The Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights was an annual human rights prize founded by the Libyan People's Congress in late 1988, in "indebtedness and gratitude for Muammar Gaddafi and in appreciation for his role in firmly establishing the principle of direct democracy, his persistent struggle, his distinctive inspiration and continuous instigation for the consolidation of human liberty and for issuing the Great Green Document in the era of the masses, for the purpose of bestowing tribute upon symbolic figures of struggle and faith in the values of freedom to all humans, nations, groups and individuals".About us Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 20 February 2011.

Gaddafi made an initial grant of ten million US$ to the Swiss-based foundation North-South XXI which later administered the prize donation. The sum of the prize money was US $250,000 (in case of several recipients the prize money was shared). The prize was given by an international committee, chaired by former President of Algeria Ahmed Ben Bella.Chairman of the International Committee for the Gadhafi International Human Rights Prize 2004, former Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella, left, shakes hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during his awarding ceremony of the 'Gadhafi International Human Rights Prize 2004' in Tripoli, Libya. Tributes.com Gaddafi himself had no say in choosing the recipient.

The prize was discontinued in 2011, after Gaddafi's overthrow and death during the Libyan Civil War.

Criticism of the organization includes Swiss TV's report claiming that "the Gaddafi prize for Human Rights is an instrument for propaganda for the dictator", while other groups have said that it promoted "anti-American and anti-Western hatred".

List of recipients Year Recipient(s) Portrait(s) 1989 Nelson Mandela 1990 The children of Palestine 1991 The indigenous peoples of the Americas 1992 The African Centre for Combating AIDS 1993 The children of Bosnia and Herzegovina 1994 The Union of Human Rights Societies and Peoples in Africa 1995 Ahmed Ben Bella and Francisco da Costa Gomes 1996 Louis Farrakhan 1997 Gracelyn Smallwood, Melchior Ndadaye, Melba Hernandez, Manal Younes Abdul-Razzak, Doreen McNally 1998 Fidel Castro 1999 The children of Iraq 2000 Souha Bechara, Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Evo Morales, the Movement of September, the Third World Center 2002 Mamadou N'Diaye, Roger Garaudy, Ibrahim Al-Koni, Jean Ziegler (who claimed to have turned the award down but was later found to have accepted it),The nomination of Jean Ziegler to the Council of Human Rights is not unanimous"Swiss human rights campaigner turns down "Kadhafi" award", Agence France-Press, 1 October 2002. Nadeem Albetar, Ali M. Almosrati, Khaifa M. Attelisie, Mohamed A. Alsherif, Ali Fahmi Khshiem, Rajab Muftah Abodabos, Mohamed Moftah Elfitori, Ali Sodgy Abdulgader, Ahmed Ibrahim Elfagieh 2003 Pope Shenouda III of AlexandriaThe Role of the Coptic Church in Africa African Perspectives, Volume 10 - Issue 36 – p. 65, 2012 2004 Hugo Chávez 2005 Mahathir Mohamad 2006 Evo Morales 2007 Libraries of Timbuktu 2008 Dom Mintoff 2009 Daniel Ortega 2010 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Postage stamps issue The Libyan state-owned General Posts and Telecommunications Company (GPTC) dedicated a postage stamps issue to Ghadafi Prize for Human Rights in 1994 (date of issue December 31). The issue consists of a minisheet with sixteen stamps.

Each horizontal strip of four stamps is dedicated to a particular subject: Nelson Mandela Indigenous peoples of the Americas Bosnian War Intifada in Palestine

References

External links List of recipients of the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights AlGaddafi.org