2012 WOLA/DUKE Award Winner Author Reading

Abad's book begins with the author's memories of his father, Dr. Héctor Abad Gómez, who developed practical public health programs for the poor in Medellín, Colombia. The increasing violence and human rights abuses of the 1970s and 1980s led the author's father to fight for social justice in his community. As a physician, he recognized the violence as a societal sickness in need of a cure, but his political views put him at odds with those in power, and they labeled his views as sympathetic to Colombia's left-wing guerrilla groups. In Oblivion, twenty years after his father was killed by a right-wing death squad, Abad memorializes and pays homage to the man who continues to inspire him today, and he shows us the importance of standing up against injustice.Judges for this year's competition called Abad's book "deeply moving," "beautiful," and "original," recognizing it for painting a heartfelt picture of how damaging political violence is for victims and their families and for stressing the importance of fighting for social justice and the respect for human rights, despite staggering opposition.About the Award: Started in 2008, the WOLA-Duke Human Rights Book Award is a joint venture of Duke University and WOLA, a leading advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. The award honors the best current, non-fiction book published in English on human rights, democracy, and social justice in contemporary Latin America.