The Hungarian Helsinki Committee has been awarded the Paul Weis Prize

The Courage – Mut zur Menschlichkeit (MUT) social initiative honoured organisations and individuals who have courageously stood up for human rights and refugees at its awards ceremony on 17 October. Alexander Van der Bellen, the President of Austria, welcomed the winners in a video message.

The award was named after the Austrian international lawyer and Holocaust survivor Paul Weis to honour his life’s work. Among other things, Weis was co-author of the Geneva Refugee Convention, provided essential foundations for international asylum law and is considered the “founding father of the protection” of refugees.

By supporting Ukrainian asylum seekers, Hungarian people are showing every day that they don’t identify with the government’s anti-foreigner and uncompassionate policies. And the Hungarian Helsinki Committee is also on this humane side.

“Our hard-working, committed colleagues work every day tirelessly to uphold the right to asylum, to fight against violent push-backs at Hungary’s southern border and to protect the rights of beneficiaries of international protection in Hungary where the government invests more into hate propaganda against them than into their integration assistance. We do this work in a hostile environment, despite legislation criminalizing our activities.

In times like this, when the Hungarian government works on destroying the rule of law and our once-functioning asylum system, this is not an easy task. We need all the strength, resilience, creativity and humour we can find. We can only carry this out in good company and in cooperation with others: with other organizations in Hungary and Europe. And it is wonderful to know that we are not alone.” – said Anikó Bakonyi, our Refugee Programme Director, at the award ceremony in Vienna.

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