Franz Werfel Human Rights Award

The Franz Werfel Human Rights Award (German: Franz-Werfel-Menschenrechtspreis) is an international human rights award in Europe. It is awarded to individuals or groups who, through political, artistic, philosophical or practical work, have opposed breaches of human rights by genocide, ethnic cleansing and the deliberate destruction of national, ethnic, racial or religious groups.

The foundations

The foundations of the prize are considered to be the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the International Agreement on Civilian and Political Rights of 1966, the resolution of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights of 1998 as well as the consequences of the meeting of the European Council of the Heads of State and Governments in Copenhagen of 1993 and other statements issued by the European Union.

The award is named after the famous Austrian author Franz Werfel (1890–1945), whose novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh famously portrayed the displacement of the Armenians from Turkey and the genocide of the Armenians in 1915/16.

The award includes € 10,000 of prize money, and is awarded in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt every second year. It was first awarded in 2003.

Jury

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• Archduke Dr. Otto von Habsburg (CSU), former member of the European Parliament, Chairman of the International Paneuropean Union, former Crown Prince of Austria–Hungary
• Klaus Hänsch (SPD), former President of the European Parliament
• Helga Hirsch, a......
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