Humanitarian aid organisation Save the Children is under pressure from its own staff to withdraw a "global legacy award" to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mr Blair was given the award last week on behalf of the United States branch of Save the Children. However, 200 senior Save the Children staff have reportedly signed a letter calling for the award to be withdrawn, calling it "morally reprehensible" and saying it endangered the organisation's credibility globally.
The award has also prompted a huge response on Twitter. Many users demanded the award be rescinded.
Executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, tweeted a picture of Mr Blair calling him a "well-paid dictator's PR agent".
An online petition with more than 93,000 signatures also called for the award to be revoked. It said many see Mr Blair as the cause of the deaths of countless children in the Middle East and he is central to an inquiry into Britain's controversial and protracted war in Iraq.
Mr Blair's office released a response which said the award was "in recognition of Tony Blair's work in leading G8 nations at Gleneagles in 2005 to pledge to double aid to Africa and provide 100 per cent debt relief to eligible countries, as well as his ongoing work in partnership with African governments through his Foundation, the Africa Governance Initiative."
It said a Guardian newspaper article on the award conveniently disregarded the facts, was neither balanced nor fair, and ignored quotes from African Presidents and the head of USAID.
A Save the Children spokesperson told SBS its staff work tirelessly in over 100 countries to make a real difference in children's lives, and feel passionately about the cause. The spokesperson said it is natural that many have strong views on a whole range of issues and people, and Save the Children respects that diversity of views.
They said the award was based on the US branch of Save the Children's assessment of Blair's work on Africa and poverty when Prime Minister of Great Britain, including a doubling of aid to Africa, debt cancellation and universal access to AIDS treatment.
Mr Blair accepted the award at a star-studded Gala in New York last week. In his acceptance speech he said, "From the beginning of humankind there has been brutality, conflict, intrigue, the destructive obsession with a narrow self-interest." But he said throughout history there has always been a desire to do good, "to act not only in self-interest and sometimes to even act in defiance of it."
