The Per Anger Prize is an international prize, established in 2004 by the Swedish Government to promote initiatives supporting human rights and democracy. The Government has commissioned the Living History Forum to manage the nominations, appoint a jury and organise all the various aspects of the prize. The official award ceremony will be held on 16 November.
The prize is named after Per Anger who, as secretary of the Swedish legation in Budapest, initiated Sweden’s work to save as many people as possible from persecution and death during the Second World War in Nazi-occupied Hungary.
The organisations nominated in 2009 were Amnesty International, Diakonia, UNA-Sweden, Civil Rights Defenders (formerly the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights), the International Commission of Jurists, Reporters without Borders, Save the Children, the Red Cross and the Church of Sweden.
The jury comprises Eskil Franck (Director of the Living History Forum), Sigrid Rausing (Publisher), Peter Weiderud (Secretary general), Peter Anger (son of Per Anger) and Ambassador Anders Rönnqvist.
In previous years the prize was awarded to Archbishop Gennaro Verolino (2004), Arsen Sakalov (2005), Aliaksandr Bialitski (2006), Organización Femenina Popular (2007), Bishop Sebastian Bakare (2008), Brahim Dahane (2009) and Elena Urlaeva (2010).
The 2011 prize goes to Narges Mohammadi. Iranian Narges Mohammadi, delegate of the Center for Human Rights Defenders, listens to a question during a press conference on the Assessment of the in GeHuman Rights Situation in Iran, at the UN headquarters neva, Switzerland, Monday, June 9, 2008.
