Václav Havel Award for Human Rights

The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize is an annual €60,000 award established in 2013 by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation, to honour "outstanding" civil society action in defence of human rights, in Europe and beyond.

The prize is awarded in memory of Václav Havel, former President of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. It replaces the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Human Rights Prize, which was created in 2009 and awarded every two years.

The prize is decided by a jury consisting of the President of the Parliamentary Assembly and six independent personalities with expertise in human rights issues. The jury draws up a shortlist of three nominees in August each year, before deciding on an overall winner in October. The prize is awarded at a special ceremony which takes place during the autumn plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg.

Individuals, non-governmental organisations and institutions working to defend human rights can be nominated. The award is worth is €60,000, half of which comes from the Parliamentary Assembly while the other half is contributed by the Czech Foreign Ministry.

The agreement on the creation of the award was signed at the Czernin Palace in Prague on March 25, 2013 by the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Jean-Claude Mignon, Marta Smolíková for the Václav Havel Library and Professor František Janouch for the Charta 77 Foundation. The event was hosted by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Karel Schwarzenberg.

Václav Havel Human Rights Prize page

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