Foundation, endowment
Pro Asyl: “Human rights are no longer a matter of course”
Ibrahim Arslan (l) is awarded the human rights prize by Pro Asyl on behalf of the VBRG association. photo
© Marcus Brandt/dpa/Archive
According to Pro Asyl, it is crucial that parties support the right to stay for victims of racist violence. Otherwise, the “human dignity” is in danger – especially in the current times.
The foundation recognizes this by awarding its human rights prize Pro Asyl Morgen in Frankfurt the use of nationwide counseling centers for those affected by right-wing, racist and anti-Semitic violence. Representing the VBRG association, Ibrahim Arslan, Heike Kleffner and Sultana Sediqi were honored.
The award is a sign of solidarity with victims of right-wing violence and support for democratic civil society, it was said when the award winners were presented. This is particularly true at a time when people in Germany are being attacked on a daily basis for racist, right-wing, anti-Semitic and, increasingly, anti-trans and anti-queer motives.
“We live in a time when human rights are no longer a matter of course,” said Halima Gutale, Chair of the Foundation Council. “If democratic parties don’t now resolutely and unequivocally publicly support the right to asylum and the right to stay for the victims of racist violence, then the foundation of our democracy will crumble: human dignity.”
VBRG: Impunity in many cases strengthens the perpetrators
The impunity in many cases of racist, right-wing and anti-Semitic violence discourages those attacked and strengthens the perpetrators, said Heike Kleffner, co-founder and managing director of the VBRG since 2018.
Sultana Sediqi, who fled Afghanistan with her family as a child and has lived in Thuringia for ten years, said racially motivated attacks on children and young people had doubled within a year and had a massive impact on the everyday lives of the families affected. “All too often families feel abandoned by the institutions of the rule of law.”
The survivors of racist attacks are the main witnesses and not extras, stressed Ibrahim Arslan, who survived the racist arson attack in Mölln in 1992 as a child. The perspective of the survivors must be at the center of the culture of remembrance. “We want the institutions to hand over commemoration authority to those affected,” he said.