Sakharov Prize

Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought
The awarding ceremony of the 1990 prize awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi inside the Parliament's Strasbourg hemicycle, in 2013.
Presented by	European Parliament
Reward	€50,000[1]
First awarded	1988
Currently held by	Raif Badawi
Official website	Official website Sakharov Prize Network website

The Sakharov Prize, officially known as the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and named after Russian scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament as a means to honour individuals and groups of people who have dedicated their lives to the defense of human rights and freedom of thought.^[2] A shortlist of nominees is drawn up by the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Development, with the winner announced in October.^[1] The prize is accompanied by a monetary award of €50,000.^[1]

The first prize was awarded jointly to South African Nelson Mandela and Russian Anatoly Marchenko. The 1990 award was given to Aung San Suu Kyi, but she could not collect it until 2013 as a result of her political imprisonment in Burma. The prize has also been awarded to organisations, the first being the Argentine Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in 1992.

Some Sakharov laureates still face harsh political oppression. Laureates living under repressive regimes include the Belarusian Association of Journalists (2004), Damas de Blanco and Guillermo Fariñas (Cuba, 2005 and 2010), Alaksandar Milinkievič (Belarus, 2006) and Hu Jia (China, 2008). Razan Zaitouneh (2011) was kidnapped in 2013 and is still missing. Nasrin Sotoudeh (2012) was released from prison in September 2013, and, along with fellow 2012 laureate Jafar Panahi, is still barred from leaving Iran.

Three Sakharov laureates were subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Malala Yousafzai.

Laureates

Nelson Mandela was the inaugural winner of the prize, together with Anatoly Marchenko.

The awarding ceremony of the 1990 prize awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi inside the Parliament's Strasbourg hemicycle, in 2013. Suu Kyi could not collect it before as she had been political prisoner for years.

Members of Ladies in White, a 2005 laureate, demonstrate in Havana, Cuba.

