The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after Soviet

Soviet people

Soviet people or Soviet nation was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Initially used as a nonspecific reference to the Soviet population, it was eventually declared to be a "new historical, social and international unity of people".-Nationality politics in early Soviet...

 scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...

, was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament

European Parliament

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

 as a means to honour individuals or organisations who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 and freedom of thought

Freedom of thought

Freedom of thought is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints....

. A shortlist of nominees is drawn up by the Foreign Affairs Committee

Committee on Foreign Affairs (EU)

The Committee on Foreign Affairs , previously called Political Affairs, is a committee of the European Parliament...

 and the Development Committee

Committee on Development

The Committee on Development is a standing committee of the European Parliament responsible for promoting, implementing and monitoring the development and cooperation policy of the European Union, notably talks with developing countries; aid to developing countries; and promotion of democratic...

, with the winner announced in October. As of 2010, the prize is accompanied by a monetary award of €

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

50,000.

The first prize was awarded jointly to South African Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...

 and Russian Anatoly Marchenko

Anatoly Marchenko

Anatoly Tikhonovich Marchenko was an influential and well-known Soviet dissident, author, and human rights campaigner...

. The most recent award, in 2011, was given to five representatives of the Arab Spring

Arab Spring

The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...

—Asmaa Mahfouz

Asmaa Mahfouz

Asmaa Mahfouz is an Egyptian activist and one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement. She has been credited by journalist Mona Eltahawy and others with helping to spark mass uprising through her video blog posted one week before the start of the 2011 Egyptian revolution...

, Ahmed al-Senussi

Ahmed al-Senussi

Ahmed Al-Zubair al-Senussi, also known as Zubeir Ahmed El-Sharif, is a Libyan member of the Senussi house and a member of the National Transitional Council representing political prisoners. He is a great-nephew of Idris of Libya, the only king of Libya, and was named after his grandfather Ahmed...

, Razan Zaitouneh

Razan Zaitouneh

Razan Zaitouneh is a Syrian human rights lawyer. Actively involved in the 2011 Syrian uprising, she has gone into hiding after being accused by the government of being a foreign agent. Her husband has been arrested. On 27 October 2011, she was awarded the 2011 Sakharov Prize jointly with four...

, Ali Farzat

Ali Farzat

Ali Farzat , is a renowned Syrian political cartoonist. He has published more than 15,000 caricatures between Syrian, Arab and international newspapers. He serves as the head of the Arab Cartoonists' Association.-Career:...

, and Mohamed Bouazizi

Mohamed Bouazizi

Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides...

—for their contributions to "historic changes in the Arab world

Arab world

The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...

". The prize has also been awarded to different organisations throughout its history, the first being the Argentine Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1992).

The Sakharov Prize is usually awarded annually on or around 10 December, the day on which the United Nations General Assembly

United Nations General Assembly

For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...

 ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...

 in 1948, also celebrated as Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on 10 December.The date was chosen to honor the United NationsGeneral Assembly's adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , the first global enunciation of human rights...

.

