The award ceremony took place on Thursday at the headquarters of Villa Decius, an association in Krakow which established the award in 2003. The award is given every year in two categories – to individuals and non-governmental organizations for their outstanding contributions to peaceful coexistence, and cooperation between societies, religions and cultures.
Krystyna Pryjomko-Serafin is the founder of the St. Gabriel Home Foundation, Sheffield, which jointly with the Centre for Development Cooperation Foundation runs the educational and residential centre for children of prisoners in the penal institute in Arusha, Tanzania.
The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Poland was founded in 1989. Prior to this, the Helsinki Committee in Poland had been active for seven years, working underground since 1982. Among its several functions, the Foundation serves as a consultant on the issue of individual and political rights. Due to this year´s edition of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Award being the Jubilee, two awards were given.
A special award was conferred to professor Szewach Weiss, former Israeli ambassador to Poland, diplomat, lecturer and publicist. A distinction of the jury was awarded to Micha³ Zejmis, a PhD student at the Institute of Social Policy, Warsaw University, and the co-founder of the Institute of Belarusian Culture and the Development Without Borders Foundation.
Sergio Vieira de Mello was the High Commissioner for Human Rights; having retired from this position in May 2003, he went to Iraq as the special representative for the UN General Secretary. He died on August 19th 2003 in a bomb attack.
Established in 2003, the award in his name has been given since 2004. Its laureates include Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the One World Association from Poznañ, Marian Żelazek, the Crossroads Foundation for European Understanding, the Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakow and Aleksander Milinkiewicz, leader of the Belarusian democratic opposition.
