Former President Nasheed to receive award

The US Centre for Nonviolence Conflict is to give former President Mohamed Nasheed the James Lawson Award.

A press release issued by the centre says that the purpose of the award is to recognize Nasheed’s ‘leadership during many years of the nonviolent opposition to dictatorship in his country, his courage in the face of an armed coup earlier this year which forced him from power, and his renewed nonviolent action on behalf of restoring genuine democracy in his country.’

The annual award will be presented to Nasheed by the distinguished American practitioner and scholar of nonviolent action, Dr James Lawson.

Dr. James Lawson was also one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s closest advisors during the American civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Former recipients of the award include Ghada Shahbender, a key Egyptian activist in the nonviolent movement which led to the resignation of Hosni Mubarak; and Nada Alwadi, a Bahraini journalist who has chronicled the repression of nonviolent protests in her country.

Nasheed has received several awards around the world for his campaign for democracy.