By Martin Banks - 25th September 2012
This is typical of what people have to do in a totalitarian regime
Werner Schulz
MEPs have put forward the nominees for this year's Sakharov Prize, parliament's annual award for human rights activists.
The nominees this year include a civil society activist from Belarus, the director of a centre offering legal assistance to victims of Pakistan's blasphemy laws and three Rwandan opposition representatives.
A Russian feminist punk-rock group and an Iranian lawyer and film director are also on the shortlist.
MEPs who have nominated each candidate argued their case at a joint meeting of the parliamentary committees for foreign affairs, development and human rights on Tuesday.
One MEP used the occasion to launch a blistering verbal attack on Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.
German deputy Werner Schulz, whose nominee is the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, branded Putin's regime as "despotic" and "autocratic".
Praising the "creativity" and "courage" of the band, three of whom were recently sentenced to two years in a labour camp after protesting against Putin in a Moscow cathedral, the Greens member said, "They have managed to do something which others have failed to do: attract international attention to a state which is moving further and further away from western values."
He said, "In the west, a punk band would not have to protest in a church. But this is typical of what people have to do in a totalitarian regime," added Schulz whose nomination is backed by 45 other MEPs.
Polish EPP member Jacek Saryusz-Wolski and 82 other deputies nominated Ales Bialiatski, an imprisoned civil society activist fighting for freedom of thought and expression in Belarus.
He founded the Viasna Human Rights Centre, an NGO which provides financial and legal assistance to political prisoners and their families.
The MEP said that victory for his nominee would "send a strong signal" that the EU had "not forgotten" the plight of those living in a "dictatorship".
ECR member Charles Tannock, meanwhile, praised his nominee, Joseph Francis, who has led opposition to the controversial blasphemy laws in Pakistan.
Tannock said, "These laws are instruments of fear and the cause of instability and unrest in Pakistan. Francis is one of the few remaining voices of moderation in his country."
EPP member Santiago Fisas spoke in support of Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Déogratias Mushayidi, Bernard Ntaganda, three imprisoned Rwandan opposition politicians who, he said, had tried to put an end to the violence in their country by fostering dialogue and reconciliation.
Two other nominees are Nasrin Sotoudeh, an imprisoned Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate who represents imprisoned opposition activists facing the death sentence, and Jafar Panahi, an Iranian film director, screenwriter and film editor whose films have enraged the Iranian regime.
Romanian MEP Cristian Preda told the meeting that victory for these nominees would focus yet more international attention on human rights abuses in Iran.
The "Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought" has been awarded annually by parliament since 1988 to individuals or organisations that have made an important contribution to the fight for human rights or democracy.
It is named in honour of the Russian physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov.
Last year it was awarded to the Arab Spring activists.
Foreign affairs committee chairman Elmar Brok praised all the candidates who, he said, had "shown great courage" in upholding human rights around the world.
He said the conference of presidents would choose the winner on 26 October.
