BELA awarded Tang Prize

Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) has received the 2020 Tang Prize for contributing to the establishment of environmental ‘rule of law’.

The Bangladeshi non-government organisation led by Syeda Rizwana Hasan was awarded the prize jointly with two other NGOs in Colombia and Lebanon in the category.

BELA’s chief executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan said, “From the beginning, we’ve been fighting for the environmental good governance and preventing environment destruction by the powerful. The motto of our work is to protect the interest of the people. The prize will mobilise us to ensure the environmental good governance in future.”

“Utilising innovative strategic litigation, informed by rigorous scholarship, these organisations have shown exemplary perseverance in promoting greater individual, social and environmental justice, in milieus where the foundations of the rule of law are under severe challenges,” Tang Prize authorities said on its webpage on Sunday.

The other awardees are The Center for Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia) from Colombia and The Legal Agenda from Lebanon.

It said, founded by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin, the biannual Tang Prize consists of four categories, namely sustainable development, bio-pharmaceutical science, sinology and rule of law, with approximately US$1.3 million in cash prize and a research grant of approximately US$ 0.33 million allocated to each category.