the United States and Canada.

"She combines genuine passion with up-to-date knowledge to stir her audiences to action," says the letter nominating her for the award. She has been interviewed on CNN, Fox News, Pacifica Radio, Radio Canada International, Voice of America and numerous affiliates of National Public Radio.

2000 — Lonna and Richard Harkrader (Durham)

Following their service in the Peace Corps in Tunisia (Richard) and in Ethiopia and Ghana (Lonna), they have been sponsoring and supporting the resettlement of refugees from Burma, Eritrea and Ethiopia since 1974, and since 1995 they have been providing strong and continuing support to the people of San Ramon, Nicaragua, through the Durham-San Ramon Sister Communities Project. In addition, both Witness for Peace and the Carolina Interfaith Task Force on Central America for many years have been major beneficiaries of Lonna’s outstanding service and leadership.

2001 — John Paar (Raleigh)

Dr. John Paar, a Raleigh cardiologist, is the founder and president of Project Help
for Leon (Nicaragua). The project's many activities include:

1) establishing a cardiac care center as part of the School of Medicine at the University of Nicaragua in Leon;
2) continuing provision of equipment, supplies and training for the center; and
3) financing visits of young Nicaraguan physicians to the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill for postgraduate study in cardiology.

2002 — Mary-Lou Leiser Smith (Chapel Hill)

Mary Lou Leiser Smith has worked tirelessly through education and advocacy to promote “peace with justice” in the Middle East. Toward that end she has been a founder or co-founder of several organizations, including the Carolina Middle East Association, the Triangle Middle East Dialogue, and the Coalition for Peace with Justice, for which she currently serves as coordinator. In each organization she has been a leader in bringing together Christians, Jews and Muslims to seek just solutions that can provide the foundation for a lasting peace. Click here to read the remarks she gave at her award dinner.

2003 — David Potorti (Cary)

David Potorti is a founder and currently the East Coast Coordinator of September 11th: Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a nonprofit group of family members of 9/11 victims dedicated to finding alternatives to war as a response to their personal and national tragedies. Their efforts at home (e.g. on behalf of our country’s compensation of Afghan civilian victims of the war) and abroad (e.g., in Afghanistan, Iraq and Japan) have been recognized through several awards and most recently though nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Potorti has been a major force both in bringing "Peaceful Tomorrows" into being and in sustaining it.

2004 — Ray Buchanan (Raleigh)

Ray Buchanan is founder, president and CEO of Stop Hunger Now, a “non-profit international relief organization that coordinates the distribution of food and other life-saving aid across the globe.” Since its founding in 1996, it has provided such aid in more than 40 countries on five continents — e.g., in 2000 it initiated a “...sustainable $250,000 relief project for Sierra Leone to aid children affected by war and destruction,” in 2001 it furnished $2 million in aid to victims of the earthquake in El Salvador, and since 9/11 Stop Hunger Now has provided more than $8 million in cash and in-kind donations to the people of Afghanistan.

2005 — Ann Ross (Raleigh)

Dr. Ann Ross, a forensic anthropologist and co-director of the North Carolina Program for Forensic Science at North Carolina State University, is a specialist in human identification and trauma analysis. She has participated in identification missions in Bosnia and the Republic of Panama and has worked pro bono for the Panamanian Truth Commission, Republic of Panama, in their investigations of crimes committed by the military regimes of the 1970s and 1980s. More recently, her pro bono work for the Institute of Legal Medicine in Panama involved both contemporary forensic cases and cold cases. Her research focus includes developing standards and methods for improving the accuracy of identifications.

2006 — Mark Gibney (Asheville)

Dr. Mark Gibney is Belk Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Over the past 20 years he has lectured and published widely in many areas of international human rights and international law, focusing especially on the human rights aspects of immigration and refugee policy.

Dr. Gibney's publications have appeared both in the popular press (e.g., Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times) and in scholarly journals (e.g., Harvard Human Rights Journal, Journal of Transnational Law and Policy). He is a member of the Review Board of the Human Rights Quarterly and of the International Advisory Board of the International Studies Journal. Currently he is completing a term as president of the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association. He has also been honored several times for his teaching. (See an Independent Weekly article about Dr. Gibney and the award.)

2007 — Paul Luebke (Durham)

N.C. Rep. Paul Luebke has been a member of the N.C. General Assembly since 1991. During this past legislative session he was the senior sponsor of House Bill 291, the Sudan (Darfur) Divestment Act, and led the successful effort to achieve its passage (passed unanimously in both House and Senate). According to one colleague, “It would not have been passed without his initiative and leadership.” He has been a leader, also, in the effort here in North Carolina to end the use of our state's airports by Aerocontractors, a CIA subsidiary for the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. For many years he has championed the needs of immigrants in our state and has often been the lone voice on matters of fairness and constitutional protections to which all in this country are due.

2008 — Margaret “Peggy” Misch (Chapel Hill)

The following are highlights of Peggy Misch’s record:

1.Peggy is a founding member of the Coalition for Peace with Justice. She has worked assiduously over the years in support of a just resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on (a) equal human rights for Palestinians and Israelis and (b) adherence to international law.
2.She is a founding and very active member of North Carolina Stop Torture Now, which focuses on educating the public about our state’s direct involvement in torture and extraordinary rendition.
3.Through the Orange County Bill of Rights Defense Committee, of which she was the primary organizer, she works to protect the human rights of immigrants facing federal programs and xenophobia of many North Carolinians.

Peggy was honored at a dinner on Dec. 9, 2008. After being introduced by N.C. Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, Peggy spoke on “Whither Go Human Rights in 2009?” Click here to read Peggy's speech.