Frank La Rue nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

international | miscellaneous | press release

Thursday September 11, 2003 20:58

by Justin Morahan - Peace People

Mairead Corrigan Maguire nominated Frank La Rue, Guatemalan Huuman Rights lawyer for Nobel Peace Prize in Dublin on Wednesday

6th September, 2004.

Geir Lunderstad,
Secretary,
Nobel Committee,
Nobel Institute,
Oslo,
Norway.

Dear Geir,

Re: Nobel Nomination 2004 - Frank R. LaRue.

Please accept my nomination of Frank R. LaRue of CALDH, Guatemala, for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Born in l952, Frank R. LaRue was raised in Guatemala, studying law at the San Carlos University in Guatemala City. He served as a legal advisor to the Central National Workers Union in the late l970's and early l980's when he was forced into exile in the United States in l981.

In the United States, he worked as a political analyst on Latin American affairs and founded the Centre for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH) in l989 in Washington, DC. in order to denounce
and investigate human rights violations in Guatemala. He returned to Guatemala in l994 and opened CALDH's office where it continues to function. Presently he serves as the Executive Director CALDH, as well as being a much sought after speaker and analyst.

Wherever human rights are threatened on a grand scale or wherever genocide is perpetrated in a country, it takes a certain brand of courage and determination to be a witness to the dual acts of truth telling and concrete action. But when the human rights violations and genocide are sponsored and coordinated by a ruling military government as happened in Guatemala, and when all the power of that government is used to carry out the associated atrocities, to smash all opposition ruthlessly but secretly, all the while denying its involvement, and all the while too, silencing every single voice of protest, then fear becomes terror, and protest can be a death sentence. Frank La Rue has the courage to stand against such terror in Guatemala. While he believes in reconciliation, he believes too that genocidal crime should not be rewarded. Particularly it should not be rewarded when those who committed it have never relented or apologised or even admitted their atrocities. For his courage in using his immense talents to uphold truth, struggle relentlessly for human rights and dignity, oppose genocide and strive to prevent further murders, it is my great honour to propose Frank La Rue for the Nobel Peace Prize of 2004.

Frank LaRue may be contacted at CALDH's address - 9a Avenida2 2-59 Zone l, Guatemala.www.caldh.org or email: larue@caldh.org telephone: 503 221 1286

Yours sincerely,

Mairead Corrigan Maguire
Nobel Peace Laureate

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Comments (5 of 5)

Gawd, how times have changed

by Other Days

Thu Sep 11, 2003 22:52

I remember when the shinners used to refer to her as "More aid - new car again".
And now they are posting her statements on indymedia!

clarification

by Kev

Fri Sep 12, 2003 00:24

Justin Morahan (of the Peace People) and Justin Moran (of Sinn Fein and Santa Claus suit fame) are two different people.

J Morahan posted this article, not J Moran.

oops!

Fri Sep 12, 2003 03:31

Sorry about that. Thanks for clarifying it.

frank la rue

by interested

Fri Sep 12, 2003 14:05

Just heard him on the pat kenny radio programme. Sounds like an interesting organisation. I think I read about him in the papers last february or march.

we have two days till the Nobel's!

by poet - (i've a day off work it's a state/religious/bank holiday where I live)[they mix these things]

Mon Dec 08, 2003 14:16

aren't we all gripping our wee seats.
Will Peace in Ireland or Palestine feature again? or will it be... _international arbitration_?

December 10th is the anniversary of the death of Mr Nobel who made blowing up things easier, and I thought some of you'd be interested to learn a little about the winner in 1903 a hundred years ago.

William Cremer.

he was secretary to the English section that attended the 1st International. But then left. He founded the carpenters and joiners union after having served an apprenticeship at 15 to be a journey carpenter. He came from a single parent family and things were as unspeakable for him growing up as most of us have forgotten.

in 1858 (in his thirties, "your age"),
he campaigned for a nine hour day.

How many hours do you work?

He was a member of the 1st internat. established in 1864 of "the International Working Men's Association", in which Karl Marx and other socialists from the continent took part. This organisation built on many previous disparate international activities which had included support for the Union side in the American Civil War, empancipation, the welcoming to England of Giuseppe Garibaldi, and supporting the Poles against the Russians. Cremer was elected general secretary in 1865, but resigned after two years, later maintaining that the organization had come under the direction of "men who cared more for their isms than for the cause of real progress."

he left, coz of the ism.

In 1871 he became secretary of the Workmen's Peace Association. He held that position till his death in 1908. He was in some ways one of the first lefty peacniks, but they didn't have "-niks" yet. Perhaps he didn't want them to happen @ all. And that might of helped him get the Nobel and then a year before he died a title "Sir".

He donated the vast bulk of the Nobel Peace Prize ( £7,000 of £8,000) to the International Arbitration League which he had founded.

It dissolved itself years later because no-one was really interested and it couldn't pay the rental charges on it's office. A multi-national-corporation bought the stationery, logo and ideas and has prepared them for future marketing.
So don't worry about a thing.
nothing changes.

This is the excerpt from Hansard when he spoke on female suffrage, he himself had relied on the Reform act of 1884 to see trade union representatives be elected.
(25th April, 1906)
[he's having a "go" at Hardie who was leader of the lefties]
He had always contended that if we opened the door and enfranchised ever so small a number of females, they could not possibly close it, and that it ultimately meant adult suffrage. The government of the country would therefore be handed over to a majority who would not be men, but women. Women are creatures of impulse and emotion and did not decide questions on the ground of reason as men did.

He was sometimes described as a woman-hater, but he had had two wives, and he thought that was the best answer he could give to those who called him a woman-hater. He was too fond of them to drag them into the political arena and to ask them to undertake responsibilities, duties and obligations which they did not understand and did not care for.

What did one find when one got into the company of women and talked politics? They were soon asked to stop talking silly politics, and yet that was the type of people to whom we were invited to hand over the destinies of the country.

It was not only because he thought that women were unfitted by their physical nature to exercise political power, but because he believed that the majority of them did not want it and would vote against it, that he asked the House to pause before they took the step suggested by the honorable member for Merthyr Tydfil (Keir Hardie). He believed that if women were enfranchised the end would be disastrous to all political parties. He therefore asked the House to pause before it took a step from which it could never retreat.

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Frank La Rue nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Comments (5 of 5)