MEPs nominate the ‘brave people’ of Ukraine for Sakharov Prize

The folks of Ukraine resisting Russia’s invasion, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Colombia’s Fact Fee are this yr’s finalists for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the European Union’s highest tribute to human rights defenders.

The award is given yearly by the European Parliament and comes with a €50,000 endowment.

The finalists had been chosen by the MEPs who sit on the committees on international affairs and improvement, primarily based on a pool of various candidates submitted by the parliament’s political teams.

The winner shall be introduced subsequent week and shall be formally granted at December’s plenary session.

The candidacy for “the courageous folks of Ukraine” was backed by the three primary teams, the European Folks’s Celebration (EPP), the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and Renew Europe, giving it a transparent edge over the opposite two finalists.

If Ukraine finally wins, the prize shall be symbolically handed to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy along with the nation’s elected leaders and civil society representatives.

Because the begin of the invasion, the hemicycle has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine, urging nationwide governments to impose sanctions on the Kremlin and step up weapons deliveries.

In early March, mere days after Russian tanks crossed Ukraine’s borders, Zelenskyy delivered a rousing digital speech earlier than the European Parliament in Brussels, and made the case for his war-torn nation to affix the bloc.

“Do show that you’re with us. Do show that you’ll not allow us to go. Do show that you’re certainly Europeans. After which, life will win over loss of life and light-weight will win over darkness. Glory be to Ukraine,” Zelenskyy mentioned.

The Ukrainian president was hailed as a hero and acquired a standing ovation from lawmakers. The parliament’s translator grew to become emotional whereas deciphering Zelenskyy’s phrases.

Ukraine’s marketing campaign paid off in late June when the nation was granted EU candidate standing.

Assange and Colombia

Apart from Ukraine, the finalists for this yr’s Sakharov Prize embody WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Colombia’s Fact Fee.

Assange, who was nominated by a gaggle of 41 MEPs, is an Australian activist who faces spying prices in the USA over a massive trove of categorised paperwork that his organisation leaked to the general public greater than a decade in the past. The leaks uncovered proof of warfare crimes, human rights violations and torture.

Assange, who’s at the moment held in London’s Belmarsh jail, is battling an extradition order from the UK to the US. His legal professionals say he’s “being prosecuted and punished for his political beliefs” and could possibly be sentenced to as much as 175 years behind bars if convicted in America.

The Fact Fee in Colombia, nominated by the Left group, was arrange in 2016 as a part of the peace settlement that dropped at an finish the battle between the nation’s authorities and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The fee was tasked with reconstructing the six a long time of warfare, establishing the info behind the human rights violations, and giving voice to the victims. The physique’s ultimate report revealed that an estimated 450,000 folks had been killed between 1985 and 2018.

The Sakharov Prize was arrange in 1988 to honour people and organisations defending human rights and elementary freedoms. The annual award is known as in honour of Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, an advocate of civil liberties within the former Soviet Union.

The primary recipients had been Nelson Mandela and Anatoli Marchenko. Final yr’s prize was awarded to imprisoned Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny.