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2000 - the Foundation's inaugural
Award for Moral Courage was presented to Prof.
Jan Karski himself.
2001 - award was given to
Congressman John Lewis for his non-violent
leadership actions during the Civil Rights
Movement in the United States.
2002 - award was given
posthumously to Father Mychal Judge who
ministered to street people and who died while
ministering to fallen firemen in the World
Trade Center on September 11th.
2003 - award was given to two
imprisoned Iranian dissidents, Professor
Hashem Aghajari and Mr. Abbas Amir
Entezam. Professor Aghajari is an
Iranian scholar whose calls for a progressive
Islam honoring civil rights and separation of
religion and State led to his imprisonment by
Iranian authorities and his death sentence
which was subsequently been commuted.
Mr.
Abbas Amir Entezam, the longest-serving
prisoner of conscience in Iran, has remained in
jail for 20 years as a consequence of his
repeated insistence upon a secular government
and human rights for all Iranians.
2004 - award was given in
absentia to Ms. Ingrid Betancourt, a
40-year-old French and Colombian citizen and
Colombian senator who had been a candidate for
President in Colombia until her capture in 2002
by the Colombian FARC guerilla force. Ms.
Betancourt had campaigned for an end to
political corruption and of what she saw as the
influence of the Colombian drug cartels on
government affairs.
Threatened with death,
she was forced to send her children to other
countries for their protection but in spite of
her personal fear she maintained her campaign
for human rights and the dignity of ordinary
Colombian citizens until captured. http://www.betancourt.info/
The Award also recognizes in a symbolic manner
the 3000 other political hostages held by the
FARC.
Future awards will
be determined by the Board of
Directors.
Jan Karski
Documentary Film Awards
The foundation also sponsors an
international juried documentary film
competition, which grants the Jan Karski Film
Award each year to a filmmaker whose work
evidences acts of moral courage.
2000 - the Foundation honored
"School Prayer: A Community at War," by
Slawomir Grunberg. The struggle of one
family with local school and political
authorities to confirm their acceptance the
principal of separation of church and state in
the public school system.
2001 - "A Force More Powerful" by
Steve York was honored. This film
highlights the popular uprising of Serbians
against their President, Slobodan Milosevich,
which forced his removal from power.
2002 - award went to "9/11" by
Jules and Gedeon Naudet and James
Hanlon. Filmed within the wreckage of the
World Trade Center it highlight the heroism of
firefighters and ordinary citizens as they
struggled to help each other in face of almost
certain death.
2003 - "Sisters in Resistance" by
Maia Wechsler is a portrayal of the
Moral Courage of 4 French women in WWII whose
service in the underground led to their
emprisonment in German concentration camps.
2004 - "The kidnapping of Ingrid
Betancourt" by Karen Hayes and
Victoria Bruce which describes the tense
stand off between Ms. Betancourt and the
entreachd political and mafia forces until her
capture. | 