Dalai Lama and Betancourt up for EU human rights prize

The Dalai Lama and Ingrid Betancourt are among eight nominees for the European parliament's 2008 Sakharov prize for "freedom of thought".

This year's event will mark the 20th time the EU has honoured world figures it considers to be beacons of democracy and human rights.

A parliament spokesman said, "This year is the 20th anniversary of the Sakharov prize. To mark the occasion, a special event to which all previous winners of the prize are to be invited will take place in Strasbourg in December."

As well as former Colombian presidential candidate and political prisoner Ingrid Betancourt, and Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, nominees also include Hu Jia, the imprisoned Chinese campaigner on democracy, environmental issues and HIV/AIDS.

The list is rounded out by Alexandr Kozulin, a Belarussian political prisoner and leader of a civic initiative for freedom in his country and Abbot Apollinaire Malu Malu, chairman of the independent electoral commission in the Congo and leader of efforts to achieve a peaceful end to conflict in his country.

Also up for nomination are Mikhail Trepashkin, a prominent dissident and human rights activist in Russia and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC opposition party in Zimbabwe.

The list is completed by the European Roma Rights Centre, an NGO defending the human rights of Roma people.

The nominations will be officially presented on 9 September to a joint meeting of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, which will narrow down the number of candidates to a shortlist of three.Candidates may be nominated by a political group or a minimum of 40 MEPs.

The conference of presidents, or group leaders, will select the winner in mid-October and the prize will be awarded at the Strasbourg plenary in December.

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