UNESCO Awards Equatorial Guinea Prize Despite Outcry

The United Nations’ cultural and science body UNESCO handed out a prize sponsored by the president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday, defying campaigners’ calls not to do so because of corruption allegations against Teodoro Obiang.

France and other European countries boycotted a ceremony in Paris to award the prize, unimpressed by a decision to change its name to remove any reference to the president himself.

Three scientific researchers, from Egypt, Mexico and South Africa, working on vaccine development, food scarcity in Africa and parasitic diseases won $100,000 each in prize money.

A statement by seven rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, called the award “shameful and utterly irresponsible” and warned that the UNESCO risked tarnishing its credibility.

President Obiang, who had been scheduled to come for the ceremony, did not attend. It was also skipped by UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, who had publicly voiced her opposition to the prize.

Despite calls to abandon it, the governing council of Paris-based UNESCO voted by 33 to 18 with six abstentions to approve awarding what was originally called the “UNESCO-Obiang prize” but renamed the “UNESCO-Equatorial Guinea International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences”.

Reuters