Year 2005 winner: The Arab Human
Development Reports, Dr. Rola Dashti, Mrs. Sulha Djuderija, and
OneVoice
The Arab Human Development Reports
The Arab Human Development Reports have contributed timely, independent
and comprehensive analysis to the regional and international debate on
the most significant challenges facing Arab countries in the opening
decade of the third Millennium. The first of these Arab-led studies (AHDR
2002) defined the scope of the discussion. It identified three widening
gaps in freedom, the empowerment of women and knowledge. The second
Report (AHDR 2003) focused on the status of knowledge in the region,
probing the obstacles to knowledge acquisition and diffusion in greater
depth and urging greater investment in education, research and open
intellectual enquiry.
The third Report (AHDR 2004) explores the situation of freedom and good
governance in the Arab world, describing free societies in their
normative dimensions as contrast with many present day Arab countries.
It examines persisting structural obstacles to Arab aspirations for
freedom, and underlines the negative aspects the negative impacts of
Israel's occupation of Palestine and increasing foreign intervention in
the region. Noting that piecemeal changes no longer suffice, the Report
calls on intellectuals and vanguards of society in particular to work
with a broad array of social groups to achieve thoroughgoing legal,
political, social and economic reforms. It emphasizes that calls for
change from outside the region should be answered with an authentic,
Arab-owned process of change consistent with the wishes of the Arab
peoples, and built on their consent.
Dr. Rola Dashti
Dr. Rola Dashti, possesses a PhD in Population Economics from Johns
Hopkins University, and has lectured on and conducted research in
development and applied economics, particularly for Kuwait's recent
quest to modernize its economic, financial, and social processes. Dr.
Dashti currently heads an international consultancy firm in Kuwait. She
has held key positions in R&D institutions, worked for major local and
international financial and development institutions, and consulted with
The World Bank. Dr. Dashti also managed all the contracts signed on
behalf of the government of Kuwait for the Emergency and Reconstruction
Program during the invasion-to-post liberation period (1990/1991).
Presently the elected Chairman of Kuwait Economic Society (first women
to chair the society), Dr. Dashti is also a member of the executive
committee of Young Arab Leaders, and member of Al-Farat Club. She has
been involved in several volunteer activities since her undergraduate
years. In 1982, she worked with the International Red Cross in Lebanon
to assist refugee families from the south. She was also involved in
various activities for the economic empowerment of women in the Republic
of Yemen. As a leading activist fighting for gender equity in the State
of Kuwait, particularly women's suffrage rights, Dr. Dashti and other
women activists decided to take their case to Kuwaiti courts to contest
the constitutionality of the election law. The case was the first in the
history of Kuwait to reach the constitutional courts. Unfortunately, it
was dismissed on a procedural matter and not on content. That ruling did
not discourage Dr. Dashti; her fight continued until women's suffrage
rights were recognized by Parliament on May 16, 2005. She now plans to
run for parliamentarian election in 2007.
Mrs. Sulha Djuderija
Born in 1960 in Kakanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Mrs. Saliha
Djuderija is married with three sons. A lawyer by profession, she
graduated from the Sarajevo Faculty of Law in 1984. From graduation
through the war she worked in protection services for children and the
vulnerable, including refugees and displaced persons. At the end of the
war, she was engaged in Sarjevo as part of the newly established
Federation Government in the Ministry of Social Politics, Displaced
Persons Refugees as Head of Department for Displaced Persons. She was
active in providing assistance and organizing the return of displaced
persons and refugees as well as reconstruction of damaged houses.
OneVoice
Since its inception in 2001, the OneVoice movement has boldly undertaken
a grassroots approach to engage Palestinians and Israelis towards
greater democratic and civic involvement. Spawned during a time of
hopelessness and frustration following the collapse of the Oslo process,
the OneVoice movement strives to empower the moderate majority of
Israelis and Palestinians to take an active, more assertive role towards
resolving the conflict. Oriella Ben-Zvi and Nisreen Mohammad Shahin
accepted the award on behalf of OneVoice. Oriella Ben-Zvi serves as
co-chair of the OneVoice Israeli board. Ms. Ben-Zvi is also a founding
partner of Ben-Or Consulting, focusing on serving the needs of Israel's
not-for-profit and political communities, as well as international
organizations working in the region. Nisreen Mohammad Shahin is the
Executive Director of the Palestinian branch of OneVoice in Ramallah,
where she oversees the Palestinian Democratization Drives and Town Hall
Meetings and coordinates the joint Israeli-Palestinian OneVoice
programming. She serves on the boards of the Palestinian Women
Association and Tawasul.