Recipients

Year	Recipient	Nationality	Notes	Reference
1988		South Africa South Africa The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...	Anti-apartheid activist and later President of South Africa
1988	(posthumously)	Soviet Union Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....	Soviet dissident, author and humans rights activist
1989		Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...	Slovak politician, attempted to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring Prague Spring The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
1990	Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 81% of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained...	Myanmar Myanmar Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....	Opposition politician and a former General Secretary of the National League for Democracy
1991		Kosovo Kosovo Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...	Politician and long-term political prisoner
1992	Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo	Argentina Argentina Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...	Association of Argentine mothers whose children disappeared during the Dirty War Dirty War The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
1993	Oslobođenje	Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...	Popular newspaper, continued to publish after its office building was destroyed in Sarajevo
1994		Bangladesh Bangladesh Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...	Ex-doctor, feminist author
1995		Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...	A female politician of Kurdish descent from Eastern Turkey, who was imprisoned for 10 years for speaking her native language of Kurdish in the Turkish Parliament
1996		People's Republic of China People's Republic of China China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...	An activist in the Chinese democracy movement Chinese democracy movement The Chinese democracy movement refers to a series of loosely organized political movements in the People's Republic of China against the continued one-party rule by the Communist Party. One such movement began during the Beijing Spring in 1978 and was taken up again in the Tiananmen Square...
1997		Algeria Algeria Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...	Journalist and writer, an activist of women's rights, human rights and democracy in Algeria
1998		Kosovo Kosovo Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...	Albanian politician, the first President of Kosovo
1999		East Timor East Timor The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...	Former militant who was the first President of East Timor
2000		Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...	Organisation uniting individuals of various political positions against terrorism
2001		Israel Israel The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...	Peace activist
2001		Palestine Palestine Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....	Writer, arrested several times by Israeli authorities for "political activities"
2001		Angola Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...	Archbishop and peace activist
2002		Cuba Cuba The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...	Political activist and dissident
2003	(& United Nations United Nations The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace... )	—	Nobel Peace Prize recipient and seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations
2004	Belarusian Association of Journalists Belarusian Association of Journalists The Belarusian Association of Journalists is a Belarusian non-governmental organisation aimed at ensuring freedom of speech and rights of receiving and distributing information and promoting professional standards of journalism" .It was founded in 1995...	Belarus Belarus Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...	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 Ladies in White Ladies in White is an opposition movement in Cuba consisting of wives and other female relatives of jailed dissidents. The women protest the imprisonments by attending Mass each Sunday wearing white dresses and then silently walking through the streets dressed in white clothing...	Cuba Cuba The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...	Opposition movement, relatives of jailed dissidents
2005	Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...	—	France-based non-governmental organisation advocating freedom of the press
2005		Nigeria Nigeria Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...	Human rights lawyer
2006		Belarus Belarus Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...	Politician chosen by United Democratic Forces of Belarus United Democratic Forces of Belarus The United Democratic Forces of Belarus is a coalition of political parties participating as the main opposition group during the 2006 presidential election...  as the joint candidate of the opposition in the presidential elections of 2006
2007		Sudan Sudan Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...	Human rights lawyer
2008		People's Republic of China People's Republic of China China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...	Activist and dissident
2009	Memorial Memorial (society) Memorial is an international historical and civil rights society that operates in a number of post-Soviet states. It focuses on recording and publicising the Soviet Union's totalitarian past, but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states....	Russia Russia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...	International civil rights and historical society
2010		Cuba Cuba The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...	Doctor, journalist and political dissident
2011	Asmaa Mahfouz Asmaa Mahfouz Asmaa Mahfouz is an Egyptian activist and one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement. She has been credited by journalist Mona Eltahawy and others with helping to spark mass uprising through her video blog posted one week before the start of the 2011 Egyptian revolution... , Ahmed al-Senussi Ahmed al-Senussi Ahmed Al-Zubair al-Senussi, also known as Zubeir Ahmed El-Sharif, is a Libyan member of the Senussi house and a member of the National Transitional Council representing political prisoners. He is a great-nephew of Idris of Libya, the only king of Libya, and was named after his grandfather Ahmed... , Razan Zaitouneh Razan Zaitouneh Razan Zaitouneh is a Syrian human rights lawyer. Actively involved in the 2011 Syrian uprising, she has gone into hiding after being accused by the government of being a foreign agent. Her husband has been arrested. On 27 October 2011, she was awarded the 2011 Sakharov Prize jointly with four... , Ali Farzat Ali Farzat Ali Farzat , is a renowned Syrian political cartoonist. He has published more than 15,000 caricatures between Syrian, Arab and international newspapers. He serves as the head of the Arab Cartoonists' Association.-Career:... , Mohamed Bouazizi Mohamed Bouazizi Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides...  (posthumously)	Egypt Egypt Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world... Libya Libya Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west.... Syria Syria Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.... Syria Syria Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest.... Tunisia Tunisia Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...	Five representatives of the Arab people, in recognition and support of their drive for freedom and human rights.