The government and civil society of Taiwan have been named as the first recipients of Freedom House’s Beacon Award.
Taiwan’s “steadfast efforts to protect their own vibrant democracy, and to support the global struggle for freedom, in the face of escalating pressure from the Chinese Communist Party” helped the nation to earn the award, the Washington-based advocacy group said in a statement on Wednesday.
Former US ambassador to the UK Robert Tuttle on Tuesday presented the award to Representative to the US Alexander Yui (俞大㵢) and civil society representative Chiang Min-yen (江旻諺), the statement said.
Photo from Freedom House’s X
Chiang is a nonresident fellow at the Taipei-based Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology.
At the awards ceremony, Yui quoted President William Lai (賴清德), who in an address on Tuesday on the first anniversary of his presidency said that “Taiwan relied on the participation and coming together of its citizens.”
“We do not fear differences in opinion because the core of democracy is about finding, within difference, unity,” Yui said, quoting the president, in a Facebook post by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US.
Founded in 1941, Freedom House is a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that “works to create a world where all are free,” according to its Web site.
“For more than 80 years, Freedom House has worked to defend human rights and promote democratic change by challenging unjust governments, defending civil liberties at home and abroad, and providing support for frontline activists who bravely strive for fundamental freedoms,” the Web site says.
“Our yearly awards honor courageous individuals and innovative groups that have made significant contributions to the cause of human rights and democracy,” it adds.
In other categories, Maria Corina Machado, the leader of Venezuela’s democratic movement, received the annual Freedom Award, which “recognizes outstanding leaders in the cause of freedom and democracy,” Freedom House said.
The Leadership Award for “principled US leadership on the world stage and support for those on the front lines of the struggle against tyranny” was awarded to US senators Jeanne Shaheen and Roger Wicker.
Server Mustafayev, a Crimean Tatar human rights defender whose arrest by Russian authorities in 2018 was “widely recognized as politically motivated,” received the Alfred Moses Liberty Award, which honors “exemplary courage by political prisoners or outstanding efforts to secure their release,” Freedom House said.
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