Sakharov Prize facts for kids

Presentation of the Sakharov Prize to Aung San Suu Kyi by Martin Schultz at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on October 22, 2013.

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, commonly known as the Sakharov Prize, is an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought. Named after Russian scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, the prize was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament.

A shortlist of nominees is drawn up annually by the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs and Committee on Development. The MEPs who make up those committees then select a shortlist in September. Thereafter, the final choice is given to The European Parliament's Conference of Presidents (President and political group's leaders) and the laureate's name is announced late in October. The prize is awarded in a ceremony at the Parliament's Strasbourg hemicycle (round chamber) in December. The prize includes a monetary award of €50,000.

The first prize was awarded jointly to South African Nelson Mandela and Russian Anatoly Marchenko. The 1990 award was given to Aung San Suu Kyi, but she could not receive it until 2013 as a result of her political imprisonment in Burma. The prize has also been awarded to organisations, the first being the Argentine Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in 1992. Five Sakharov laureates were subsequently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Malala Yousafzai, Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad.

Razan Zaitouneh (2011) was kidnapped in 2013 and is still missing. Nasrin Sotoudeh (2012) was released from prison in September 2013, but is still barred from leaving Iran, along with fellow 2012 laureate Jafar Panahi. The 2017 prize was awarded to the Democratic Opposition in Venezuela, under boycott of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left.

