South Korean anti-bullying campaigner wins Asia’s ‘Nobel Prize’

A campaigner who tackles youth suicide in South Korea, two journalists, and a human rights activist were named yesterday among the winners of Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

Kim Jong-ki, whose 16-yearold son took his life after being bullied in school, received the 2019 award for helping South Korea face one of the developed world’s highest suicide rates.

Kim, 72, was recognised for “his quiet courage in transforming private grief into a mission to protect Korea’s youth from the scourge of bullying and violence”, the Manila-based award foundation said in a statement.

Over 24 years, Kim’s Foundation for Preventing Youth Violence has carried out wideranging anti-bullying campaigns, run a hotline that now takes up to 50 calls a day, introduced counselling and mediation, and lobbied the government for new policy and laws.

Suicide was the second leading cause of death among teenagers in South Korea as recently as 2005, with school bullying directly related to more than half of the cases.

Journalists Ravish Kumar of India and Ko Swe Win o Myanmar were also winners of this year’s award, along with Thai human rights campaigner Angkhana Neelapaijit, and Filipino composer Raymundo Cayabyab.

Neelapaijit, 63, is the widow of a prominent human rights lawyer who was abducted and later murdered after publicly accusing the military of torturing detainees in the troubled Muslim region of southern Thailand.

The former housewife took up her late husband’s cause and established the Justice for Peace Foundation to document the situation in the area, provide legal aid to victims, and put pressure on the government to act on human rights cases.

Neelapaijit, who later served as commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, was cited for “her systematic, unflagging work to reform a flawed and unfair legal system”.

Ko Swe Win, 41, is the editor of the Myanmar Now, an independent online news service known for its well-researched, in-depth articles on the country’s under-reported human rights and social justice issues, the award foundation said. — AFP