Sakharov Network

Sakharov Network welcomes a new member

HU JIA

SAKHAROV PRIZE

2008

The Sakharov Network, consisting of 13 former winners of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, hails the European Parliament's courageous decision to award this year's Sakharov Prize to Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia, who has been detained since December 2007 for posting articles online and giving interviews to foreign journalists.

The Sakharov Network's members call on the Chinese government to quickly release Hu so that he can travel to Europe to receive his prize. We also ask the authorities to allow him to return with the prize to China afterwards.

We fervently hope that we will be able to welcome our new member when the Sakharov Prize's 20th anniversary is celebrated in December in Strasbourg.

The members of the Sakharov Network would like to express their support for Hu, his wife, Zeng Jiang, and their daughter. Our solidarity extends to all of China's political prisoners and their families.

The Sakharov Network reiterates the appeal it made on 16 September for the release of Aung San Su Kyi, so that she can honor the 20th anniversary celebration with her presence.

The appeal is signed by:

-           Adem Demaçi (1991 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Taslima Nasreen (1994 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Wei Jingsheng (1996 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Salima Ghezali (1997 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Dom Zacarias Kamwenho (2001 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Nurit Peled-Elhanan (2001 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Oswaldo José Paya Sardinas (2002 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Belarusian Journalist Association – BAJ (2004 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Damas en Blanco (2005 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Hauwa Ibrahim (2005 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Reporters Without Borders (2005 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Alexander Milinkevich (2006 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Salih Mahmoud Mohamed Osman (2007 Sakharov Prize winner)

 16 September 2008

BURMA

An informal network of 11 Sakharov Prize winners calls for the immediate release of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (winner of the 1990 Sakharov Prize) and all other political prisoners in Burma

With just weeks to go to the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Sakharov Prize on 10 December 1988, an informal network of 11 of its past winners today calls on the Burmese authorities to immediately release Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners.

The leader of the National League for Democracy, the party that won the 1990 parliamentary elections, Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since May 2003. In all, she has spent more than 12 years in prison or under house arrest since 1988. According to her lawyer, she is now under-nourished, having for a month refused most of the food brought to her.

The appeal is signed by:

-           Adem Demaçi (1991 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Taslima Nasreen (1994 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Wei Jingsheng (1996 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Salima Ghezali (1997 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Dom Zacarias Kamwenho (2001 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Nurit Peled-Elhanan (2001 Sakharov Prize winner)  

-           Oswaldo José Paya Sardinas (2002 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Belarusian Journalist Association – BAJ (2004 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Hauwa Ibrahim (2005 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Reporters Without Borders (2005 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Alexander Milinkevich (2006 Sakharov Prize winner)

-           Salih Mahmoud Mohamed Osman (2007 Sakharov Prize winner)

The informal Sakharov Prize network urges the European authorities, especially France, the current holder of the European Union’s rotating presidency, to redouble their efforts to obtain the release of their fellow Sakharov Prize winner and all of Burma’s political prisoners.

Human rights organisations put the number of political prisoners in Burma at about 2,000. They include Win Tin, a journalist held since July 1989.

The 11 Sakharov Prize winners do not rule out the possibility of taking further initiatives on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi or taking a position on other issues.

Welcome to the blog on the Sakharov Prize
The «Sakharov Prize for the freedom of the mind » is given each year by the European Parliament which created it in 1988.
The Sakharov Prize, sometimes called “the little brother” of the Nobel Prize of Peace, encourages and supports the commitment, courage, and perseverance of exceptional men and women from around the world, who are fighting for the respect of human rights, for the freedom of speech and thought.
As 2008 coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Sakharov Prize, and with the 60 years of existence of the human rights, the prize will be given to Hu Jian, Chinese militant and defender of the human rights, AIDS victims, and environment, during the plenary session of December 17th, a solemn ceremony taking place at the European Parliament in Strasburg.


Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and despite numerous successes, the situation keeps declining in various countries.
The voices that warn us against those dangers, the voices that fight to establish truth, are the voices of the defenders of the human rights.
The defenders of the human rights appear as a necessity: when the other countries cannot or do not want to do it, they take a stand, they face danger, they get arrested, harassed and killed to defend not only their causes but also the respect, promotion, and defense of the human rights for all.

The European Union (EU) is based on the principles of freedom, democracy, respect of the human rights and basic liberties. It is to affirm its commitment to those values and stress the role which it wants to play in their defense that the European Parliament created in 1988 the “Sakharov Prize for the freedom of the mind” from the name of the famous Soviet physician and dissident Andreï Sakharov, Nobel Prize of Peace in 1975.

It is given each year to a public person or to an organization which contributes in its country, in a decisive way, to the fight in favor of “the human rights and basic liberties, in particular the right to the freedom of opinion, protection of the rights of the minorities, respect of the international public right, development of democracy, and establishment of the Nation State.”

The candidatures, which have to be backed up by at least 25 European deputies, are examined by the Commission of Foreign Affairs of the Parliament, the same commission which writes the annual report on the situation of the human rights in the world, and on the politics of the human rights of the EU in its external relations. After this examination, three candidatures are presented at the Conference of the Presidents, a body made of the president of the Parliament, and of the presidents of the various political groups, who choose the winner.
This year for the Sakharov Prize, eight names have been suggested by the eurodeputes.
The Commission of Foreign Affairs has selected three candidates for the final selection which will take place on September 22nd.
The winner of the 2008 Sakharov Prize, Hu Jia, was chosen by the Conference of the Presidents of the EP in mid-October.