Silver Rose 2020 Awardees
Presenting the 2020 Silver Rose Awardees, in the words of who nominated them…
Since the year 2000, SOLIDAR organises annually its Silver Rose Awards in the European Parliament in cooperation with the S&D Group, an occasion to celebrate Civil Society Organisations and individuals whose extraordinary struggles contribute greatly to social justice and solidarity throughout the world.
We are proud to present this year’s winners:
Category: Building Learning Societies – Education and Lifelong Learning
The Creative Communities Group (CCG)
Nominated by: Professor Romesh Gupta OBE
“The CCG focuses on visual and performing arts, great stories and narratives to inspire others to ‘make a difference’ through lifelong learning. Members raise awareness of important issues and inspire others to get involved in the common good. The CCG’s aims can be reduced to micro levels such as a campaign to clean up your local street; medium levels such as Preston Soup and macro levels such as educating people on the importance of participation”.
“The CCG supports several annual events such as: Annual Health Melas, One Billion Rising, Preston’s Stand Together Against Racism (STAR) and conferences, workshops and seminars titled towards a better tomorrow. (…) They part take in collaborations based on volunteering, active citizenship and the continued support of Lifelong Learning Projects”.
Category: Organising International Solidarity – International Cooperation
Nominated by: Forum Umwelt und Entwicklung
“Europe does not have a refugee crisis, it has a crisis of solidarity. Organisations like Sea-Watch are one of the few remaining ones that actively engage in saving lives of those who cross the Mediterranean. Many of those saved from small boats would have died anyways or sent back to prison camps, starvation and torture in Libya. The members of Sea-Watch missions do their often voluntary work with great personal risks.
(…) Both Ms Rakete and Ms Klemp have also shown the strength, leadership and courage that women bring to the multiple crisis of our times and have become role models for many people all over Germany and Europe (…) Additionally, not only have Ms Rakete and Ms Klemp shown great civil courage in their work, but also the greatest integrity by declining the Médaille Grand Vermeil de la Ville de Paris, stating that the will not accept due to the way the Parisian police is treating protestors and the French state is not doing enough to help refugees”.
NOTE: It was in the interest of the nominator to allocate the award to the organisation and not to particular people.
Category: Together for Social Europe– Social Affairs
Daša Šašić Šilović (Chair of Central East Network for Gender Issues)
Nominated by: Lovorka Marinović and Central East Network for Gender Issues
“Daša Šilović is a unique person who, deeply convinced of the social democratic roots of social justice, is spreading ideas and practices of social democracy with outstanding capacities, innovative talent and untiring dedication. A convinced feminist, thanks to her wide academic and professional background at UN Agencies in New York, Daša Šilović has demonstrated resourcefulness and creativity in establishing in 1994 and leading for 25 years the CEE Gender Network. The goal of the CEE Gender Network is to promote the empowerment of women and put gender equality objectives into mainstream strategies, policies and programs in progressive and social democratic parties in the Region.
Her accurate fact-checking, sharp analytic skills and solution-oriented approach have given an invaluable contribution and important inputs in fostering substantive dialogue on how to transform and promote politics through a gender lens. In the last eight years she has moved CEE Gender Network activities into a think tank mode and established the annual Korčula School with that overarching goal. The sessions are attended by women and men political leaders from progressive, socialist, social democratic parties, experts, academics, civil society and trade union representatives”.
Category: Special Award by the Jury
Japhet Moyo (Secretary General – Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions – ZCTU)
Nominated by: Sharan Burrow (ITUC) & Luca Visentini (ETUC).
“Brother Japhet Moyo has a long-standing history of 32 years of militancy as a trade union and civil society activist and leader. He is a dedicated trade unionist working in a country in crisis with high levels of political intolerance, exclusion, and where the rights of freedom of association and the right to organise are often arbitrarily denied (Zimbabwe is ranked 5 in the ITUC Global Rights Index and as one of the ten world worst countries for workers’ rights).
Japhet’s fight for workers’ rights, decent work and social justice has earned him seven arrests. He is also a former spokesperson of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, an umbrella civil rights watchdog with a membership from trade unions, nongovernmental organisations and churches. He also promotes unity in the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) (…) These roles promote democracy and good governance in Zimbabwe, and all are held on a voluntary basis. (…) Through his administration, ZCTU has made significant progress in promoting decent work and freedom of association, and organising workers – including informal economy workers – despite the government hostility”.
