ONE Act a Week: End UNESCO’s ‘Dictator Prize’

Sep 30th, 2011 10:03 AM UTC
By Malaka Gharib

Action: 14. Time: 5 minutes. Level of difficulty: Moderately Easy

For this week’s ONE Act, we want you to take action against the UNESCO-Obiang International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences. The $3 million award, funded by Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang (the longest-ruling head of state in Africa), recognizes “scientific achievements that improve the quality of human life.”

This award, which will be subject to a vote by UNESCO’s board within the next 10 days, is wrong on so many levels and represents a strong example of the country’s misguided spending priorities.

The $3 million should go toward improving the living standards and productivity of their citizens, not toward showy infrastructure projects. In a country of 650,000 thousand people, overflowing with oil, three out of four Equatoguineans live below the poverty line, and many citizens still live in slums without reliable access to electricity and running water. On top of that, 1 in 10 children under the age of 5 dies from a preventable disease because of lack of access to basic health care.

What’s sad is that human rights defenders, press freedom organizations, anti-corruption groups and prominent public figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu convinced UNESCO to rescind this awful prize last year — but now it’s BACK.

Please take action against this “Dictator Prize” and write a message to UNESCO’s Director General Irina Bokova in the form below. Tell her — along with your personal message — that UNESCO should reject dictators, not honor them. Let’s cancel this award permanently. We will deliver your messages to UNESCO next Friday.

ONE Act a Week is a weekly anti-poverty action to get you thinking, talking, sharing and learning about our issues. If we all just donated a few moments of our time each week, we can make some serious magic happen.

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