Monday, October 10, 2011

Lantos Foundation
for Human Rights and Justice

Media Release
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For Immediate Release
Contact: Candace Bryan Abbey
(202) 276-4821

October 6, 2011



Lantos Foundation to Honor Rwandan Humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina
2011 Lantos Prize to be awarded in November

WASHINGTON, DC – The Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice
is proud to announce that Rwandan humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina will be
the 2011 recipient of the Lantos Human Rights Prize. The formal presentation
of the award will take place in Washington, DC on November 16th, 2011.

Paul Rusesabagina is widely hailed as a hero of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
As a hotel manager during the time of the conflict, Rusesabagina was able
to provide shelter to 1,268 people, both Hutus and Tutsis, ultimately saving
them from certain death. His efforts were chronicled in the 2004 Academy
Award nominated film Hotel Rwanda and his autobiography “An Ordinary Man”.
Today, Rusesabagina continues his efforts for truth, reconciliation and sustainable
peace in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region of Africa through his work
as President of the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation
(www.hrrfoundation.org).

“We are so proud to award this year’s Lantos Prize to Paul Rusesabagina.
I was raised on the idea that we are all our brothers’ keepers, and Paul is
the living embodiment of that idea,” said Katrina Lantos Swett, President
of the Lantos Foundation. “My father, Congressman Tom Lantos, survived
the Holocaust in one of Raoul Wallenberg’s safehouses and understood all
too well that the actions of one man can change the arc of one’s life story.
Nearly 50 years later, Paul Rusesabagina’s heroic efforts to shelter those
in harm’s way changed the life stories of more than 1,200 Rwandans.
We look forward to honoring his historic humanitarian actions.”

The Lantos Foundation established the Lantos Human Rights Prize in 2009
to honor and bring attention to heroes of the human rights movement.
It is awarded annually to an individual or organization that best exemplifies
the Foundation’s mission, namely to be a vital voice standing up for the
values of decency, dignity, freedom, and justice in every corner of the world.
The prize also serves to commemorate the late Congressman Tom Lantos,
the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to the U.S. Congress and a prominent
advocate for human rights during his nearly three decades as a U.S. Representative.
Former recipients of the Lantos Prize include His Holiness the Dalai Lama and
Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.

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posted by Mamadou Kouyate @ 11:04 AM

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