2008 Nomination Form

NOMINATION & SELECTION PROCESS PRINCIPLES

Eligibility

Persons working nonviolently to promote and protect human rights of any race, creed, religion, nationality, gender or sexual orientation are eligible for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

Those working within their own country’s social change process and who have worked strategically and effectively to address serious human rights problems are given the highest priority. Often these human rights defenders are working against tremendous odds and at grave risk to themselves.

Qualifications

1) The laureate does not need to be widely known. Ordinary individuals are often made extraordinary by circumstances and principles. Working locally or in obscurity often requires particularly great courage. Although the RFK Center greatly respects and admires long-serving and prominent human rights activities, this is not a lifetime achievement award.

2) The laureate should have an established reputation for integrity, creativity and commitment to principles of human rights.

3) The activists should be associated with or perhaps lead a non-governmental organization which is a major contributor to a social movement working to achieve a specific social change. Persons working for a government or semi-government institution are not eligible.

Cash Prize

A one-time total cash prize of U.S. $30,000 will be given to the individual selected to receive the Award. While it is preferable that one individual is given the award, if more than one recipient is selected in a year, the cash prize will be divided equally among the recipients.

Human Rights Support

The RFK Center for Human Rights engages in long-term partnerships with its laureates and their organizations to assist them in achieving their social change goals. The RFK Center provides legal and technical assistance, marshals resources, increases public awareness, and generates domestic and international political support for its Award recipients and their social movements. Together we develop and implement programs, striving to realize each movement’s social change goals and to ultimately enhance the worldwide human rights movement.

Award Ceremony

The Award ceremony will be held in Washington, D.C., on a date in November as close as possible to November 20, the birthday of Robert F. Kennedy. When recipients are unable to travel to the United States to receive the Award, the ceremony will take place and an appropriate representative will accept the Award on behalf of the recipient. In such cases, the Center for Human Rights will make a recommendation to the Board of the Memorial as to whether a delegation should be constituted to attempt to present the Award to the recipients in their home countries during the year following the Award ceremony.

Procedures for Nomination

1) Anyone can nominate for the RFK Human Rights Award. The RFK Center will seek nominations from the Global Advocacy Team and from a wide spectrum of individuals likely to know of appropriate candidates. While the RFK Human Rights Award Judges may not nominate candidates for the Award, they may, before their first meeting, renominate candidates who were nominated but not selected in the previous year.

2) There is no limit to the number of nominations an individual can make, but no self-nominations will be accepted.

3) The RFK Center will request and collect nominations and assemble supporting materials for presentation to the judges. Those nominations clearly not falling within the established criteria will not be presented to the judges.

Selection Process

1) The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award judges shall select recipients of the Award.

2) There will be five judges whose sole responsibility is to select the laureate. Judges will serve five-year terms that may be renewed one time at the discretion of the Board of the Memorial.

3) The emphasis of the RFK Human Rights Award is on the power of individual moral courage to stop injustice and to advance the cause of human rights. While the judges may select, when appropriate, a group or more than one individual to receive the Award, the Board of the Memorial strongly reaffirms its judgment that the selection of an individual best reflects and advances the values for which the Award was established. Nominees other than those selected as recipients will remain confidential; there will be no public identification of finalists or of an honor roll of selected nominees.

4) There are no limitations on factors the judges may consider. The Board of the Memorial recognizes the prestige of the Award, the value to the laureates’ work of the cash prize, and the importance to the laureates of the RFK Center’s commitment to devote time and resources to work that supports or complements their efforts. The Board encourages the judges to consider the potential impact of the Award in enhancing and advancing the nominees’ work. The judges should consider the RFK Center’s capacity to implement a meaningful collaborative program with the nominee, the potential of the RFK Center’s work to advance the laureates’ causes, and the impact that selection of a particular nominee may have on the resources and work of the RFK Center.

**** The nomination deadline for the 2008 Human Rights Award is April 15, 2008****
For more information please contact Colleen Buhrer at nominations@rfkmemorial.org.