ditshwanelo wins 2000 felipa award.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has honored the Botswana Centre for Human Rights Ditshwanelo with one of its 2000 Felipa Awards. The centre is applauded by IGLHRC for 'advocating outspoken and tirelessly the fundamental rights of gay and lesbian people.'

'Ditshwanelo's efforts are all the more remarkable, given the surge of government-sponsored homophobia in many countries in southern Africa', says IGLHRC. Other winners of the 2000 Felipa Award are William Hernandez, a gay activist from El Salvador, and ISNA, an advocacy and education group that fights for the right of intersex people not to be operated without their consent.

The sixth annual Felipa Awards were announced at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Centre in New York City on May 17. The awards are named in honor of Felipa de Souza, a Brazilian lesbian tortured by the Portuguese Inquisition in 1591, honors activists and organizations who have made significant contributions to the freedom of sexual minorities worldwide.

Last year's Felipa's were given, amongst others, to South African lesbian Aids/HIV activist Prudence Mabele and, posthumously, Simon Nkoli, one of the founding fathers of South Africa's gay and lesbian movement.