Chilean Activist and Politician Elisa Loncón Antileo Will Receive the René Cassin Human Rights Award

Chilean Activist and Politician Elisa Loncón Antileo Will Receive the René Cassin Human Rights Award
 Elvis Gonzalez—EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

14-12-2021

Isabella Brozinga Zandonadi

America and Human Rights Researcher,

Global Human Rights Defence.

The Basque Government has recognized the Chilean activist and politician Elisa Loncón Antileo with the René Cassin Prize for Human Rights 2021. A well-deserved award to an indigenous woman from a Mapuche community in the south of Chile who was elected to preside over one of the most important and complex tasks in recent Chilean history, the constituent assembly. Recently, the Financial Times also has accredited Elisa as one of the 25 most influential women of 2021. According to the FT, during the constituent assembly, Elisa "has brought a calm, grounded leadership to the task, and has generally avoided becoming involved in the polarising conflicts surrounding her."[1]

 

The Government created the René Cassin Prize for Human Rights annual award in 2003 to recognize individuals or entities that stand out in the defense of human rights. The award is named after the Labor jurist René Cassin, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1968 and considered one of the main inspirations of the Declaration of Human Rights.

 

At a press conference held in Vitoria, the Deputy Minister for Human Rights, Memory and Cooperation, Jose Antonio Rodríguez Ranz, highlighted that the winner is a woman of "enormous prestige, but equally simple and proud of her origins." Elisa also celebrated the award on her Twitter account saying: “Today December 10, International Human Rights Day, I have been awarded the René Cassin Prize for Human Rights 2021 awarded by the Basque Government. It is an honor to receive this important distinction on such a significant date."

 

Elisa Loncón Antileo was born in the commune of Traiguén, in the Araucanía Region, in southern Chile, on January 23, 1963, and lived her childhood and adolescence in the Mapuche Lefweluan community. She learned to read self-taught, graduated as an English teacher at the University of La Frontera, in La Araucanía, and did postgraduate studies at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and the University of Regina in Canada.

 

"She is a Mapuche academic, linguist, activist and politician, and is currently the president of the Constitutional Convention of Chile, a body created to draft the new draft of the country's Constitution", highlighted the director of Human Rights, Victims, and Diversity of the Government Vasco, Monika Hernando.

 

Likewise, Hernando has indicated that in her work as a human rights defender, Loncón has worked especially so that the linguistic and cultural differences of the Mapuche people and the original peoples of Chile are recognized.

 

On January 19, Elisa Loncón will travel to Euskal Herria to collect the award from the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu and the Minister of Equality, Justice and Social Policies, Beatriz Artolazabal, in a ceremony to be held in Lehendakaritza, Vitoria-Gasteiz

Notes

[1] The FT's 25 most influential women in 2021. Available at: <https://www.ft.com/womenof2021/>.

Sources and further reading:

EITB Media | eitb.eus. 2021. La activista y política chilena Elisa Loncón Antileo recibirá el premio René Cassin de derechos humanos. [online] Available at: <https://www.eitb.eus/es/noticias/sociedad/detalle/8508995/la-activista-y-politica-chilena-elisa-loncon-antileo-recibira-premio-rene-cassin-de-derechos-humanos/> [Accessed 14 December 2021].

Europa Press | latercera.com. 2021. Gobierno Vasco concede el premio René Cassin de Derechos Humanos a Elisa Loncon Antileo [online] Available at: <https://www.latercera.com/nacional/noticia/gobierno-vasco-concede-el-premio-rene-cassin-de-derechos-humanos-a-elisa-loncon-antileo/M5HDTC6TSNHCTHVTGMUIUL6ROQ/> [Accessed 14 December 2021].