Press Releases

BADIL Nomination Successful - UNRWA Awarded King Hussein Peace Prize

BADIL Resource Center
16 November 2001
For Immediate Release


BADIL Resource Center is pleased to announce that, based on the nomination by BADIL, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has won the King Hussein Humanitarian Leadership Prize for its 50 years of services to Palestinian refugees and its emergency work in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip over the last 13 months of Israeli violence. The prize is given annually on the late King Hussein's birthday by the King Hussein Foundation for exceptional humanitarian leadership in the effort to advocate sustainable development, human rights, equity and peace. UNRWA was selected for the prize from among 67 different nominations from 29 countries.

The prize was presented at the Royal Palace in Amman by King Abdullah II of Jordan on 14 November, in the presence of a small delegation of UNRWA staff headed by Commissioner General Peter Hansen, representatives of Arab governments, and numerous personalities of public life in Jordan. The participation of BADIL's director, Ms. Ingrid Jaradat Gassner, was prevented by the ongoing Israeli restrictions of movement in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories.

BADIL Resource Center considers the successful nomination of UNRWA for the King Hussein Peace Prize to be part of the broader effort to highlight to the Arab and international community the importance of UNRWA services to the Palestinian refugee community, as well as the international obligation to cater for the needs of the growing refugee population, until a durable solution of their plight can be implemented in accordance with UN Resolution 194 (return, restitution, and compensation). UNRWA announced that the prize of US $50,000, which accompanies the award, will be used by the Agency for its program of trauma counseling for Palestinian children psychologically affected by the recent Israeli violence in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip.