Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
In his capacity as Chairman of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights, the Director-General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr Jackie Selebi, is at the United Nations in New York as part of an international committee responsible for the selection of five recipients of the 1998 United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights. Mr Selebi will be joined on the Committee by Dr Didier Opertti, Foreign Minister of Uruguay and President of the UN General Assembly, Mr El-Hadji Guisse, the Chairman of the UN Sub-Commission for Human Rights, Dr Patricia Flor, Chairperson of the UN Commission on the Status of Women and Mr Alyaksandr Sychou, Permanent Representative of Belarus to the UN. The successful candidates will be presented with their prizes by the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on 10 December 1998 at the plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The prizes, which are honorary in nature, are made to persons or organisations who have made outstanding contributions to the promotion and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other UN human rights instruments. The were first awarded in 1968 and have included the following awardees, Chief Albert Luthuli, Mrs Helen Suzman, The International Committee of the Red Cross, President Nelson Mandela and the Medical Personnel of the Central Hospital of Sarajevo.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRETORIA 21 OCTOBER 1998