Pamplona (EFE).– The journalist and activist Philip Obaji Jr. and the Wassu UAB Foundation (Autonomous University of Barcelona) have received the international Jaime Brunet award for their work in favor of human rights.
The exaequo prize is endowed with 36,000 euros, which will be shared equally by the two winners.
The session also saw the delivery of the Jaime Brunet Award for Doctoral Theses to Juan Bautista Cartes and the Jaime Brunet University Award to Jeovanny Encalada, Sara Casanellas and Susana Hadzhieva (“exaequo”).
The “atrocities” committed by the Boko Haram group
The person in charge of delivering the prizes has been the rector of the UPNA, and president of the Jaime Brunet Foundation, Ramon Gonzalo. He has highlighted the “responsibility” of the Nigerian journalist in denouncing the “atrocities” committed by the Boko Haram group and the Wagner group.
Gonzalo has stressed the importance of the work of Obaji Jr: “He is a crucial voice in Africa in denouncing injustices and in the fight for human rights.”
The rector of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Javier Lafuente, has collected the award on behalf of the Wussau UAB Foundation. Gonzalo has indicated that the work of the foundation constitutes an “outstanding example of how the academy can play a crucial role in the fight against harmful traditional practices and in defense of human rights.”
Denunciation of the crimes committed by the Wagner Group
Obaji Jr. has denounced the crimes committed by the Wagner mercenary group in the Central African Republic. The Nigerian journalist has stated that “those who dare to speak out suffer systematic violence or threats.” Similarly, Obaji Jr. has accused Wagner members of “targeting vulnerable populations in central Africa under Russian rule with the aim of selling gold and diamonds.”
The winner has also explained what is the most difficult part of his job: “Having to comfort the survivors who often struggle to control themselves and being able to narrate the ordeal they have gone through.” Obaji Jr has finished his speech with a message of hope.
The fight against female mutilation of the Wassu Foundation
The Foundation has received the award for its career, since its foundation in The Gambia in 1999, against female genital mutilation.
The rector of the UAB, Javier Lafuente, has highlighted the creation of “a contextualized, efficient and sustainable prevention and care strategy in matters of female genital mutilation” by the Wassu Foundation.
Lafuente has highlighted the work of the Foundation, “both on the ground and also training African women to act as health agents.” Her work, moreover, “has been decisive in the promulgation of a law in 2015 in The Gambia that prohibits female mutilation,” she explained.
In his speech, he gave a “terrible” fact that “at least 200 million women and girls in 30 countries have been subjected to female genital mutilation.” In this regard, “and despite the fact that the situation is far from being on track”, he has provided another more “optimistic” piece of information: The rate of girls and women between the ages of 15 and 19 subjected to mutilation has dropped from 50% to 30%. % from 2000 to 2017.