By Martin Banks - 9th September 2008
This year's list features some high-calibre candidates
European parliament
Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt and Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai are among eight candidates in the running to win the EU’s top human rights prize.
Nominations for the EU’s Sakharov prize for freedom of thought, although released last week, were formally announced on Tuesday.
Betancourt, the French-Colombian politician and anti-corruption activist was kidnapped by FARC in February 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency and rescued from captivity this July.
According to her nomination, “Betancourt has constantly spoken out and stood up to the forces of terrorism and its devastating effects against ordinary, innocent people both in Colombia and around the world.”
Tsvangirai’s nomination states, “For many years Morgan Tsvangirai has fought for democracy, freedom of speech and the rule of law in Zimbabwe. At enormous personal risk he has led the main opposition party and has courageously endured a succession of assassination attempts and politically motivated arrests.”
Both are frontrunners for the prize, awarded each year to people, or groups, who are deemed to have upheld human rights and democracy in the past 12 months.
The list also includes the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of the Tibetan people, whose citation highlights his “message of peace, non-violence and inter-religious understanding”.
Other nominees include the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) for campaigning against racism; Hu Jia , the Chinese campaigner for civil rights, environmental protection and AIDS advocacy; Alexander Kozulin, a former Belarusian presidential candidate; Abbot Apollinaire Malu Malu of the Independent electoral commission of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin, a Russian lawyer and democracy campaigner.
Candidates for the prize must be supported by a political group or at least 40 individual MEPs. Three will be shortlisted by the foreign affairs committee, with the winner announced later this year.
“This year’s list features some high-calibre candidates,” said a parliament source. Previous winners include Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan.
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