Thanks to all who made the 2006 Leteler-Moffitt Awards an inspiring ceremony

As the 2006 Awards pass: memories of the late Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, and present testimonies of Maher Arar and the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign, rekindle in us the will to seek justice in the name of basic rights for all humans wherever it must be sought. We continue to organize on every platform from the grassroots to the Capitol Hill, with all might we can muster, until we satisfy our insatiable need for a free and fair and global peace. Thank you to all who participated.

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2006 Award Recipients

International Award: Maher Arar and the Center for Constitutional Rights

Maher Arar has taken bold actions to demand justice for the suffering he endured as a victim of the U.S. policy known as “extraordinary rendition.” A Canadian citizen, Arar was detained by U.S. officials in 2002, accused of terrorist links, and handed over to Syrian authorities renowned for torture. On September 18, 2006, a Canadian government commission confirmed that Arar had been brutally tortured during his nearly year-long imprisonment in Syria and declared him innocent of any terrorist ties. The report urges the Canadian government to formally protest the U.S. government’s handling of the case. Arar is working with the Center for Constitutional Rights to appeal a case against the U.S. government that was dismissed on national security grounds. He will accept his award via video because he is still barred from entry into the United States.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, in addition to their work on the Arar case, is being honored for their 40-year legal crusade against torture and other human rights abuses. Since 9/11, CCR has been at the forefront of work to defend victims of abuses committed in the name of the “War on Terrorism.” CCR lawyers faced scores of death threats when they were the first to bring cases on behalf of Guantanamo detainees. In 2004, they won a Supreme Court ruling that allows these men to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. CCR is also fighting for accountability for abuses committed in Abu Ghraib.

Domestic Award: Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign

The Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign (GCRC) emerged out of the horrors of Hurricane Katrina to advance a poor people’s struggle. The GCRC has kept the media spotlight on survivors and their demands for a comprehensive response to the crisis. To salute the GCRC is to pay tribute to a movement driven by the efforts and demands of common folk, the work of local activists, amplified by collaboration with national organizers, legal advocates, and progressive lawmakers.

Local Members: Community Labor United, the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund And Oversight Coalition, and Common Ground Relief Collective, the Campaign has involved a wide range of groups: National Association of Katrina Evacuees, People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Rebuilding Louisiana Coalition, African-American Leadership Project, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, Safe Streets, Safe Communities, NO HEAT Coalition, Lousiana’s Environmental Justice Network, Hip Hop Caucus, ColorofChange.org, the Advancement Project, ACLU of Louisiana, AFL-CIO/Voices for Working Families, SEIU, United Steelworkers, The Praxis Project, KIN, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, National Organization for Women, RainbowPUSH, Rebuild HOPE, Institute for the Black World 21st Century, Black Leadership Forum, Operation Hope, United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Clergy & Laity Concerned, United for Peace & Justice, Advocates for Environmental Justice and the United States Human Rights Network.

Three Decades of Pursuing Justice and Celebrating Heroes

The 2006 program marked the 30th anniversary of the September 21, 1976 car bombing that killed Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and American Ronni Karpen Moffitt. Until 9/11, it was the most infamous act of international terrorism ever to take place in our nation’s capital. Letelier and Moffitt were colleagues at the Institute for Policy Studies, where Letelier had become one of the most outspoken critics of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Moffitt was a 25-year-old fundraiser who ran a “Music Carryout” that made musical instruments accessible to all. A massive FBI investigation traced the crime to the highest levels of Pinochet’s regime.

Since that tragic event, the Institute for Policy Studies has hosted an annual human rights event in the names of Letelier and Moffitt to honor these fallen colleagues while celebrating new heroes of the human rights movement from the United States and elsewhere in the Americas. IPS' 2006 ceremony featured a special tribute to the family members of Letelier and Moffitt who have worked tirelessly through art, politics, the media and the courts to achieve justice for Orlando and Ronni and other victims of dictators the world over.

Letelier-Moffitt Selection Committee