The Winners of the Petra Kelly Prize
The Petra Kelly Prize is endowed with € 10,000. The Heinrich Böll Foundation views the awarding of the Petra Kelly Prize as a political statement. The publicity, financial support, and political recognition related to the award should help to foster the advancement of the awarded person's or group's concern.
Prize Winner 2004
The Heinrich Böll Foundation awarded Kenyan politician and environmental activist Wangari Maathai the international Petra Kelly Prize 2004.With the award the foundation honoured Maathai's unique position in African politics and her commitment to environmental issues. As with the 2002 winner, Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, the foundation also wanted to draw attention to the diversity of the international Green movement.
Prize Winner 2002
The international Petra Kelly Prize 2002 was awarded to the Columbian politician Ingrid Betancourt.With the award the jury honoured Ingrid Betancourt’s outstanding struggle to end the violence and the countless violations of human rights that have shattered Columbia for decades. In her characteristic as a courageous green politician who has never ceased to stand up for democracy, respect for human rights, and civil conflict resolution without concern for personal dangers, Ingrid Betancourt stands in a continuous line with Petra Kelly. Beyond the borders of Columbia she has become a symbol, earning much respect and affection, and honouring her means making an acute political statement for the support of democracy and the ecological movement in Latin America.
The politician, former presidential candidate and founder of the green party "Oxigeno Verde" was, along with a colleague, kidnapped by the Columbian FARC-Guerilla in February 2002. Ingrid Betancourt was a hostage of the FARC-Guerilla until July 2008. The award therefore was also a gesture of solidarity and an appeal to the Columbian government and the international public, to actively press for her liberation.
Prize Winner 2000
The Petra Kelly Prize 2000 was awarded to the Mapuche-Pehuenche Indians, Berta and Nicolasa Quintreman Calpan, from Chile.Both sisters, who are farmers living within their traditional culture in the Bio-Bío river valley in southern Chile, are leading activists in the Chilean civil rights movement against the flooding of Pehuenche land through the building of the Ralco Dam.
With the award of the prize, the international jury acknowledges the non-violent and courageous commitment of these women who are representative of the resistance against the construction of mega-dams – projects which always entail the expulsion or forced resettlement of people and often have disastrous consequences for the eco-system of an entire region.
The prize, which is endowed with 20,000 DM, was awarded on 1st December 2000 in Berlin. The award ceremony was accompanied by a conference concerning the question of mega-dams.
Both sisters were nominated by Sara Larrain, co-ordinator of the "Sustainable Chile Programme" in Santiago, Chile, and candidate for the Chilean Green Party at the presidential elections in 1999.
Prize Winner 1998
The first Petra Kelly Prize was awarded to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) in 1998.The UNPO, founded in 1991, is an association of nations and peoples which are not represented in the prominent international organisations such as the UN. The UNPO is an independent forum for more than 50 members, providing them with the opportunity to formulate and give voice to their interests.
