Sakharov Prize
Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician and anti-corruption activist freed after five years of captivity in Colombia last July, and Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwean opposition leader, are two of the eight nominees shortlisted for this...
Ingrid Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician and anti-corruption activist freed after five years of captivity in Colombia last July, and Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwean opposition leader, are two of the eight nominees shortlisted for this year's European Parliament human rights and democracy prize.
The eight nominations for the award, known as the Sakharov Prize, in honour of the Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, were officially presented in Brussels yesterday during a joint meeting of the foreign affairs, development and human rights committees of the European Parliament.
The other individual nominees are the Dalia Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader; Hu Jia, a Chinese civil rights campaigner; Alexander Kozulin, former presidential candidate in Belarus; Abbot Apollinaire Malu Malu, who chaired the electoral commission in Congo; and Michail Ivanovich Trepashkin, a Russian lawyer and democracy campaigner.
The European Roma Rights Centre, a body campaigning against anti-Roma racism was also nominated for the 2008 prize.
The winner is expected to be selected by the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament next month and the award ceremony will be held during the December plenary session in Strasbourg.