The political groups in the European Parliament have announced their candidates for the 2021 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in recent days. The groups had until Thursday 16 September at noon to choose their candidates.
The S&D and Greens/EFA Groups nominated a collective of 11 Afghan women activists, politicians, journalists, teachers and filmmakers who fought for women’s rights and were involved in political and community life in Afghanistan before the Taliban took power.
This nomination “is a strong signal of support for all Afghan women, who have been particularly affected by the Taliban takeover and the humanitarian crisis”, explained S&D President Iratxe García Pérez from Spain.
“These women fought for human rights. For democracy!”, added Greens MEP Mounir Satouri from France.
The EPP and Renew Europe Groups are proposing Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny. “He has shown great courage to give the Russian people back their freedom of choice”, justified Sandra Kalniete (EPP, Latvia). Guy Verhofstadt (Renew Europe, Belgium) said that Mr Navalny “fights for everything the EU stands for in the world: democracy and the Rule of law, truth and freedom”.
Mr Navalny’s name had already been suggested by the EPP for the Sakharov Prize in 2019 (see EUROPE 12331/21).
For its part, the ECR Group is nominating Jeanine Áñez, Bolivia’s interim President after Evo Morales fled in 2019 and “imprisoned for political reasons” after the October 2020 elections won by the former Bolivian President’s MAS party. With this nomination, “the ECR Group wants to denounce the anti-democratic practices that far-left regimes in Latin America use against opposition forces”, stressed the Italian Raffaele Fitto.
The Left Group nominated Sultana Khaya, a Sahrawi human rights activist, whose work focuses on women’s rights and the promotion of the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.
Asked by EUROPE about its candidate, the Identity and Democracy Group had not responded, by our press deadline, to our requests.
The nominees will be presented at a joint meeting of Parliament’s Committees on Foreign Affairs and Development and the Sub-Committee on Human Rights on Monday 27 September. The selection of the three finalists will take place on Thursday 14 October at a meeting of the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Development. The decision on the winner could be taken at the Conference of Presidents of the political groups (CoP) on Thursday 21 October. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)