* Rights groups opposed prize sponsored by African leader
* Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang and family accused of
corruption
* Name of prize changed to omit his name
PARIS, July 17 (Reuters) – The United Nations’ cultural and
science body UNESCO handed out a prize sponsored by the
president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, defying
campaigners’ calls not to do so because of corruption
allegations against Teodoro Obiang.
France and other European countries boycotted a ceremony in
Paris to award the prize, unimpressed by a decision to change
its name to remove any reference to the president himself.
Three scientific researchers, from Egypt, Mexico and South
Africa, working on vaccine development, food scarcity in Africa
and parasitic diseases won $100,000 each in prize money.
A statement by seven rights groups, including Human Rights
Watch, called the award “shameful and utterly irresponsible” and
warned that the UNESCO risked tarnishing its credibility.
President Obiang, who had been scheduled to come for the
ceremony, did not attend. It was also skipped by UNESCO Director
General Irina Bokova, who had publicly voiced her opposition to
the prize.
Despite calls to abandon it, the governing council of
Paris-based UNESCO voted by 33 to 18 with six abstentions to
approve awarding what was originally called the “UNESCO-Obiang
prize” but renamed the “UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International
Prize for Research in the Life Sciences”.
Continued…
