SOUTH AFRICA: Amnesty International is to make Nelson Mandela its Ambassador of Conscience for 2006 in recognition of the former South African president's contribution to protecting human rights worldwide.
The non-governmental organisation described the award - given last year to rock group U2 - as its "most prestigious honour".
Nobel literature laureate Seamus Heaney, who has been involved in promoting the award, and the prize's inaugural recipient Vaclav Havel, were among those to pay tribute to Mandela.
Amnesty cited the former political prisoner's "outspoken advocacy on behalf of millions of HIV/Aids sufferers - particularly in sub-Saharan Africa - and his insistence that HIV/Aids is a human rights issue" as reasons for his receiving of the award.
Bill Shipsey, founder of Art for Amnesty, the organisation's global artist support network which organises the annual prize, said: "More than any living person, Nelson Mandela has come to symbolise all that is hopeful and idealistic in public life. His poignant example and personal and political leadership since emerging from prison in February 1990 have been a source of inspiration for millions around the world.
"He has become the symbol of what it means to be a truly good global citizen," added Mr Shipsey, a Dublin barrister and long-time Amnesty supporter.
The award, which in 2004 went to former UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson, is the brainchild of Amnesty's Irish section and takes its name from a Heaney poem From the Republic of Conscience written for the organisation's 25th anniversary.