International Award UCLG for Farida Shaheed
10 November, 2014
LAHORE – Famous women rights activist Farida Shaheed has been awarded International Award UCLG – MEXICO City – Culture 21 – that is given to personalities that have distinguished themselves through their contribution to culture as a dimension of sustainable development.
The jury for the award – comprising of Cuautéhmoc Cárdenas Solórzano, Gonzalo Carámbula, Dr Daníelle Cliche, Catherine Cullen and Dr Alicia Ziccardi – held its final meeting in Mexico City to finalise a winner from among many notables from around the world. The jury announced Farida Shaheed as a winner of the award in the category personality.
The award ceremony will take place on November 12 in Mexico City. Farida is the special rapporteur of the United Nations in the field of cultural rights. She is internationally renowned for extensively exploring the interface of culture and identity in relation to both development and rights, and the state's responsibilities in this regard.
Farida's work at the United Nations began in 2009 as an independent expert. From her position, she has proposed several initiatives to integrate culture and human rights. Farida's periodic reports to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly of the Unites Nations are fundamental references in the relationship between culture, human rights and sustainable development.
She has identified and documented the main challenges of cultural rights present in the societies, including the right to access and enjoy cultural heritage, the right to benefit from scientific progress and its applications, the right to freedom of artistic expression and creativity, cultural rights of women on an equal basis with men, historical and memorial narratives in divided societies.
Farida has consistently worked to dispel the notion of culture as being static, a monolith or a relic of the past and has instead promoted an understanding of the dynamic nature of culture and its deep-rooted interconnectedness with laws and development projects as well as social norms, in the contemporary environment.
Her writings, with a special focus on the interface of culture, gender, religion and the state, have been published extensively. She has received several other awards including the prime minister's award for her co-authored book – Two Steps Forward One Step Back – Women of Pakistan.
She is an essential reference in the struggle for explicit consideration of culture in the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Currently, she is also heading a women rights organisation, ShirkatGah – women's resource centre, in Pakistan. The organisation is a pioneer on sustainable development issues in Pakistan, and the only one with a gendered lens.
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