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The Organisation Human Life International and the US Politician Christopher Smith, 2009 Humanity Awards
The prize consists of a commemmorative statue and a scroll of honour, to be awarded on 8th November in Saragossa
 
Contact: Pro-Life World Congress Press Office, info@zaragoza2009.org; www.zaragoza2009.org
 
SARAGOSSA, Spain, Sept. 21 /Christian Newswire/ -- The 2009 International Humanity Award Committee has decided to award this distinction to the organisation Human Life International in the institutions category and Christopher Smith in the individuals category. The Award will be presented at the 4th International Prolife Congress to be held from 6th to 8th November 2009 at the Saragossa Auditorium.
 
Henry Christopher Smith is a US Republican politician and a member of the US House of Representatives for the electoral district of New Jersey. He is considered to be one of the most active pro-life and family politicians in the Houses of Congress, which has also led him to oppose the death penalty and human embryo research. He also works actively to increase research into non-embryonic stem cells.
 
In 2005, Smith was appointed chairman of the House International Relations Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations Subcommittee. Since he was elected to Congress, Smith has also carried out a very important role in promoting Human Rights in countries of the ex-Soviet Union and in Romania, Vietnam, China, Sudan, and Cuba, among others.
 
One of his most significant legal achievements was the drafting of the law against human slavery, which awards funding to combat this abominable illegal activity and protect its vicitims, helping them to reconstruct their lives.
 
Human Life International (HLI) was founded in 1981 and has its worldwide headquarters in Front Royal, Virginia (USA). It has 99 affiliates in 87 countries on all continents, making it the largest international pro-life, pro-family and pro-women organisation.
 
It defends life from the moment of conception to the natural death of all human beings and its actions focus on training, organising and providing resources for pro-life leaders around the globe, working with people from all cultures and religions to promote the cause of life.
 
HLI has facilitated the birth of 35,000 babies in Chile, 3,500 in Austria and around 40,000 in Mexico, providing support and aid for their mothers, and has also sponsored over 70 international conferences and around 50 in the United States. Furthermore, thousands of young families have benefited from its work and from the protection and personal dedication of volunteers, people who collaborate with HLI, in favour of the family and human life in all of its stages.
 
The methods employed by Human Life International in each country depend on the needs of the people and the regions in which they work, as for this organisation the specific concerns of local communities are best identified by those people who live in them.
 
The International Humanity Award distinguishes individuals or institutions of world renown who are characterised by their defence of Human Life and Families.
 
The award was first presented in Lima (Peru) in 2005 by the Permanent Committee of Prolife International Congresses and is awarded every two years within the framework of the Prolife International Congresses. The prize consists of a commemmorative statue and a scroll of honour, which will be awarded at 1 p.m. this coming 8th November in Saragossa.
 
The 2009 International Humanity Award Committee has emphasised that this distinction has acquired special relevance this year as it is being awarded “amid a serious worldwide economic crisis, which all political, social, media and religious leaders recognise as a crisis of ethical and moral values to which we have been inexorably led by one part of humanity, immersed in rampant consumerism, the most profound selfishness, excessive accumulation of wealth and the most cruel indifference imaginable towards the other suffering part of itself.”
 
Faced by this reality, the individual and institution distinguished by the 2009 Humanity Award have for years been characterised by their fight to defend humankind in times of its greatest vulnerability, denouncing attacks on the dignity of people and their families, and having provided a commitment towards solidarity for all of these people.
 
The 2009 International Humanity Award Committee comprised the endocrinologist and promoter of the first prolife association in Spain, Dolores Voltas Baró, who acted as president, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Medical Sciences in Nicaragua, Rafael Cabrera, the ex-Health Minister for Peru, Fernando Carbone, the doctor and Joint President of the Cuban Prolife Association, Héctor Gonzáles, the Director of the National Prolife Committee in Mexico, Jorge Serrano, the Sociology professor from the University of Valencia, José Pérez Adán, and the lawyer and Bioethics professor from the Free International University of the Americas, Jorge Scala.
 
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