By Martin Banks - 11th September 2007
The five nominees for parliament’s prestigious Sakharov prize for freedom of thought have been named.
The prize - named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov - has been awarded each year since 1988 to individuals or organisations who have made an important contribution to the fight for human rights or democracy.
The five candidates this year are:
* Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, nominated for his work as a defender of freedom of religion in Turkey and promoter of dialogue between religious communities;
* Zeng Jinyan and Hu Jia, a Chinese human rights defender and cyber-dissident, known for reporting examples of human rights abuses in China on her daily blog;
* Malalai Joya, an Afghan MP and defender of women's rights in Afghanistan. She was suspended in May as a member of the national assembly of Afghanistan for exposing warlords present in the parliament;
* Salih Mahmoud Osman, a Sudanese human rights attorney who works with the Sudan organisation against torture, providing free legal representation for victims of Sudan's civil war and human rights abuses;
* Anna Politkovskaya, the late Russian journalist and human rights activist. Well-known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict, she was shot dead on last October.
The five will be narrowed down to a shortlist of three by the foreign affairs committee and the development committee at a vote on 24 September.
The conference of presidents, parliament's political group leaders, will then pick the winner on 25 October.
The prize will be awarded at a ceremony at parliament's Strasbourg plenary on 11 December, the day after the 59th anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The winner will receive €50,000.
A parliament source said, "It is a particularly impressive list of candidates this year".
Under the Sakharov prize rules, nominees must be supported by at least 40 MEPs or by a political group, each of whom must provide a justification for their choice.
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.