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2000
- the Foundation's inaugural Award for Moral Courage was
presented to Prof. Jan Karski himself.
2001
- award was given to Congressman John Lewis for his non-violent
leadership actions during the Civil Rights Movement in the
United States.
2002
- award was given posthumously to Father Mychal Judge who
ministered to street people and who died while ministering
to fallen firemen in the World Trade Center on September
11th.
2003
- award was given to two imprisoned Iranian dissidents,
Professor Hashem Aghajari and Mr. Abbas Amir Entezam.
Professor Aghajari is an Iranian scholar whose calls
for a progressive Islam honoring civil rights and separation
of religion and State led to his imprisonment by Iranian
authorities and his death sentence which was subsequently
been commuted.
Mr. Abbas Amir Entezam, the longest-serving prisoner
of conscience in Iran, has remained in jail for 20 years
as a consequence of his repeated insistence upon a secular
government and human rights for all Iranians.
2004
- award was given in absentia to Ms. Ingrid Betancourt,
a 40-year-old French and Colombian citizen and Colombian
senator who had been a candidate for President in Colombia
until her capture in 2002 by the Colombian FARC guerilla
force. Ms. Betancourt had campaigned for an end to
political corruption and of what she saw as the influence
of the Colombian drug cartels on government affairs.
Threatened with death, she was forced to send her children
to other countries for their protection but in spite of
her personal fear she maintained her campaign for human
rights and the dignity of ordinary Colombian citizens until
captured. www.betancourt.info
The Award also recognizes in a symbolic manner the 3000
other political hostages held by the FARC.
Jan
Karski Documentary Film Award
The
foundation also sponsors an international juried documentary
film competition, which grants the Jan Karski Film Award
each year to a filmmaker whose work evidences acts of moral
courage.
2000
- the Foundation honored "School Prayer: A Community at
War," by Slawomir Grunberg. The struggle of one family
with local school and political authorities to confirm their
acceptance the principal of separation of church and state
in the public school system.
2001
- "A Force More Powerful" by Steve York was honored.
This film highlights the popular uprising of Serbians against
their President, Slobodan Milosevich, which forced his removal
from power.
2002
- award went to "9/11" by Jules and Gedeon Naudet
and James Hanlon. Filmed within the wreckage of the
World Trade Center it highlight the heroism of firefighters
and ordinary citizens as they struggled to help each other
in face of almost certain death.
2003
- "Sisters in Resistance" by Maia Wechsler is
a portrayal of the Moral Courage of 4 French women in WWII
whose service in the underground led to their emprisonment
in German concentration camps.
2004
- "The kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt" by Karen
Hayes and Victoria Bruce which describes the
tense stand off between Ms. Betancourt and the entreachd
political and mafia forces until her capture.
2005
- To be announced in November 2005.
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