On Thursday 19 October, the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents decided to award the 2023 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Jina Mahsa Amini, who died during an arrest by the morality police in Iran, and to the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement.
“The European Parliament is proud to stand alongside the courageous people who continue to fight for equality, dignity and freedom in Iran (...) In choosing them as the winners of the 2023 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, this Parliament remembers their struggle and continues to honour all those who have paid the ultimate price for freedom”, stressed European Parliament President Roberta Metsola when announcing the winners.
The prize will be officially awarded on 13 December in Strasbourg.
The other two finalists for the Prize were Nicaraguan human rights activists Vilma Núñez de Escorcia and Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, critics of the Ortega regime, and Justyna Wydrzyńska in Poland, Morena Herrera in El Salvador and Colleen McNichols in the United States, who are fighting for free, safe and legal abortion (see EUROPE 13254/19). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)