The Vaclav Havel 2019 Human Rights Prize was awarded on Monday 30 September to two winners: Ilham Tohti, a Uighur intellectual sentenced in 2014 by the Chinese authorities to life imprisonment for separatism, and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, an association working for reconciliation in the Balkans.
The shortlisting of Ilham Tohti last August angered Beijing, which accused the Council of Europe of supporting “extremist terrorism”. Already the recipient of two human rights awards - the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Prize in 2014 and the Martin Ennal Prize in 2016 - this university journalist was also recommended by American elected officials for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.
“The Vaclav Havel Prize will contribute to his survival behind bars, but also recognises a whole population whose rights are being trampled”, said Enver Can, announcing the winners on the first day of the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The second winner, the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, was created in 2003 to promote links between young people from different countries in the Western Balkans, regardless of their ethnic origin or religion.
“We want deeper regional cooperation to achieve lasting peace”, said their representative in his speech to the Chamber. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)