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Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 2016: Call For Nominations

January 21, 2016

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The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in partnership with the Vaclav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation, has issued a call for nominations for the 2016 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, which will be awarded for the fourth consecutive year on 10 October next in Strasbourg. The ceremony will be followed by the conference in honour of the winner on 12 October in Prague.

The Prize aims to reward outstanding civil society action in defending human rights in Europe and beyond. Candidates should have made a real difference to the human rights situation of a given group, been instrumental in uncovering systemic violations on a large scale, or have successfully mobilised public opinion or the international community for a given cause.

“Today, human rights are under attack on many fronts and those who defend them – sometimes at risk to their lives or livelihoods – deserve our full support. This prize is in honour of all those who stand up for human dignity and fundamental freedoms, speak out against the abuse of democratic standards, and spare no effort to help those whose rights are violated,” said PACE President Anne Brasseur.

Michael Žantovský, the director of the Vaclav Havel Library said: “ 2016 will be the year of Václav Havel´s 80th birthday anniversary. We propose to include the Václav Havel 2016 Human Rights Prize under the umbrella logo Havel@80 along with all the important Havel projects around the world this year."

The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize consists of a sum of €60,000, a trophy and a diploma.

The first Prize was awarded in 2013 to Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski. The following year, imprisoned Azerbaijani human rights defender Anar Mammadli was awarded. Last year’s prize went to veteran Russian human rights defender Ludmilla Alexeeva.

The deadline for submitting nominations is 30 April 2016. Nominations should be sent to the Parliamentary Assembly by e-mail to the following address: hrprize.pace@coe.int, using the form available on the Prize website. They should be signed by at least five sponsors.

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