Four Human Rights Activists Are Honored

FOUR human rights activists were honored with the 1992 Reebok Human Rights Award yesterday for efforts to improve conditions in their communities.

Recipients, who received $25,000 to give to a human rights organization, must be under age 30 and cannot advocate violence. The awardees are:

* Stacey Kabat, volunteer director of Boston-based Battered Women Fighting Back!, a task force of 100 volunteers that lobbies state legislatures to improve protection for battered women.

* Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, president of Voice of the Voiceless (VSV) in Zaire. For seven years and with no budget, he and VSV clandestinely produced an internationally distributed bulletin on Zaire's human rights problems, using an old typewriter and a university printing room.

* Martin O'Brien, founder of the Irish Network for Nonviolent Action Training and director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice. Mr. O'Brien works with Protestants and Catholics to stop human rights abuses in Northern Ireland.

* Fernando de Araujo, chairman of the student group RENETIL, which is working for East Timor's independence from Indonesia. Mr. de Araujo, now under house arrest, has collected information on government human right abuses, organized demonstrations, and created a youth group to promote human rights.

The ceremony in Boston drew more than 3,000 people, including celebrities Peter Gabriel and Joan Baez. Former hostage Terry Anderson gave the keynote address.