Laureates

Key

	Indicates a posthumous award

Year	Image	Recipient	Nationality	Notes	Reference
1988		Mandela, NelsonNelson Mandela	South Africa	Anti-apartheid activist and later first President of South Africa
		Marchenko, AnatolyAnatoly Marchenko	Soviet Union	Soviet dissident, author, and human rights activist
1989		Dubček, AlexanderAlexander Dubček	Czechoslovakia	Slovak politician, attempted to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring
1990		Aung San Suu Kyi	Myanmar	At the time she received the award, Suu Kyi was an opposition politician and a former General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, known for her peaceful struggle against military rule in Myanmar. She personally accepted the award in 2013, after she was released from 15 years of house arrest. In 2020, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament formally suspended Suu Kyi from the Sakharov Prize Community due to her role in the atrocities against the Rohingya people, but did not revoke the prize itself.
1991	-	Demaçi, AdemAdem Demaçi	Yugoslavia	Kosovo Albanian politician and long-term political prisoner
1992		Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo	Argentina	Association of Argentine mothers whose children disappeared during the Dirty War
1993		Oslobođenje	Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina	Popular newspaper that defended Bosnia and Herzegovina as a multi-ethnic state
1994		Nasrin, TaslimaTaslima Nasrin	Bangladesh	Feminist author and former doctor
1995		Zana, LeylaLeyla Zana	Turkey	Politician of Kurdish descent from Southeastern Turkey, who was imprisoned for 15 years for being a member of the PKK
1996		Jingsheng, WeiWei Jingsheng	China	Activist in the Chinese democracy movement
1997		Ghezali, SalimaSalima Ghezali	Algeria	Journalist and writer, activist for women's rights, human rights, and democracy in Algeria
1998		Rugova, IbrahimIbrahim Rugova	FR Yugoslavia	Kosovo Albanian politician and first President of Kosovo
1999		Gusmão, XananaXanana Gusmão	East Timor	Former militant and later first President of East Timor
2000	-	Basta ¡Basta Ya!	Spain	Organisation uniting individuals of various political positions against terrorism
2001		Peled-Elhanan, NuritNurit Peled-Elhanan	Israel	Peace activist
		Ghazzawi, IzzatIzzat Ghazzawi	Palestine	Writer and professor
		Kamwenho, Dom ZacariasDom Zacarias Kamwenho	Angola	Archbishop and peace activist
2002		Payá, OswaldoOswaldo Payá	Cuba	Political activist and dissident
2003		Annan, KofiKofi Annan	Ghana	Nobel Peace Prize recipient and seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations
		United Nations	International
2004	-	Belarusian Association of Journalists	Belarus	Non-governmental organisation "aiming to ensure freedom of speech and rights of receiving and distributing information and promoting professional standards of journalism"
2005		Ladies in White	Cuba	Opposition movement, relatives of jailed dissidents
		Reporters Without Borders	International	France-based non-governmental organisation advocating freedom of the press
		Ibrahim, HauwaHauwa Ibrahim	Nigeria	Human rights lawyer
2006		Milinkievič, AlaksandarAlaksandar Milinkievič	Belarus	Politician chosen by United Democratic Forces of Belarus as the joint candidate of the opposition in the 2006 presidential election
2007		Mahmoud Osman, SalihSalih Mahmoud Osman	Sudan	Human rights lawyer
2008		Jia, HuHu Jia	China	Activist and dissident
2009	-	Memorial	Russia	International civil rights and historical society
2010		Fariñas, GuillermoGuillermo Fariñas	Cuba	Doctor, journalist, and political dissident
2011		Mahfouz, AsmaaAsmaa Mahfouz	Egypt	Five representatives of the Arab people, in recognition and support of their drive for freedom and human rights
		al-Senussi, AhmedAhmed al-Senussi	Libya
		Zaitouneh, RazanRazan Zaitouneh	Syria
		Farzat, AliAli Farzat
		Mohamed Bouazizi	Tunisia
2012		Panahi, JafarJafar Panahi	Iran	Iranian activists, Sotoudeh is a lawyer and Panahi is a film director.
		Sotoudeh, NasrinNasrin Sotoudeh
2013		Yousafzai, MalalaMalala Yousafzai	Pakistan	Campaigner for women's rights and education
2014		Mukwege, DenisDenis Mukwege	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Gynecologist
2015		Badawi, RaifRaif Badawi	Saudi Arabia	Saudi Arabian writer, activist, and the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals
2016		Murad, NadiaNadia Murad	Iraq	Yazidi human rights activists and former abductees of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
		Aji Bashar, LamiyaLamiya Aji Bashar
2017		Democratic opposition in Venezuela	Venezuela	Members of the country's National Assembly and all political prisoners as listed by Foro Penal Venezolano represented by Leopoldo López, Julio Borges, Antonio Ledezma, Daniel Ceballos [es], Yon Goicoechea, Lorent Saleh, Alfredo Ramos [es] and Andrea González. The award was seen as rewarding the "courage of student activists and protesters in face of repression by Nicolas Maduro's government" and boycotted by the European United Left–Nordic Green Left parliamentary group. Further information: 2017 Venezuelan protests
2018		Sentsov, OlegOleg Sentsov	Ukraine	Film director, symbol of the struggle for the release of political prisoners held in Russia and around the world
2019		Ilham Tohti	China	Uyghur economist, scholar, and human rights activist
2020		Democratic opposition in Belarus	Belarus	Democratic opposition of Belarus represented by the Coordination Council, an initiative of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Svetlana Alexievich, Maria Kalesnikava, Volha Kavalkova and Veranika Tsapkala, and political and civil society figures - Siarhei Tsikhanouski, Ales Bialiatski, Sergei Dylevsky, Stsiapan Putsila and Mikola Statkevich.
2021		Navalny, AlexeiAlexei Navalny	Russia	Opposition politician and anti-corruption activist
2022		The Ukrainian people	Ukraine	Awarded to Ukrainians who are "protecting democracy, freedom and rule of law" following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
2023		Mahsa Jina Amini	Iran	Mahsa Amini's death under suspicious circumstances led to widespread protests, often under the slogan Woman, Life, Freedom.
		Woman, Life, Freedom movement
2024		María Corina Machado	Venezuela	Opposition politicians
		Edmundo González

See also

In Spanish: Premio Sájarov para niños

• Nobel Peace Prize
• Gandhi Peace Prize
• Mosaddegh Prize