Niwano Peace Prize to Guatemalan Catholic Mayan woman

(March 02, 2012) Guatemalan Mayan human rights activist, Rosalina Tuyuc Velasquez, has been chosen the 2012 winner of Japan’s prestigious Niwano Peace Prize. Tuyuc, a Catholic who has preserved traditional Mayan beliefs and spiritual practices, will receive a medal and the equivalent of about $250,000 in cash, during a ceremony in Toyko on May 10. The Tokyo-based Niwano Peace Foundation described Tuyuc as “a courageous human rights activist and leader” in a country hit by decades of violence and strife, and where indigenous people have been systematically excluded from mainstream society. In 1988, Tuyuc and other women founded the National Coordinating Organization of Widows of Guatemala, now a leading human rights organization that symbolizes both of the struggle against violence and the Mayan people’s resistance to it. The Niwano Peace Prize was established in 1978 by the Niwano Peace Foundation to honour and encourage individuals and organizations that have contributed significantly to interreligious cooperation and peace. Both the foundation and the peace prize are named after Japanese citizen Nikkyo Niwano, founder of the Buddhist lay organisation Rissho Kosei Kai. Nikkyo Niwano was one of the few non-Christian observers at the Second Vatican Council.