Multiple Grammy winner Sting was honored on Monday (January 15) by the Chilean government not for his music, but for his human rights efforts.

Chilean Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear presented Sting with the Gabriela Mistral Medal, named after the country's 1945 Nobel Prize-winning poet, in a ceremony in Santiago, Chile, according to the Associated Press.

"Sting has made a very important contribution to the world and to our country by promoting the cause of human rights," Alvear said, according to AP.

In the past two decades, Sting has met with rights groups in Chile, along with leaders of an organization representing nonconformists who disappeared during the 17-year dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The former Police singer has performed at benefit concerts in Chile and wrote the 1987 song "They Dance Alone" (RealAudio excerpt), a tribute to women whose husbands died or disappeared during Pinochet's rule.

Sting, whose "She Walks This Earth (Soberano Rosa)" is nominated for this year's Best Male Pop Vocal Performance Grammy, will perform his recent hit "Desert Rose" (RealAudio excerpt) and the classic Police tune "Roxanne" during the Super Bowl pregame stadium show on January 28 in Tampa, Florida.