The Roman Catholic Church in the Central African Republic is the 2002 recipient of the UN Peace-building Office (BONUCA) prize for human rights, the UN secretary-general's representative in the country, Lamine Cisse, announced on Friday in the capital, Bangui.
The Church's efforts in promoting and defending human rights in 2002 contributed to the promotion of human dignity, Cisse said when he handed over the prize to the acting archbishop of Bangui, Edouard Mathos. Prime Minister Abel Goumba presided over the ceremony.
Cisse said that through structures such as the Commission Episcopale Justice et Paix (CEJP) and women's associations like the Association des Femmes Croyantes Mediatrices de la Paix, the Church had intervened for and defended prisoners and oppressed people, especially in Bangassou, 460 km east of Bangui and in Bouar, 370 km northwest of Bangui.
He added that during the October 2002 to March 2003 war between government and rebel troops, Mathos took the initiative to meet current leader Francois Bozize, who was then leading the rebellion, in efforts to bring about peace. Bozize overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse in a coup on 15 March.
"Through the Roman Catholic Church, all other religious communities are rewarded," Cisse added.
Mathos said the Church would continue to promote and defend human rights through the CEJP and its radio, Radio Notre Dame. However, he said, the Church's capacities for development, social, health and human right actions were annihilated during the war. He said churches, church-supported schools, health centres and other facilities were vandalised and looted during the war.
"The Church has now almost nothing to fulfil its evangelising and development missions in favour of human rights," Mathos said, and urged the diplomats present at the ceremony to help the Church resume its activities.
Prime Minister Goumba said the government needed funds to implement its National Human Rights Plan, which was being drafted, to enable it to open chapters of its Human Rights Commission in all the country's 16 provinces and to introduce human right courses in schools, and train defence and security forces on the subject.
BONUCA initiated the Human Rights Prize in 1999. The chairman of the National Transitional Council, Nicolas Tiangaye, who also chairs the country's human rights body, the Ligue Centrafricaine des Droit de l'Homme, won the prize in 1999.
The UN and Fondation Hirondelle-supported Radio Ndeke Luka was the 2000 winner - for its broadcasts on human rights. Defence lawyer Zarambaud Assingambi, now minister in charge of government's secretariat, was the 2002 winner of the prize.
"All the prize winners have left their mark on the nation's history," Cisse said.