Budapest-based human rights group awarded

The Budapest-based organisation European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) has received the Raoul Wallenberg Prize of the Council of Europe for successfully challenging discrimination, anti-Romani racism and rights abuses of Roma through innovative litigation, evidence based research and policy development.

On January 17 in 1945 that Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who used his status to save tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, was arrested in Budapest. The Prize instituted in 2012 by the Council of Europe at the initiative of the Swedish Government and the Hungarian Parliament, is meant to keep his memory and outstanding achievements alive.

Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, said when awarding the 10,000 EUR prize to Ðorðe Jovanoviæ, the ERRC Director: “While it is a matter of regret that individuals and communities in our continent are still subject to abuse and mistreatment, it is right that prizes like this highlight problems that might otherwise be overlooked – and recognise those who have gone to extraordinary efforts to counter them.”