When: Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 5:30 PM Light Fare, 7:00 PM Ceremony
Where: National Press Club Ballroom, 13th floor, 529 14th St NW, Washington DC
Who: Institute for Policy Studies; Wisconsin Progressive Movement; Bethlehem, the Migrant’s Shelter
Washington DC – The Institute for Policy Studies hosts its 35th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, October 12, to honor unsung heroes of the progressive movement. The awards ceremony comes as IPS approaches its 50th year of speaking truth to power. Past awardess include: Seymour Hersh (2004), Pulitzer Prize winning journalist; The Association of Relatives of Disappeared People (1979), Chile; Senator Gustavo Petro of Colombia (2007); The Union of Indigenous Nations of Brazil (1989); and Pete Seeger (1986), folk music legend.
The winners of the 2011 Letelier-Moffit Human Rights Award are:
The Wisconsin Progressive Movement is standing up for working families and for a strong public sector. The protests of Wisconsin workers continue to challenge an unjust status quo and breathe new life into the progressive movement.
Bethlehem, The Migrant’s Shelter (Mexico) works to protect migrants in Mexico from kidnapping, extortion, sexual abuse, and murder. As a voice for the human rights of migrants in transit, it has courageously challenged both organized crime and complicit public officials.
On September 21, 1976, agents of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet detonated a car bomb that killed IPS colleagues Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean diplomat and director of the Institute’s Transnational Institute, and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, an IPS development associate, in Washington DC. Each year in October, the Institute for Policy Studies hosts the annual human rights award in the names of Letelier and Moffitt to honor these fallen colleagues while celebrating new heroes of the human rights movement from the United States and the Americas.
# # #
Institute for Policy Studies (www.ips-dc.org) is a community of public scholars and organizers linking peace, justice, and the environment in the United States and globally. We work with social movements to promote true democracy and challenge concentrated wealth, corporate influence, and military power.