The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) is happy to congratulate Mr. Biram Dah Abeid, President of IRA-Mauritania (Initiative pour la Résurgence du mouvement Abolitionniste), on winning the 2013 United Nations Human Rights Prize.

This prize, awarded every five years, was created in 1966 to honour and commend people and organizations who have made an outstanding contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights. By awarding Mr. Biram Dah Abeid, the UN shows its support to the struggle of IRA and its President for the abolition of slavery in Mauritania - a practice that particularly targets UNPO’s Haratin Member.

This year, the award ceremony will take place at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday 10 December 2013, on the occasion of the annually celebrated Human Rights Day.

Below is the statement of IRA on the awarding of the United Nations Human Rights Prize to Mr. Biram Dah Abeid, President of IRA.

Initiative pour la Résurgence du mouvement Abolitionniste (IRA)

IRA President Biram Dah Abeid Winner of the United Nations Human Rights Prize

The Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations has informed IRA President Biram Dah Abeid that he is one of the five winners of the United Nations Human Rights Prize, awarded every five years. Having informed the Mauritanian Government of its decision, the UN invited the President of IRA to the award ceremony, which will be held on Tuesday 10 December 2013, at its headquarters in New York, on the occasion of Human Rights Day 2013. The Mauritanian regime did not appreciate this news.

The United Nations Human Rights Prize was instituted by resolution 2217 of the General Assembly on 19 December 1966, to award individuals or organizations who have done outstanding work to protect and/or promote human rights.

Among the notable personalities who have received this prize, the following can be found: René Cassin from France (1968, one of the authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948), Taha Hussein from Egypt (1973), Martin Luther King from the United States (1978), Nelson Mandela from South Africa (1988), Benazir Bhutto from Pakistan (2008) and now Biram Dah Abeid, from Mauritania.

After the Weimar Prize 2011, the Front Line Defenders Award 2013 and a nomination for the Sakharov Prize 2013, the United Nations is now the next in line to show its support for the anti-slavery battles waged by IRA and its President in Mauritania. This is another victory for freedom fighters against the forces of obscurantism and alienation.

IRA’s President is currently touring the Americas. After a visit to Mexico, he moved on to the United States, where he met with numerous important personalities and organizations defending human rights and fighting against slavery (Freedom House, inter alia).

While the President travels the world to carry the voice of anti-slavery activists beyond our borders, IRA continues and amplifies the fight at home. The message that the United Nations Human Rights Prize has been awarded to their President reached IRA activists as they crossed the 75 km line of the Boutilimit-Nouakchott route, i.e. halfway through the 150 km long "March Against Impunity" launched on 27 November. The goal of this march is to support the struggle of Nourra Mint Aheimed and remember the murder of 28 Negro-African militaries shamefully executed in Inal on 28 November 1990.

After Europe and America, the UN follows suit, showing its appreciation to IRA and its fight. Mauritania has become the only place in the world where IRA is not recognized and where militancy is punished and fundamental rights are violated.

We congratulate the unofficial Mauritania, the Haratin people and activists of IRA, on this honourable award that will be received in their name and honour by the Ambassador of Justice and Equality, Biram Dah Abeid, at the United Nations headquarters on the occasion of Human Rights Day 2013.

La Commission de Communication - November 30, 2013