Sakharov Prize Information & Sakharov Prize Links at HealthHaven.com

For other uses, see Sakharov Prize (disambiguation).

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament as a means to honour individuals or organizations who had dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedoms.

The Sakharov Prize is awarded annually on or around 10 December, the day on which the United Nations General Assembly ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, also celebrated as Human Rights Day.

[edit] Recipients

Past recipients of the prize have been the following:

1988: Nelson Mandela (South Africa) and Anatoly Marchenko (Soviet Union; posthumously)
1989: Alexander Dubček (Czechoslovakia)
1990: Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar)
1991: Adem Demaçi (SFR Yugoslavia)
1992: Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Argentina)
1993: Oslobođenje (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
1994: Taslima Nasrin (Bangladesh)
1995: Leyla Zana (Kurdistan)
1996: Wei Jingsheng (China)
1997: Salima Ghezali (Algeria)
1998: Ibrahim Rugova (FR Yugoslavia)
1999: Xanana Gusmão (East Timor)
2000: ¡Basta Ya! (Spain)
2001: Nurit Peled-Elhanan (Israel), Izzat Ghazzawi (Palestine), Zacarias Kamwenho (Angola)
2002: Oswaldo Payá (Cuba)
2003: United Nations
2004: Belarusian Association of Journalists
2005: Ladies in White (Cuba), Reporters Without Borders and Hauwa Ibrahim (Nigeria; ex-aequo)
2006: Alaksandar Milinkievič (Belarus)
2007: Salih Mahmoud Osman (Sudan)
2008: Hu Jia (China)
2009: Memorial (Russia)

[edit] External links