Hungry for Truth, Peace and Justice

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakharov_Prize

 

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament as a means to honour individuals or organisations who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought.^[2] A shortlist of nominees is drawn up by the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Development Committee, with the winner announced in October.^[1] As of 2010, 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 most recent award, in 2011, was given to five representatives of the Arab Spring—Asmaa Mahfouz,Ahmed al-Senussi, Razan Zaitouneh, Ali Farzat, and Mohamed Bouazizi—for their contributions to "historic changes in the Arab world".^[3] The prize has also been awarded to different organisations throughout its history, the first being the Argentine Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1992).

The Sakharov Prize is usually awarded annually on or around 10 December, the day on which the United Nations General Assembly ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948,^[4] also celebrated as Human Rights Day.^[5]

Year	Recipient	Nationality	Notes	Reference
1988	Nelson Mandela	South Africa	Anti-apartheid activist and later President of South Africa	[6]
1988	Anatoly Marchenko (posthumously)	Soviet Union	Soviet dissident, author and humans rights activist	[6]
1989	Alexander Dubček	Czechoslovakia	Slovak politician, attempted to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring	[6]
1990	Aung San Suu Kyi	Burma	Opposition politician and a former General Secretary of the National League for Democracy	[7]
1991	Adem Demaçi	Kosovo	Politician and long-term political prisoner	[6]
1992	Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo	Argentina	Association of Argentine mothers whose children disappeared during the Dirty War	[7]
1993	Oslobođenje	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Popular newspaper, continued to publish after its office building was destroyed in Sarajevo	[7]
1994	Taslima Nasrin	Bangladesh	Ex-doctor, feminist author	[7]
1995	Leyla Zana	Turkey	A female politician of Kurdish descent from Eastern Turkey, who was imprisoned for 10 years for speaking her native language of Kurdish in the Turkish Parliament	[6]
1996	Wei Jingsheng	People's Republic of China	An activist in the Chinese democracy movement	[7]
1997	Salima Ghezali	Algeria	Journalist and writer, an activist of women's rights, human rights and democracy in Algeria	[7]
1998	Ibrahim Rugova	Kosovo	Albanian politician, the first President of Kosovo	[6]
1999	Xanana Gusmão	East Timor	Former militant who was the first President of East Timor	[8]
2000	¡Basta Ya!	Spain	Organisation uniting individuals of various political positions against terrorism	[9]
2001	Nurit Peled-Elhanan	Israel	Peace activist	[6]
2001	Izzat Ghazzawi	Palestine	Writer, arrested several times by Israeli authorities for "political activities"	[6]
2001	Dom Zacarias Kamwenho	Angola	Archbishop and peace activist	[6]
2002	Oswaldo Payá	Cuba	Political activist and dissident	[10]
2003	Kofi Annan (& United Nations)	—	Nobel Peace Prize recipient and seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations	[6]
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"	[11]
2005	Ladies in White	Cuba	Opposition movement, relatives of jailed dissidents	[12]
2005	Reporters Without Borders	—	France-based non-governmental organisation advocating freedom of the press	[12]
2005	Hauwa Ibrahim	Nigeria	Human rights lawyer	[12]
2006	Alaksandar Milinkievič	Belarus	Politician chosen by United Democratic Forces of Belarus as the joint candidate of the opposition in the presidential elections of 2006	[13]
2007	Salih Mahmoud Osman	Sudan	Human rights lawyer	[7]
2008	Hu Jia	People's Republic of China	Activist and dissident	[14]
2009	Memorial	Russia	International civil rights and historical society	[15]
2010	Guillermo Fariñas	Cuba	Doctor, journalist and political dissident	[16]
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.	[3]