The United Nations Convention Against Corruption Civil Society Coalition, composed of almost 200 organizations committed to fighting corruption and promoting human rights worldwide, has written an open letter to the UN expressing its concern over the UNESCO-Obiang prize.
President Obiang heads a country whose government is known for it brutality and whose citizens live in poverty despite the country's oil riches. In more than 30 years of government, Mr. Obiang has missed the opportunity to use oil revenues, and other sources of government income, to improve the life of the people in Equatorial Guinea or even to make transparent what those revenues are. By creating a UNESCO-Obiang award, UNESCO's member states are effectively endorsing Obiang's regime and undermining its own support for human rights, including the right to education, to freedom of expression and to citizen's access to information.