The 2018 Anne Klein Women's Award goes to Jineth Bedoya and Mayerlis Angarita from Colombia. In her opening remarks at the award ceremony, Barbara Unmüßig, chair of the jury, praised the courage of the two award recipients.
Original language: German
Dear friends of Anne Klein,
dear Jineth Bedoya, dear Mayerlis Angarita,
, and dear guests,
A warm welcome to the 7th Anne Klein Women’s Award ceremony. Anne Klein endowed us with this wonderful award, and every March it brings us together to celebrate not only the award recipient but Anne herself. Today, March 2, would have been her 68th birthday.
The Heinrich Böll Foundation is deeply grateful to her for this award, which we are honored to present each year in her name to women who advocate for their rights and fight against discrimination and violence. And this award shines and makes an impact in so many encouraging ways. For each of our previous award recipients, the prize has brought greater solidarity and increased political and public awareness of their causes.
Every year, the award is something very special, and the woman who receives it is unique. This year, it is particularly different because we are honoring not just one woman for her courage and her commitment to women’s rights, but two: Mayerlis Angarita and Jineth Bedoya. Two women from Colombia who are working there to advance women’s rights, combat sexual violence, and end impunity, and who are making an emancipatory contribution to the country’s fledgling peace process. We want to support this work with the Anne Klein Award.
Dear Mayerlis, dear Jineth, you represent different professions—Mayerlis is an activist, Jineth is a journalist. You describe yourselves as two faces, two voices representing millions of Colombian women who work every day for peace, justice, and nonviolence.
Mayerlis is active primarily in rural areas, where she works to heal the wounds of war and fights for women’s land rights. The Montes de María region, where Mayerlis comes from and works, is a 28-hour journey from Bogotá, where Jineth works for Colombia’s largest newspaper, *Il Tiempo*. Mayerlis says of Jineth, “I’m so glad we have Jineth there.”
You’ve known each other for a long time; you see your struggles for women’s participation in the peace process as complementary. Your commitment to the rights and participation of Colombian women in the future of your country unites you. Everything is needed: grassroots work, good journalism, and national and international networking. Above all, women need more funding to professionally support the peace process and its implementation.
The Anne Klein Women’s Prize aims to honor each of you—both individually and for your shared goals and hopes—and to give your causes political and public momentum in Colombia.
You are the seventh and eighth recipients of this award and thus join a lineage of remarkable, inspiring women. You share with them the courage with which you fight for your rights, the determination with which you stand up against injustice, and the depth of your longing for nonviolence, peace, healing, and reconciliation.
Last year, we honored Nomarussia Bonase. In her home country of South Africa, she is dedicated to reconciliation for the victims of apartheid. She calls for truth in the process of coming to terms with the past. For without truth, there can be no justice. And without justice—especially for women—there can be no reconciliation either. And without all of this, Colombian society will never be able to put the conflict, the traumas, and the social divisions behind it.
We know that Colombia still has a long and difficult road ahead before reconciliation and peace become part of people’s everyday lives. Nearly 60 years of war have left deep wounds and widespread devastation.
A peace agreement is now in place. The gender perspective, the process of addressing sexualized violence, and the issues of accountability and punishment for sexualized violence are firmly anchored in the peace treaty. So, too, is the equal participation of women in the various processes in Colombia. This is due exclusively to the mobilizing power and unity—across ideological boundaries—of Colombian women.
Nevertheless, as you report—everything remains highly fragile, nothing is guaranteed, and above all, the work of women is underfunded.
Dear Mayerlis, dear Jineth, together with a large number of fellow activists, you both continue to demand that the gains you’ve fought for be upheld and that violence come to an end.
You have both launched initiatives and campaigns through which you are fighting for your rights. One is called “No es hora de calla”: “It is not time to be silent,” and the other “Narrar par vivir”: “Tell stories to live.” It is important to you that things do not continue as they have in the past, that those who have experienced violence raise their voices, that they are heard, and that they are included in the country’s political and economic decisions.
Unfortunately, the implementation of the peace agreement is proceeding only slowly. With elections coming up this year and next, the country is in danger of falling back into old patterns: clientelism, nepotism, corruption, and violence. You both say that violence—perpetrated by criminal gangs and paramilitaries—has increased, not decreased. Particularly alarming are the numbers of human rights defenders and environmental activists who have been threatened or killed.
It is precisely these people at the local level who are so important for a participatory and emancipated democracy. Yet in 2017, 170 activists were killed. And this year—it’s only just spring—and already 25 people have lost their lives in their struggle for more rights and for their livelihoods.
Both of you have experienced extreme violence and face endless hatred because of your work for women’s rights—but you carry on—despite numerous death threats.
Dear Mayerlis and dear Jineth, both of you and all your supporters give us all courage.
Since last year, the Heinrich Böll Foundation has also had an office in Colombia. It is our deep commitment to provide political support to the people there as they work to realize their rights.
I am absolutely delighted that the jury of the Anne Klein Women’s Prize—Renate Künast, Michaele Schreyer, Jutta Wagner, and Thomas Herrendorf—has joined me in deciding that this year’s prize goes to both of you, two such wonderful and courageous women.
On behalf of the jury, I offer you my warmest congratulations on winning the 2018 Anne Klein Women’s Award and wish you continued strength, courage, and perseverance as you carry on your work with and for women—in the true spirit of Anne.
