The remaining line up for the EU’s most prestigious human rights award has been determined.
On Thursday, members of the EU parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Development Committees voted for the three finalists of the 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
The three finalists for the 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought are:
* Imprisoned journalists Andrzej Poczobut from Belarus and Mzia Amaglobeli from Georgia ;
*Journalists and Humanitarian Aid Workers in Palestine and all battle zones, represented by the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, the Red Crescent, and UNRWA;
* Serbian college students.
The parliament’s Conference of Presidents, comprising European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and the leaders of the political teams, will select the 2025 laureate from this shortlist. Their resolution will probably be introduced within the Strasbourg Hemicycle throughout the plenary session on 22 October.
The award ceremony for the prize, which incorporates an allocation of €50,000, will happen on Tuesday 16 December in Strasbourg.
New information exhibits that EU residents anticipate Parliament to prioritise elementary democratic values. Peace (45%), democracy (32%) and human rights (22%) stay the primary values that residents need the European Parliament to uphold.
Named after a Soviet dissident, the prize is the EU’s highest distinction within the subject of human rights. It is awarded by Parliament to people, teams or organisations annually in recognition of their work in help of human rights, freedom of expression and democratic values.
Numerous laureates have been awarded since 1988, together with Nelson Mandela and Anatoly Marchenko within the first version, but in addition dissidents, political leaders, journalists, attorneys, civil society activists, the United Nations and Reporters Without Borders.
Several Sakharov Prize laureates have additionally gained the Nobel Peace Prize, resembling 2024 Sakharov Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado who was simply awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025, Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Denis Mukwege or Nadia Mourad.
Comment was swift with Łukasz Kohut MEP, Vice-Chair of the Sub-committee on Human Rights and co-initiator of the nomination, telling this website: “Andrzej Poczobut is an indomitable European. A seeker of fact. For his loyalty to his beliefs, he paid a excessive worth. Yet even in a chilly cell, one can stay trustworthy to 1’s beliefs – Poczobut embodies this fact”
Further touch upon Thursday additionally got here from Rasa Juknevičienė, Parliament’s standing rapporteur on Georgia and co-initiator of the nomination.
The MEP stated, “Mzia Amaglobeli isn’t just a courageous journalist; she is an emblem of the whole Georgian nation preventing for a free, democratic, and European future. In present turbulent instances, she is sending a message to all of us: “Fight earlier than it’s too late.”
Another MEP, Andrzej Halicki, EPP Group Vice Chair for Foreign Affairs, added, “Together, Andrzej Poczobut and Mzia Amaglobeli symbolize two fronts of the identical battle – the defence of fact, dignity, and free expression towards Kremlin-sponsored tyranny. They maintain preventing for the liberty of their compatriots – and ours.
“Their tales mirror one another: journalists who selected conscience over worry, justice over silence.
“From Belarus to Georgia, from Ukraine to Moldova, their braveness resonates throughout a area preventing for freedom within the shadow of oppression and Russian imperial affect.
“Honouring Poczobut and Amaglobeli is greater than a tribute to 2 outstanding people – it’s a assertion of solidarity with all who threat their freedom to defend democracy and the values on which Europe stands.”
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