![\"AFP](\"..\/images\/AFP.gif\")
<\/a> Agence France Presse<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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OSLO, 21 September 2006 (AFP) – Thich Quang Do, a Vietnamese monk currently under house arrest, has been awarded the annual Norwegian Rafto human rights prize for his work in promoting democracy and freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
\tThe 77-year-old monk, researcher and author had \u201cdevoted his life to the advancement of justice and the Buddhist tradition of non-violence, tolerance and compassion,\u201d the Rafto Foundation said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe receives this prize for his personal courage and perseverance through three decades of peaceful opposition against the communist regime in Vietnam, and as a symbol for the growing democracy movement in the country,\u201d the jury said.<\/p>\n
Thich Quang Do is strongly supported by Vietnam\u2019s Buddhists and other religious communities as well as communist party veterans, the jury added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this award the Rafto Foundation wishes to express its support for all Vietnamese who are fighting for a peaceful transition to democracy,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Noting that \u201chundreds of political and religious dissidents remain in prison … and there is evidence of torture and mistreatment,\u201d the jury called on Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to implement his promise to increase the pace of reform.<\/p>\n
The award ceremony is to be held in Bergen on November 4.<\/p>\n
Given it is \u201cvery likely Thich Quang Do will be unable to travel (to the ceremony), it (the prize) may be accepted by the president of the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, Vo Van Ai,\u201d Rafto Foundation president Arne Liljedahl Lynngaard told AFP.<\/p>\n
The foundation, named after Norwegian professor Thorolf Rafto who spent most of his life fighting for human rights, created the prize in 1986.<\/p>\n
The prize consists of a cheque for 50,000 kroner (7,700 dollars, 6,000 euros) and has often been awarded to little-known people in an attempt to encourage their continued work.<\/p>\n
Four recipients of the Rafto, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor, South Korea\u2018s Kim Dae-Jung and Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, have gone on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Agence France Presse OSLO, 21 September 2006 (AFP) – Thich Quang Do, a Vietnamese monk currently under house arrest, has been awarded the annual Norwegian Rafto human rights prize for his work in promoting democracy and freedom of expression. The 77-year-old monk, researcher and author had \u201cdevoted his life to the advancement of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-press-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}