Jailed human rights activist Illhan Tohti wins Martin Ennals Award
Q. Who has won the award for human rights called the Martin Ennals Award 2016?- Published on 12 Oct 16a. Liu Xi Ping
b. Guo Yushan
c. Huang Qi
d. Illham Tohti
ANSWER: Illham Tohti
Leading human rights organisations have awarded the annual prize for human rights defenders to imprisoned Chinese Muslim minority economics professor, Illham Tohti, garnering new attention on a case that has brought strong global condemnation
- The Martin Ennals award is given by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and 8 other human rights groups
- Award was announced on 11th Oct and the award ceremony will take place in Geneva, Switzerland
- Prof. Tohti has been jailed for life on account of “separatism” in Sept 2014, after a 2 day long trial
- A member of the Turkic Muslim Uighur ethnic group, he has taught at Beijing’s Minzu university and criticised China’s ethnic policies in Xinjiang.
- He has denied advocating separatism
- He also worked to bring Uighur grievances to light
- His sentence brought international condemnation from Western nations such as the EU
- Chinese government policies and an influx of migrants of the majority Han ethnic group have threatened cultures bring economic marginalisation
- Sentiments such as these have brought deadly riots in Urumqi in 2009
- Stopped from publishing, Prof. Tohti had turned to the Internet, running a site to foster discussion about social, economic and developmental issues handled by Chinese Uighur
- The other finalists for the award were Ethiopian collective for independent journalism Zone 9 bloggers and Syrian human rights lawyer, activist and journalist Razan Zaitouneh.
