The Princess of Asturias Foundation

Congolese journalist Caddy Adzuba has been bestowed with the 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, as made public today in Oviedo by the Jury responsible for conferring said Award.

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Congolese journalist Caddy Adzuba has been bestowed with the 2014 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord, as made public today in Oviedo by the Jury responsible for conferring said Award.

The Jury for this Award –convened by the Prince of Asturias Foundation– was chaired by Javier Fernández Fernández, President of the Principality of Asturias, and composed of Íñigo Abarca Junco, José María Arias Mosquera, Count of Fenosa, Rosa Isabel Aza Conejo, Adolfo Barthe Aza, Antonio Basagoiti García-Tuñón, Antonio Brufau Niubó, Isidro Fainé Casas, Pedro Luis Fernández Pérez, José Antonio Fernández Rivero, Francisco de la Fuente Sánchez, José Luis García Palacios, Ignacio Garralda Ruiz de Velasco, Antonio Huertas Mejías, Agustín Iglesias Caunedo, Alicia Koplowitz Romero de Juséu, Marchioness of Bellavista, Teresa Mallada de Castro, Carmen Moriyón Entrialgo, María del Pino Calvo-Sotelo, Mariano Puig Planas, Matías Rodríguez Inciarte, Pedro Sanjurjo González, Ramón Sotomayor Jáuregui, Ángel Antonio del Valle Suárez, Santiago de Ybarra y Churruca, Count of El Abra, and Pedro de Silva Cienfuegos-Jovellanos (as acting secretary).

Caddy Adzuba was born in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1981. She holds a law degree from the Official University of Bukavu and has worked for the Search for Common Ground NGO (USA). She currently works as a journalist with Radio Okapi, the radio station of the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), which has broadcast nationwide since 2002. She has been under a death threat since she reported the sexual violence suffered by women in her country, at war since 1996. She has almost been killed twice and is under UN protection.

A renowned activist for freedom of the press, peace-building and human rights, especially those of children and women in conflict zones, via journalism Caddy Adzuba denounces the torture and violations suffered by Congolese women and girls while promoting their reintegration into a society in which they are repudiated for this circumstance. The activist advocates the implementation of UN resolutions 1325 and 1848, which expressly condemn the rape of women and children in situations of armed conflict. Moreover, she appeals to the conscience of the leaders of developed countries and multinationals with economic interests in the Congo to invest in the area in order to promote a society ravaged by poverty and war.

Member of the East Congo Women’s Media Association, she has presented different allegations to the International Penal Court and the US Senate, denouncing the rape of women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is estimated that an average of forty women and girls have been raped each day since the beginning of the conflict. She is also a member of the Un Altavoz para el Silencio (Speaker for Silence) network, a project of the Euro-Arab Foundation (Spain). Caddy Adzuba has featured in the short film PourQuoi? by Spanish photographer Barbara Allende Gil de Biedma, Ouka Lele, and producer Isabel Bettina, where she tells the true story of a raped woman who was forced to eat her own children held in captivity as a sex slave. The object of the short film is to disseminate facts such as this, which women and girls in her country suffer daily, and to provide support for the journalist in her fight to out and end to this violence. The film became the centrepiece of the exhibition entitled PourQuoi? Un cruel banquete (Why? A Cruel Feast), by Ouka Lele, which is open to the public at the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid until the end of May.

Her personal courage and the social impact of her work have earned her numerous awards, including the Julio Anguita Parrado International Journalism Award, the Spanish Federation of Journalists Award (2009), and the Club 25 Association of Women Journalists Award. In 2010, the University of Malaga bestowed her with the International Press Freedom Award and, in 2012, she received the Woman of the Year Award from the Aosta Valley Regional Council (Italy).

This year a total of 40 candidatures from Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, China, Chile, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, Lebanon, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States and Spain ran for the award.

This is the last of the eight Prince of Asturias Awards to be bestowed this year, in what is their thirty-four year. Previously, the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts went to American architect Frank O. Gehry, the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences was conferred on French historian and Hispanist Joseph Pérez, the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities went to the Argentinian-Spanish cartoonist Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón, Quino, the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research was jointly bestowed on chemists Avelino Corma (Spain), Mark E. Davis (USA) and Galen D. Stucky (USA), the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature went to Irish writer John Banville, the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation was conferred on the Fulbright Program for educational and cultural Exchange and the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports went to the New York City Marathon

Each Prince of Asturias Award comprises a Joan Miró sculpture, representing and symbolising the Awards, a cash prize of 50,000 euros, a diploma and an insignia.

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