Martin Ennals (27 July 19275 October 1991) was a British

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

. Ennals served as the

secretary-general Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

from 1968 to 1980. He went on to help found the British human rights organisation ARTICLE 19 in 1987 and

International Alert International Alert is a global peacebuilding charity offering dialogue, training, research and policy analysis, advocacy and outreach activities focusing on solving the root causes of conflict with people from across divides. For over 30 yea ...

in 1985. During Ennals's tenure as secretary general, Amnesty International was awarded the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

, the

Erasmus Prize The Erasmus Prize is an annual prize awarded by the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation to individuals or institutions that have made exceptional contributions to culture, society, or social science in Europe and the rest of the world. I ...

, and the UN Human Rights Award.

Early life and career

Born in 1927 in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

to Arthur Ford Ennals and his wife Jessie Edith Taylor. Ennals was educated at

Queen Mary's Grammar School Queen Mary's Grammar School (QMGS) is a boys' grammar school with academy status located on Sutton Road, Walsall, England, about a mile from the town centre and one of the oldest schools in the country. The sixth form is coeducational. Admiss ...

and the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

, where he received a degree in international relations. Ennals worked for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) from 1951 to 1959. In 1959, Ennals became a founding member of the

Anti-Apartheid Movement The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-White population who were persecuted by the policie ...

, and also became secretary general of the

National Council for Civil Liberties Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes huma ...

, a position that he held until 1966, when he became information and publications officer of the

Commission for Racial Equality The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom which aimed to address racial discrimination and promote racial equality. The commission was established in 1976, and disbanded in 2007 when its ...

.David P. Forsyth, "Encyclopedia of Human Rights", Oxford University Press Ennals became Secretary General of Amnesty International in 1968. At the time, the organization had 7 staff and an annual budget of £17'000. Twelve years later, the staff had grown to 150 with an annual budget of £2 million. Ennals represented an era where Amnesty became a human rights organization of global concern. Amnesty was awarded the Erasmus Prize in 1976, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977, and the UN Human Rights Award in 1978. Ennals had other people accept the prizes on behalf of Amnesty. In 1982 Ennals led the founding assembly of HURIDOCS and was its founding President. In 1986 Ennals became the first secretary general of

. Ennals had two elder brothers; John and David. David Ennals was a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Social Services.

Award

The

Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, sometimes called "the Nobel Prize for human rights", is an annual prize for human rights defenders. It was created in 1993 to honour and protect individuals around the world who demonstrate excep ...

, created in 1993, is granted annually to someone who has demonstrated an exceptional record of combating human rights violations by courageous means and is in need of protection. The award gives international "protective publicity" to human rights defenders around the world, mainly in their country of origin (a unique characteristic of this award, and very important from a protection point of view), through too much mass media (television, radio and internet). The winner is selected in Geneva, the world center for human rights, by a jury made up of 10 leading international human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International,

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ...

Frontline Front line refers to the forward-most forces on a battlefield. Front line, front lines or variants may also refer to: Books and publications * ''Front Lines'' (novel), young adult historical novel by American author Michael Grant * ''Frontlines ...

International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists—including senior judges, attorneys and academics—who work to develop national and inte ...

, HURIDOCS, etc. The Martin Ennals Award is considered ''the'' award of the whole human rights movement. It is known as "the Nobel prize for human rights".Le Monde, 2008, http://www.lemonde.fr/asie-pacifique/article/2008/11/24/le-combat-de-mutabar-tadjibaeva-survivante-des-geoles-de-tachkent_1122352_3216.html The Annual Ceremony organised with the City of Geneva is an event with world Internet and TV coverage.

Notes

External links

Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders

Human rights defenders from Iran and Zimbabwe receive Martin Ennals Award 2006, presented by Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ennals, Martin 1927 births 1991 deaths Amnesty International people British human rights activists Place of birth missing Place of death missing

Early life and career

Award

See also

Notes

External links