JOHANNESBURG, Nov 1, 2006 (AFP) - South African writer Nadine Gordimer Wednesday bestowed rights group Amnesty International's highest honour on fellow Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela and hailed his lifelong fight for justice.
Gordimer, conferring the Ambassador of Conscience Award 2006, recalled the anti-apartheid icon's long struggle which saw him spend 27 years behind bars and becoming the world's most famous prisoner of conscience.
"He was and is a revolutionary in the positive sense," Gordimer said, paying tribute to Mandela's "invincible dedication to the freedom of his people".
"Nelson Mandela belongs to the world," she said while underlining that South Africa's elder statesman did not recoil from criticising the shortcomings in his beloved new "Rainbow Nation," including its response to the AIDS pandemic.
"He spoke out on the present government shortfalls," said Gordimer, who is in her eighties like Mandela.
Mandela, who has whittled down his public engagements due to his advancing years, said: "Like Amnesty International, I have been struggling for justice ans human rights for long years."
After he stepped down as South Africa's first black president in 1999, Mandela started a fight against South Africa's sky-high AIDS rate and combating poverty and illiteracy though a foundation which bears his name.
Recalling these scourges, he said: "Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural," and "Women bear the most significant burden of HIV and AIDS."
Mandela is the fourth recipient of the award, which draws its name from a poem by Irish Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney. Previous recipients include former Czech president Vaclav Havel, Irish rock group U2 and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson.
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