Martin Ennals (27 July 19275 October 1991) was a British
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 ...
activist.
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 (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...
of
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 that it has more than ten million members a ...
from 1968 to 1980. He went on to help found the British human rights organisation
ARTICLE 19 in 1987 and
International Alert in 1985.
During Ennals's tenure as secretary general, Amnesty International was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...
, the
Erasmus Prize, 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 of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...
,
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...
to Arthur Ford Ennals and his wife Jessie Edith Taylor. Ennals was educated at
Queen Mary's Grammar School and the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
, 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, and also became secretary general of the
National Council for Civil Liberties, a position that he held until 1966, when he became information and publications officer of the
Commission for Racial Equality.
[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
International Alert.
Ennals had two elder brothers, John and David.
David Ennals was a British
Labour Party politician who served as
Secretary of State for Social Services, while John Ennals was Chairman of the Anti-Apartheid Movement from 1968 to 1976.
Award
The
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, 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 that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
,
Frontline,
International Commission of Jurists,
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".
The Annual Ceremony organised with the City of Geneva is an event with world Internet and TV coverage.
See also
*
Human rights defender
Notes
External links
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights DefendersHuman 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
People educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School
Place of birth missing
Place of death missing