The Council of Europe Vaclav-Havel Prize 2021 rewards “exceptional actions by civil society in the defense of human rights”.
The Council of Europe awarded the 9th Vaclav-Havel Human Rights Prize to Belarusian opponent Maria Kolesnikova on Monday 27 September. This great figure of the protest of the summer of 2020 was sentenced in early September to eleven years in prison. “If you don’t want Belarus to turn into a gulag, we must support the Belarusian people”, said Maria Kolesnikova’s sister, Tatsiana Khomich, receiving the award in Strasbourg.
“This award is a sign of the solidarity of the entire democratic world with the Belarusian people”she added, holding a photo of her sister in her hand and listing the names of other jailed opponents of the Alexander Lukashenko regime. “It is also a clear signal to the Belarusian authorities that the world will never tolerate human rights abuses and accept what is happening in Belarus now.”
Sentenced to 11 years in prison after a closed trial, Maria Kolesnikova, 39, made an impression by resisting an attempt to deport her own country. She is “one of the three female symbols of the Belarusian opposition”, recalled the Council of Europe, with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, presidential candidate in place of her imprisoned husband, and Veronika Tsepkalo, who fled the country under pressure from the authorities.
The Vaclav-Havel Human Rights Prize is awarded annually by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (APCE), in partnership with the Vaclav-Havel Library and the Charter 77 Foundation. “exceptional actions by civil society in the defense of human rights in Europe and outside the continent” and consists of a sum of 60,000 euros, a trophy and a diploma.
