Liberty Medal going to Bono & Africa charity

The Irish-born rock singer Bono and the charity known as DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) will be honored in September with Philadelphia's prestigious Liberty Medal, based on their efforts to fight poverty and disease in Africa.

Bono, lead singer of the band U2, was a co-founder of the Washington-based DATA five years ago. Their selection for the Liberty Medal, including a $100,000 prize, was announced yesterday by the National Constitution Center and Mayor Street.

"In the mid-1990s, an Irish rock star first toured refugee camps in Africa," said the Constitution Center's president, Joseph M. Torsella.

"Ten years later, he has become a global spokesman for a more just, more compassionate, more effective policy towards that continent," Torsella continued. " . . . Bono and DATA don't just raise awareness. They challenge the world's richest nations to do better by Africa, and challenge African nations to do better by their own people."

Torsella cited pressure from DATA leading to an agreement by the world's wealthiest nations in 2005 to provide $25 billion in additional development assistance to Africa, along with broad debt cancellation, universal access to education and near-universal access to AIDS and malaria treatment and prevention.

Last year the center took over responsibility from the city for fundraising for the award and selecting its winner, and moved the ceremonies from July 4 to September, closer to the Sept. 17 anniversary of the Constitution's signing in 1787.

Since the first Liberty Medal was presented in 1989 to Lech Walesa, the Polish Solidarity leader, six of its recipients have subsequently won the Nobel Peace Prize - a testament to the leadership of its longtime selection committee, headed by former University of Pennsylvania president Martin Meyerson.

In choosing Bono, the Constitution Center's board picked someone who is generally younger than previous winners, who has a different cultural following and who has never held public office, but who got involved in politics through a much different route.

"I suspect there may be some young people . . . who do not normally pay attention to the Liberty Medal who might now pay attention to this one," said Mayor Street. "You also want to send a message . . . that there's some great work to be done by a lot of people everywhere. . . . This is going to send a very different message, and I think it's going to be well-received.:

Said Torsella: "He holds no official office whatsoever, but he proves that the office of citizen is the most important in the world," something that would have impressed the nation's founders.

This year's award ceremony will take place Sept. 27. Tickets, in limited supply, but free to the public, will become available in August, Torsella said, with further details to be posted on the Constitution Center's Web site.*