APPRECIATION SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCE PROFESSOR ROBERT DUSSEY AFTER RECEIVING THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE IN ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen, and
Dear young people of the conscience generation,
Last December, while in Abuja at a meeting of ECOWAS, our sub-regional community institution in West Africa, I was informed by His Excellency Ambassador Dr. Muhammad Shahid Amin Khan of my designation as one of the recipients of the International Human Rights Prize on behalf of the International Commission on Human Rights, of which he is the President, for my diplomatic achievements in the service of the ideal of a fairer, more equitable, secure, sustainable, and simply more human world.
By receiving today the honour that your prestigious institution, the International Commission on Human Rights, has been kind enough to give me, my gratitude is very deep insofar as this prize, beyond my person, comes to reward the Togolese and African diplomacy which try to play their part in order to help our world to face the great disturbances and challenges of our time and to build itself better.
The situation of our current world is that of a world in a worrying state of disorganization where we are witnessing the revenge of the warmongering relents on the international consensus as regards international peace and security whereas the latter are global public goods, whose guarantee and effectiveness condition the exercise of human rights, in particular the human right, fundamental to sustainable development and well-being.
In our current situation, there is an imperative need to relight the candle of peace in people’s minds and to reactivate the seeds of peace in the conscience of humanity.
To tackle this immense challenge of our time is not easy. But, fortunately, history teaches us that periods of great turbulence are also times of strong and fertile imagination, of remarkable innovations and advances. We must and can do better for the cause of peace and human rights in the world in a spirit of universal brotherhood and planetary solidarity.
The prize that I have been awarded today convinces me that I can still and we can still do better for the cause of human rights and peace in the world. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the International Commission on Human Rights and its Chairman, Ambassador Dr. Muhammad Shahid Amin Khan, for this symbolic and inspiring award. In our country, thanks is the other name of recognition and the indispensable counterpart of charity.
This prize is in fact an alliance of our common fight for human rights and peace in the world. It is indeed a fight that is worthwhile and deserves our common mobilization when we know, as the African wise man Amadou Hampâté Bâ said, that “Man is the guarantor of the balance of creation”. We must work harder for the health of the international society.
The awarding of this prize is an expression of credit on the part of your organization for the work of international public utility that it accomplishes for and in favor of the cause of human rights, peace, justice and tolerance, which are transcultural and universal values that are essential to our planetary living together.
Once again, thank you.