SOUTH BEND -- Guatemalan human rights activist Helen Mack Chang will receive the 2005 Notre Dame Prize for Distinguished Public Service in Latin America.

The award, bestowed by the university's Kellogg Institute for International Studies, will be presented Sept. 7 at a ceremony in Guatemala City.

Mack is founder of Guatemala's Myrna Mack Foundation, which she formed in a quest for justice for the murder of her sister, Myrna Mack, and for thousands of other citizens who lost their lives at the hands of the country's military.

An anthropologist, Myrna Mack was stabbed to death in 1990 by members of a military death squad in response to her investigations of the destruction and massacre of entire indigenous communities by the Guatemalan military.

Since the foundation was established in 1993, Helen Mack has made significant progress in the fight for human rights, reform of the judiciary system and fortification of the rule of law. She obtained the conviction of one of the soldiers accused of committing the crime -- and several years later, the conviction of one of the three officers accused of masterminding Myrna Mack's murder.

"Ms. Mack is a symbol of the impact one courageous person can have in the political process," said the Rev. Edward A. Malloy, president emeritus of Notre Dame and a member of the prize committee. "Since her sister, Myrna Mack, was brutally murdered by members of the military, she has become an unlikely champion for human rights and justice in a country where that can be a hazardous occupation."

As part of the prize, Mack will be awarded $10,000, with a matching amount donated to the Myrna Mack Foundation. Jos Garca Noval, vice president of the Myrna Mack Foundation, will accept the matching cash award on behalf of the foundation.

Established in 2000 and paid for by the Coca-Cola Foundation, the Notre Dame Prize has been awarded to some of the leading political, civil and religious figures in Latin America.