Doctor Denis Mukwege, recipient of the prize in 2014

Writer Raif Badawi, recipient of the prize in 2015

Year	Recipient	Nationality	Notes	Reference
1988	Mandela, NelsonNelson Mandela	South Africa	Anti-apartheid activist and later President of South Africa	[3]
1988	Marchenko, AnatolyAnatoly Marchenko (posthumously)	Soviet Union	Soviet dissident, author and human rights activist	[3]
1989	Dubček, AlexanderAlexander Dubček	Czechoslovakia	Slovak politician, attempted to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring	[3]
1990	Aung San Suu Kyi	Burma	Opposition politician and a former General Secretary of the National League for Democracy	[4]
1991	Demaçi, AdemAdem Demaçi	Kosovo	Kosovo Albanian Politician and long-term political prisoner	[3]
1992	Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo	Argentina	Association of Argentine mothers whose children disappeared during the Dirty War	[4]
1993	Oslobođenje	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Popular newspaper that defended Bosnia and Herzegovina as a multi-ethnic state	[4]
1994	Nasrin, TaslimaTaslima Nasrin	Bangladesh	Ex-doctor, feminist author	[4]
1995	Zana, LeylaLeyla Zana	Turkey	Politician of Kurdish descent from Southeastern Turkey, who was imprisoned for 10 years for speaking her native language of Kurdish in the Turkish Parliament	[3]
1996	Jingsheng, WeiWei Jingsheng	China	An activist in the Chinese democracy movement	[4]
1997	Ghezali, SalimaSalima Ghezali	Algeria	Journalist and writer, an activist of women's rights, human rights and democracy in Algeria	[4]
1998	Rugova, IbrahimIbrahim Rugova	Kosovo	Albanian politician, the first President of Kosovo	[3]
1999	Gusmão, XananaXanana Gusmão	East Timor	Former militant who was the first President of East Timor	[5]
2000	¡Basta Ya!	Spain	Organisation uniting individuals of various political positions against terrorism	[6]
2001	Peled-Elhanan, NuritNurit Peled-Elhanan	Israel	Peace activist	[3]
2001	Ghazzawi, IzzatIzzat Ghazzawi	Palestine	Writer, professor	[3]
2001	Kamwenho, Dom ZacariasDom Zacarias Kamwenho	Angola	Archbishop and peace activist	[3]
2002	Payá, OswaldoOswaldo Payá	Cuba	Political activist and dissident	[7]
2003	Annan, KofiKofi Annan (& United Nations)	Ghana	Nobel Peace Prize recipient and seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations	[3]
2004	Belarusian Association of Journalists	Belarus	Non-governmental organisation "aiming to ensure freedom of speech and rights of receiving and distributing information and promoting professional standards of journalism"	[8]
2005	Ladies in White	Cuba	Opposition movement, relatives of jailed dissidents	[9]
2005	Reporters Without Borders	International	France-based non-governmental organisation advocating freedom of the press	[9]
2005	Ibrahim, HauwaHauwa Ibrahim	Nigeria	Human rights lawyer	[9]
2006	Milinkievič, AlaksandarAlaksandar Milinkievič	Belarus	Politician chosen by United Democratic Forces of Belarus as the joint candidate of the opposition in the presidential elections of 2006	[10]
2007	Mahmoud Osman, SalihSalih Mahmoud Osman	Sudan	Human rights lawyer	[4]
2008	Jia, HuHu Jia	China	Activist and dissident	[11]
2009	Memorial	Russia	International civil rights and historical society	[12]
2010	Fariñas, GuillermoGuillermo Fariñas	Cuba	Doctor, journalist and political dissident	[13]
2011	Asmaa Mahfouz, Ahmed al-Senussi, Razan Zaitouneh, Ali Farzat, Mohamed Bouazizi (posthumously)	Egypt Libya Syria Syria Tunisia	Five representatives of the Arab people, in recognition and support of their drive for freedom and human rights.	[14]
2012	Jafar Panahi, Nasrin Sotoudeh	Iran	Iranian activists, Sotoudeh is a lawyer and Panahi is a film director.	[15][16]
2013	Malala Yousafzai	Pakistan	Campaigner for women's rights and education	[17]
2014	Denis Mukwege	DR Congo	Gynecologist treating victims of gang rape	[18]
2015	Raif Badawi	Saudi Arabia	Saudi Arabian writer and activist and the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals	[19]

Notes and references

1. "Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought". European Parliament. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
2. "1986: Sakharov comes in from the cold". BBC News. 23 December 1986. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
3. "20 years of the Sakharov Prize: Human rights and reconciliation". European Parliament. 28 October 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
4. "Sakharov Network calls for immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Sakharov Prize laureate 1990". Reporters Without Borders. 15 May 2009. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
5. "Gusmão receives EU Sakharov prize". BBC News. 15 December 1999. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
6. "Basque group wins peace prize". BBC News. 26 October 2000. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
7. "Cuban dissident collects EU prize". BBC News. 17 December 2002. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
8. "The Belarusian Association of Journalists - 2004, Belarus". European Parliament. 9 November 2004. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
9. Gibbs, Stephen (14 December 2005). "Cuba 'bars women from prize trip'". BBC News. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
10. "Belarussian takes EU rights award". BBC News. 26 October 2006. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
11. "China dissident wins rights prize". BBC News. 17 December 2008. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
12. "Russia rights group wins EU prize". BBC News. 22 October 2009. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
13. "Cuba dissident Farinas awarded Sakharov Prize by EU". BBC News. 21 October 2010. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
14. "Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2011". European Parliament. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
15. Saeed Kamali Dehghan (26 October 2012). "Nasrin Sotoudeh and director Jafar Panahi share top human rights prize". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
16. "Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi – winners of the 2012 Sakharov Prize" (PDF). European Parliament. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
17. Jordan, Carol (10 October 2013). "Malala wins Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought". CNN. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
18. "DR Congo doctor Denis Mukwege wins Sakharov prize". BBC News. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
19. Brussels, Associated Press in. "Raif Badawi wins Sakharov human rights prize". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-10-29.

External links

• "Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought". European Parliament. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
• "Sakharov Prize Network". European Parliament. 1 December 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
• "20 years of the Sakharov Prize: rewarding courage, self-sacrifice". European Parliament. 1 December 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2010.