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Ibn Rushd Prize 2017 goes to AMAN – Coalition for Accountability and Integrity


The Ibn Rushd Fund for Freedom of Thought is delighted to announce the Coalition for Accountability and Integrity AMAN – Transparency Palestine as winner of the 18th Ibn Rushd Prize. The award ceremony will take place in Berlin, Germany, on December 1, 2017.


Corruption is rife in much of the world with devastating consequences. It undermines the trust of citizens in their government and institutions. The frustration and anger of citizens, forced to watch political leaders get rich at the expense of the general public and their future, trigger social and political unrest. The abuse of political mandates in order to enrich oneself thus stifle the economic and social development of a country and provide fertile ground for political-religious extremist forces who make use of this situation to increase their power, and sow unrest in the form of terrorism into other countries also.


The Ibn Rushd Prize 2017 therefore called for:

a person (natural or legal) or an institution who has made an outstanding contribution to combatting corruption. The successes of this commitment must be appreciably and universally evaluable for the society in question.


The Coalition for Integrity and Accountability AMAN (https://www.aman-palestine.org/en/), founded in Palestine in the year 2000, stands out among organizations combatting corruption in the Arab World. During its 17 years of operation, numerous cases of corruption were brought to the attention of the public, across a spectrum of businesses and institutions, including energy, telecommunication, healthcare, social services, traffic management and infrastructure. AMAN holds all authorities accountable and writes impartial reports on their performance. It also founded networks that help different organizations connect and support each other in their battle against corruption, such as: Parliamentarians against Corruption, Youth and Women against Corruption, Academics and Researchers against Corruption, Civil team for enhancing public budget transparency and many more. AMAN publishes reports, factsheets and studies about the abuse of office, waste of public funds and corruption at appointing to public office. It also founded the ‘Civil Forum for Promoting Good Governance in the Security Sector’, an alliance of civil society organisations that focuses on monitoring the performance of the security apparatus. Today, AMAN leads a civil movement committed to monitoring the executive authorities of the Palestinian government.

“Founding an organization that strives to uphold the values of integrity and transparency [under the most difficult political-social conditions in Palestine] is directly linked to civic engagement which is most important for the future of the Palestinian people,” says one of the members of the jury.


To spread their methods of best practice in combatting corruption in a sustainable way, AMAN holds conferences, workshops, seminars and conventions at home and abroad, and advises other organizations at implementing their methods. In 2006 AMAN was recognized by Transparency International and has since contributed to the organization’s development of regional strategies for combatting corruption.


This year’s jury for the Ibn Rushd Prize consisted of the following members: Atta el-Battahani (Sudan), Ahlem Belhadj (Tunisia), Hassan Nafaa (Egypt), Natacha Sarkis (Lebanon).

See: Members of the Jury


For the allocation of the 18th Ibn Rushd Prize for Free Thought, the Ibn Rushd Fund has continued to practice the principles of grassroots democracy established since it’s foundation:At the beginning of a year, the members of the Ibn Rushd Fund choose a theme for the prize from among a list of themes made by the executive and advisory boards. After the official notification of the theme in April, any interested person can nominate a candidate. In the meantime the fund chooses a jury comprised of 4-5 experts in correspondence with the theme, if possible from five Arab countries and including at least two women. The jury is honorary and independent. The result is drawn from the sum of points given for each of the categories specified by the jury.Since 1998 the Ibn Rushd Fund has sought to distinguish people or organisations who have made a significant contribution to free thinking in the Arab World with its prize.Former prize winners: Ibn Rushd Prize
The prize giving ceremony as well as the prize money consisting of €2500 is exclusively funded through membership fees and the contributions of the members of the Ibn Rushd Fund.
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