Human rights: Vaclav Havel Prize finalists announced

September 5, 2023

Turkish Osman Kavala, Polish Justyna Wydrzynska and Ukrainian Evgueni Zakharov are the three candidates selected for the 2023 edition of the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize, which will be awarded by the Council of Europe on October 9.

Endowed with 60,000 euros, the Vaclav Havel prize has been awarded each year since 2013 to a personality from civil society for his “exceptional actions in favor of human rights in Europe and beyond”, indicates the Council of Europe in a communicated.

The three finalists were selected by a jury, made up of human rights “personalities” and chaired by the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Dutchman Tiny Kox.

Osman Kavala is a 65-year-old businessman and philanthropist, arrested in October 2017 and then sentenced in 2022 to life imprisonment by the Turkish courts for “attempting to overthrow the government” via the financing of anti-government demonstrations known as the “Gezi movement ” in 2013.

A 2019 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights found Mr. Kavala’s detention to be contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights and called for his release.

Abortion rights activist Justyna Wydrzynska is the founder of the Abortion Dream Team, a collective of activists who have “campaigned against Poland’s restrictive abortion laws since 2006” and offers training and advice.

Justyna Wydrzynska was sentenced in March by a Warsaw court to community service for helping an abortion, an unprecedented case in Poland.

Yevgeny Zakharov is the founder of a coalition of NGOs called “Court for Putin”, which collects, verifies and stores evidence of war crimes committed since the beginning of the Russian aggression of Ukraine in February 2022.

He is also the founder of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, aimed at promoting the implementation of the Helsinki Accords on human rights, and director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.

“Today more than ever, it is essential to celebrate the women and men who, through their courage, their determination and their strength, show us the path to freedom,” said Tiny Kox, quoted in the press release.

In 2022, the Vaclav Havel Prize was awarded to Russian political opponent Vladimir Kara-Mourza, very critical of the offensive in Ukraine, sentenced to 25 years in prison for “high treason”.