The award aims to recognize activism in defense of humanrights by people, groups, or organizations located inauthoritarian-governed countries or countries which haverecently marked a serious regression of civil and politicalliberties. These criteria are evaluated according to reports byprestigious international organizations.

Nominations can be submitted by private individuals, legal entities, or de facto entities. The winner will be selected by the Award jury: Norma Morandini, Vicente Palermo, and Rubén Chababo.

The winner will receive a plaque and an invitation to an all-expenses-paid trip to the Award ceremony on August 23 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the Annual Victims of Totalitarianism Memorial Conference. The invitation to Buenos Aires will also include a series of meetings with local human rights leaders, civil society organizations, and legislators, as well as presentations at universities and media interviews.

Call for Nominations 2023

CADAL is pleased to announce the 2023 Graciela Fernández Meijide Award for the Defense of Human Rights, coinciding with CADAL’s 20 th anniversary. The call for nominations for the first edition of this award goes out to individuals, organizations, or groups from the following Central American and Caribbean countries: Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Award Criteria

• The nonviolent nature of the nominee’s actions towards the defense of Human Rights.
• The danger and degree of risk confronted by the nominated person or organization because of their activity.
• The impact of the nominee’s actions on their home country’s society and on national or international opinion.
• That the Graciela Fernández Meijide Award and its associated benefits will increase the visibility of the nominated person or organization and raise awareness about the situation in their country.

Terms and Conditions

• Nominees can be private individuals, civil society organizations (de facto or with legal status), or groups who are currently and actively working to defend Human Rights.
• Any incomplete nominations will not be considered.
• If the nominated person, organization, or group is in exile, their nominationwill only be considered if their exile is involuntary or for the protection oftheir safety.
• Self-nominations will not be considered.

Graciela Fernández Meijide

Meijide was born in Buenos Aires in 1931. She was a French professor until 1976, when her son Pablo disappeared. From then on she began to work with the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights, and in 1983 she joined the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP). In 1993, she was elected as a National Deputy for the City of Buenos Aires, and the following year she participated in the Constitutional Convention which reformed the National Constitution. She was then elected National Senator and presided over the Establishing Convention. In 1997, she was elected to serve as National Deputy by the Province of Buenos Aires until 1999, when she was appointed as Minister of Social Development. She published several books, including «An Intimate History of Human Rights in Argentina and «Humans, not Heroes: Criticizing the Political Violence of the 70s. Her biography«Nenuca: The Story of Graciela Fernández Meijide, was written by Pablo Marmorato. She was president of the Argentine Political Club.

She was distinguished with the following honors: the Order of Merit of Chile, Rank of Officer (Embassy of Chile, 1999); the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, Cavaliere Di Gran Croce (2001); Illustrious Citizen of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (2016); the Platinum Konex for Activity as a Social Director (2018); Doctor Honoris Causa, Siglo 21 University (2020); and Commandeur dans l’ordre national de la Légion d’honneur (Embassy of France, 2022).

About the Jury

Norma Morandini

Writer and journalist. Columnist for the newspapers La Nación and Clarin. Contributor to El País in Spain. She was a foreign press correspondent and carried out special coverage of the Trial of the Argentine Military Juntas for the Brazilian newspaper O Globo. She was honored with several awards for her work as a journalist. She was a National Deputy from 2005 to 2009 and a National Senator from 2009 to 2015. Her legislative work was dedicated to human rights and freedom of expression. Between 2015 and 2019, she directed the Argentine Senate’s Human Rights Observatory. In 2011, she was one of the nation’s vice-presidential candidates. She is the author of several books and the vice-president of CADAL.

Vicente Palermo

Doctor of Political Science (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). Lead Researcher at CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council). He has lived in Brazil, Spain, and Italy and has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at universities from Argentina, Brazil, Spain, and Uruguay. Founding member and past president of the Argentine Political Club. Received the Platinum Konex in 2016. Author of several books, including Salt to a Wound: The Malvinas in contemporary Argentine culture (Editorial Sudamericana, 2007), which won the LASA Premio Iberoamericano Award in 2009 and the third National Culture Award in 2011.

Rubén Chababo

Professor of Literature at Rosario National University where he teaches the annual Seminar on Memory and Human Rights. He is a professor for and member of the Academic Council for the Master’s in Cultural Studies at Rosario National University and was a member of the Bogotá National Center of Historic Memory’s International Assessment Council (Colombia). Between 2002 and 2014 he was the Director of the city of Rosario’s Memorial Museum, one of the first museum institutions dedicated to the topic of State Terrorism in Argentina. Also notable was his work as the Municipality of Rosario’s Director of Human Rights. He was the Director of the International Democracy Museum and the Executive Director of the Latin American International Federation of Museums of Human Rights. He is an Academic Consultant to CADAL.

Contact us: premiogfm@cadal.org