MEDIA STORY & LIVE EVENT NOTICE: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013 – Four Leading Activists from Around the World to Receive Awards for Nonviolent Victories                                                                                                                    Wednesday, June 19, 12:30-2:00pm EST

Boston, Massachusetts – On June 19 four leading activists from around the world will receive The James Lawson Award for their success in civil resistance on behalf of environmental protection, indigenous people, political rights, and the end of racial oppression, at an awards ceremony in Boston. James Lawson was the prime strategist behind the U.S. civil rights movement in the 1960s, and will personally give the awards to:

+ Evgenia Chirikova, the young Russian woman who co-founded Defend Khimki Forest, which has fought a long and so far successful campaign in the last ten years to prevent the destruction of an ancient-growth forest near Moscow.

+ Mkhuseli (“Khusta”) Jack, the South African leader of a consumer boycott campaign and a relentless organizer during the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa in the 1980s.

+ Oscar Olivera, one of the key leaders of the campaign in Cochabamba, Bolivia in the 1990’s that prevented the privatization of water resources and helped spark broad popular participation in Bolivia’s democratic transition in the ensuing years.

+ Jenni Williams, the co-founder of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, who braved 52 arrests and jailings due to ongoing protests for genuine political rights for all of the people of her country.

The Lawson Awards will be presented at the 8th annual Fletcher Summer Institute on the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict at Tufts University, before an audience of activists, scholars, and international professionals participating in the week-long institute. The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict conducts the Institute with the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy. “Today the map of nonviolent resistance is truly global, and Evgenia, Khusta, Oscar and Jenni represent the diversity of struggles, the refusal to quit, and the personal courage of nonviolent organizers and activists all over the world,” said Hardy Merriman, the vice president of the Center.

The awards event was conducted at Tufts University campus in Boston Massachusetts in the United States. see the youtube link