The Light of Truth Award is a

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award may be d ...

which is presented nearly annually by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), an NGO aiming for the promotion of

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

and

for the

Tibetan people Tibetans () are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group Indigenous peoples, native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, sig ...

. The award is presented since 1995 by the fourteenth

Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣识一切瓦齐尔达喇达赖喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...

, Tenzin Gyatso, to the recipients personally. The prize consists of a humble Tibetan butter lamp that serves as a symbol of the extraordinary light that every recipient brought to

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. In 2005 the ICT received an award itself, the '' Geuzenpenning'', a human rights award from the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The Light of Truth Award is granted to persons and organizations that have publicly contributed substantially to the rise of and battle for human rights and democratic freedoms of the Tibetan people. In 2001, the award was presented to the entire people of India, and accepted for them by president R. Venkataraman.

Recipients

* 1995: A. M. Rosenthal * 1996: Richard Gere, Lavinia Currier, and Michael Currier * 1997:

Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show ''Charlie Rose (talk show), Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg L.P., Bloombe ...

, and

Claiborne Pell Claiborne de Borda Pell (November 22, 1918 – January 1, 2009) was an American politician and writer who served as a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island for six terms from 1961 to 1997. He was the sponsor of the 1972 bill that reformed the Basic ...

* 1998:

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...

, and Melissa Mathison * 1999: Hugh Edward Richardson, and Danielle Mitterrand * 2000: Richard C. Blum * 2001: The people of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, taken delivery of by R. Venkataraman * 2002: Heinrich Harrer, and Petra Kelly * 2003: Benjamin A. Gilman, Michele Bohana, and Robert Thurman * 2004: Otto Graf Lambsdorff, Irmtraut Wäger, and

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...

* 2005:

Elie Wiesel Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel (September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates#1980, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel bibliogra ...

, Carl Gershman, and Lowell Thomas, Jr. * 2006: Hergé Foundation, and

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

* 2009: Julia Taft, and Wang Lixiong * 2011: George Patterson * 2013: Robert Ford,

International Commission of Jurists The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is an international human rights non-governmental organization. It is supported by an International Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland, and staffed by lawyers drawn from a wide range of jurisdi ...

, Sigrid Joss-Arnd, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, Theo van BovenLamp for the Path Teachings in Fribourg
, Dalai Lama website, 14 April 2013

References

*ICT
Recipients and description
*ICT
Light of Truth award to Patterson
March 25, 2011 *Geuzenverzet
recipients of de Geuzenpenning
{{in lang, nl *Canada Tibet Committee
'' 4. Light of Truth award to India''
December 17, 2002 Tibet Human rights awards