Perdita Constance Huston (May 2, 1936 – December 4, 2001) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

activist. She is commemorated by the international Perdita Huston Human Rights Award. Born in

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

, Huston studied in France and later worked in Africa. She was director of public affairs for

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

magazine in French-speaking countries, and in 1978 became a Regional Director of the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...

. Her first book "Message from the Village" was also published in 1978. She later worked for the World Conservation Union (

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

) in Switzerland and at the International Planned Parenthood Federation ( IPPF) in London and acted as consultant with

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

UNIFEM The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, french: Fonds de développement des Nations unies pour la femme, ) was established in December 1976 originally as the Voluntary Fund for the United Nations Decade for Women in the International ...

UNFPA The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, is a UN agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide. Its work includes developing national healthcare strategies ...

and

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...

. From 1997, she returned to work for the Peace Corps as a Country Director in Mali and then Bulgaria. The Perdita Huston Human Rights Award''Perdita Huston award for Prajwala founder'', The Hindu, May 17, 2006 accessed a

Oct 20, 2006 is supported by the

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

chapter of the

United Nations Association of the United States of America The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) is a nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to promoting political and public support for the United Nations among Americans. A program of the United Nations Foundation ...

. The awardees include 2003 -

Sima Samar Sima Samar ( fa, سیما سمر; born 3 February 1957) is an Afghan woman and human rights advocate, activist and social worker within national and international forums, who served as Minister of Women's Affairs of Afghanistan from December 2 ...

2004 - Madame Fatumata Traore 2005 - Ms. Ranjana Gaur 2006 -

Sunitha Krishnan Sunitha Krishnan (born 1972) is an Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala, a non-governmental organization that rescues, rehabilitates and reintegrates sex-trafficked victims into society. She was awarded India' ...

2007 - Zipporah Sein, Bishnu Pariyar, and Samar Minallah 2011-

Zainab Salbi Zainab Salbi (Arabic: زينب سلبي; born 1969) is an Iraqi American women's rights activist and writer. She is the co-founder of Women for Women International and host of ''Through Her Eyes'' with Yahoo! News and '' #MeToo, Now What?'', P ...

Books

* ''Message from the Village'', Epoch B Foundation, 1978 * ''Third World Women Speak Out'', Praeger Publishers, 1979 ASIN B000GWIA8Q * ''The Right to Choose'', Earthscan Publications, 1992 * ''Motherhood by Choice: Pioneers in Women's Health and Family Planning'', The Feminist Press 1992 * ''Families As We Are'', The Feminist Press, 2001 - see als

Notes

External links

Archived papers, Maine Women Writers Collection, University of New England
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huston, Perdita 1936 births 2001 deaths American women journalists American women's rights activists 20th-century American women

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