Let us Proudly Commemorate International Year of Small Scale Fisheries & Aquiculture - 2022

The TO DO Award for Human Rights in Tourism goes to the human rights defender Herman Kumara

Herman Kumara’s organisation campaigns for the economic and social development of fishing communities, education and vocational training for women and children and the many people who have been displaced by wars. For the last 22 years the human rights campaigner has been head of the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement (NAFSO), a network of 17 community and fishery organisations and trade unions in Sri Lanka.
Kumara put together multi-ethnic research teams who in conversation with local fishermen laid bare the facts from their point of view for the first time. Armed with his research findings, Kumara approached German and Swiss representatives of politics and tourism to endeavour to engage them in a dialogue with their local partners and civic organisations. The aim is to establish a co-existence with tourists that benefits everyone and ensures human rights are respected.
On Thursday, 8 March at 4.30 p.m. at the TO DO 2018 event at the Palais am Funkturm Herman Kumara will be presented with the TO DO Award for Human Rights in Tourism. The awards were introduced in 2016 by the Study Group for Tourism and Development in cooperation with the Round Table on Human Rights in Tourism and Studiosus Reisen München.