Dear colleagues,
Dear nominees,
Dear members of the selection panel,
Today we have the honour, pleasure and privilege to award the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. This is the third time the Assembly is giving this prize.
Let me thank our partners, the government of the Czech Republic, the Vaclav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation. Their commitment to the legacy of Mr Havel gives this Prize a particular significance.
This year, the jury had to face again an extremely difficult task: how to select only one laureate from dozens of worthy, admirable human rights defenders and organisations to whom we owe our respect our support and our thanks? Let me, on behalf of the Assembly, congratulate and thank all the candidates and the persons who put them forward, for their work, their dignity and their dedication.
Allow me as well to express our gratitude to the members of the selection panel, who throughout these months have been attentive and aware of the responsibility that their duty implies.
Without further delay, let me introduce our distinguished nominees.
Ms Ludmilla Alexeeva is a Soviet dissident and Russian human rights defender who inspired many generations of activists in Russia, but also abroad, to commit themselves to the struggle for justice. During the decades of her work, Ms Alexeeva was persecuted and threatened, she lost her employment and she had to leave her country in order to continue to speak out about human rights violations in the Soviet Union. Today she chairs the Moscow Helsinki Group, an organisation that often faces a hostile environment as a free-thinking NGO, but nonetheless continues to denounce human rights violations and offers help to the victims. I am honoured to see Ms Alexeeva in this hemicycle today, and I applaud her life-long commitment.
Women for Afghan Women – an NGO from Afghanistan – is another shortlisted nominee. This organisation does remarkable work to protect women and girls from abuse in a country where the rights of women are all too often violated and even despised. This organisation provides shelter to the girls and women victims of hideous violence – mutilation, murder attempts, rape and torture… This is truly an organisation that protects human dignity and saves human lives. The organisation is represented here by Ms Manizha Naderi, executive director, and her presence in the hemicycle demonstrates that the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize has a strong global dimension. Nominations and the prize itself are not restricted to European individuals or organisations, and on behalf of the Assembly I would like to pay tribute to human rights activists beyond our continent.
The third shortlisted nominee is the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, an organisation that promotes establishing and re-establishing contacts and bonds between the youth of the region of the Balkans – creating a new fabric of solidarity in this region. This organisation promotes reconciliation and mutual understanding through common commitment to human rights and the rule of law, through common reflection on the past, confronting memories often marked by violence and injustice. Sometimes Europe is called the "old continent", but such initiatives like the one we are glad to welcome here today remind us that Europe is also a young continent, where youth is capable of overcoming yesterday's animosity, capable of thinking about the future and not being imprisoned by the dark ghosts of the past. We are glad to welcome here today Ms Alma Masic, Director of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights.
Dear Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
The three shortlisted candidates for this year's Prize may appear very different, but they have two things in common. First, all of them conduct their activities in difficult conditions, facing pressure, mistrust or misunderstanding. Second, their human rights work can be seen as a strong commitment in favour of solidarity. Solidarity is a safeguard against dictatorship, protection from violence and an antidote to hatred and intolerance. Solidarity is the essence of the human rights commitment. Solidarity makes democratic societies work.
I think we should remember this in the present context, when there is an important risk for many countries to fall back into populism and hatred.
Especially today, let us remember the words of Vaclav Havel, pronounced 18 years ago in this very building: "We must not pass on to the future generations an egoistic Europe, deaf and blind to the needs of others; a Europe entrenched in a fortress mentality".
Now, congratulating once again the three nominees who all merit the highest recognition, I will announce the laureate of the third Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.