Filipino educator Ronald Adamat of the Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has been named the winner of the 2020 Mahatma MK Gandhi Prize for Non-Violent Peace, the first Filipino to receive the award.
The Mahatma MK Gandhi Foundation for Non-Violent Peace will hold its awarding ceremony and World Peace Seminar for the year 2020 (which has been long overdue
Photo courtesy of Rediff
Kannan was ten when he joined the LTTE; he left when he was fourteen. His testimony on what he had experienced as a child soldier recruited against his will and forced into combat revolutionised international human rights law when Amnesty International insisted on including acts by non-state groups as human rights violations. From there emerged a strong coalition of international human rights groups against child recruitment, which has successfully lobbied for sweeping reforms. A special UN convention was formulated, there were two Security Council resolutions and an International Labour Organisation Convention. Recruitment of children for combat purposes is now a war crime and a crime against humanity – the International Criminal Court’s first trial was on child recruitment. The UN gives special status to the Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict.