Nelson Mandela, Human Rigths Award

Human Rigths Award for the affirmation of freedom and dignity

Politician and activist, he was the first black President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. Antagonist of apartheid, he dedicated his life against racial segregationism.

The Mandela Prize is awarded to individuals or organizations who, with their actions and work, contribute in an exceptional way to spreading the ideas, principles and philosophical thought of Nelson Mandela through initiatives aimed at affirming freedom of expression, dignity and of human rights.

No one was born a slave, nor a lord, nor to live in poverty, but we were all born to be brothers. I hate racism, because I consider it to be barbaric, whether it comes from a black man or a white man. Let freedom reign.

• Born and dead

  Mvezo, July 18, 1918
  Johannesburg, December 5, 2013

• Nobel Prize nominations

  Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

• Short biography

  Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo, in the Transkei region of South Africa. He belongs to the Thembu royal family of the Xhosa tribe. Upon the death of his father, Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa, advisor to the king, Mandela was entrusted to the regent of the Thembu tribe, who offered him the opportunity to attend school and receive a formal education, a rare privilege for a young black man in South Africa that time.
  
  He attended Fort Hare University College, where he began to take part in political activities. In 1943 he graduated in law from the University of the Witwatersrand and joined the African National Congress (ANC), a political organization committed to the fight against apartheid.
  In the 1940s and 1950s, Mandela became increasingly involved in the resistance against the apartheid regime, a system of racial segregation established by the South African government in 1948. He played a key role in the Defiance Campaign of 1952, a series of protests against discriminatory government laws.
  
  In 1961, after years of peaceful protests without results, Mandela co-founded the armed wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe, engaging in the armed struggle against the government. In 1962 he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison for illegally leaving the country and inciting strikes.
  
  In 1964, during the famous Rivonia trial, Mandela, accused of sabotage and other crimes against the state, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Robben Island prison, where he remained for 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment.
  
  In 1990, under growing international pressure, South African President F.W. de Klerk orders Mandela's release. The two leaders negotiated the end of apartheid, leading to the country's first multiracial elections in 1994. Mandela became South Africa's first black president, a position he held until 1999.
  In 1993 he received the Nobel Peace Prize, shared with de Klerk. He died on December 5, 2013, at the age of 95.