Sakharov Prize, Pussy Riot and the Iranian filmaker Panahi nominated

Pussy Riot are among the nominees for this year’s Sakharov Prize. The Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded annually by the European Parliament to individuals or organisations that have made an important contribution to the fight for human rights or democracy.

Three Pussy Riot members were arrested after performing a raucous prayer inside Moscow’s main cathedral asking the Virgin Mary to save Russia from its president, Vladimir Putin. They were convicted of “hooliganism driven by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in prison.

Last year Sakharov prize went to The Arab Spring and was given to 5 activists from Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia. Set up in 1998 the the prize was awarded to Nelson Mandela (1988), Alexander Dubček (1989), Aung San Suu Kyi (1990) but also to UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, and all UN staff (2003) and the Chinese dissident Hu Jia (2008).

The prize is dedicated to the memory of the Russian physicist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Sakharov first came to prominence as the father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb but after he sought to raise awareness of the dangers of the nuclear arms race and in the USSR he was seen as a subversive dissident.

Every year 8 nominees are chosen by MEPs and political group, three of them are selected by Foreign Affairs and Development committees for the final selection and the winner is selected by the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament. The prize, endowed with 50,000 euro, is awarded on or around 10 December, the day on which the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948.

Beyond Pussy Riot the other nominees are: Ales Bialiatski, an imprisoned civil society activist fighting for freedom of thought and expression in Belarus. He founded the Viasna Human Rights Centre, a nongovernmental organisation which provides financial and legal assistance to political prisoners and their families; Joseph Francis, founder and director of the Center for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), organisation which addresses the needs of victims of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, through legal assistance and if necessary by providing shelter and relocation; Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Déogratias Mushayidi, Bernard Ntaganda, imprisoned Rwandan opposition politicians who tried to put an end to the violence in their country by fostering dialogue and reconciliation; Nasrin Sotoudeh, Jafar Panahi, the first is an imprisoned Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate. She represented imprisoned opposition activists and juvenile offenders facing the death sentence.

Jafar Panahi after Abbas Kiarostami is the most known Iranian filmmaker, screenwriter and film editor. He has won numerous awards, including the Caméra d’Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Lion at the 2000 Venice Film Festival. In 2010 he was arrested for his anti-regime activism, handed a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on making or directing any movies, writing screenplays. Panahi broke the ban imposed on him and made the documentary feature This Is Not a Film in 2011. The documentary was smuggled out of Iran and presented in the opening of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. His nominee for the Sakharov Prize is the strongest because is backed by three political groups, Socialists & Democrats, Alde and Greens.

 Alfonso Bianchi

To learn  more:

The official document with al the nominees dossiers http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/201209/20120913ATT51311/20120913ATT51311EN.pdf