Prague/Berlin - On the eve of yesterday's Human Rights Day, the leader of the Czech Communist Party Vojtěch Filip garnered a prize given out annually by the German left-wing Society for the Protection of Civil Rights and Human Dignity.

The society is believed to have close connections to the former communist East Germany's government suite and its secret service apparatus.

Standing up to the powerful

Autor fotografie: Aktuálně.cz

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The president of the Society Wolfgang Richter explained that they have awarded Filip for his "resolute efforts against planned stationing of the US radar in the Czech Republic, contribution to the creation of the European Peace Forum, advocacy of tribunal for NATO war in Yugoslavia, struggle against EU reform treaty, and rigid stances in defending the legacy of his motherland's left-wing thinkers".

Among the past awardees have been, for example, Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro or American activist and former US Communist Party member Angela Davis.

With spies for human rights

Although formally independent, the Society is widely perceived by experts and historians as being tightly connected with the Left Party.PDS, a successor of the GDR's ruling party.

In addition, it is also accused of having former Stasi (the East German secret service) spies as members.   

Formally established in 1991, a year after the reunification of Germany, it became known for its fierce criticism of the merge, calling it a mass violation of the human rights of the German Democratic Republic's citizens.