This year’s annual Sakharov Prize, the European Parliament’s human rights award, has been given to Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo González of Venezuela.
Machado was nominated as a candidate of the democratic opposition to stand against radical-left president Nicolas Maduro in the primaries for the presidential elections in July this year. She was disqualified by the regime before the election. Her deputy, González, was also sidelined after disputed elections marked by violence and repression.
Maduro claimed victory but the results were disputed by the UN and the EU recognised González as the legitimate president. Machado went into hiding fearing for her life and González fled to Spain, where he was granted asylum.
They have fearlessly upheld values that millions of Venezuelans and the European Parliament hold so dear: justice, democracy and the rule of law
“In their quest for a fair, free and peaceful transition of power, they have fearlessly upheld values that millions of Venezuelans and the European Parliament hold so dear: justice, democracy and the rule of law,” European Parliament president Roberta Metsola said.
The other candidates shortlisted for the prize were Gubad Ibadoghlu, an anti-corruption activist from Azerbaijan who is under house arrest, as well as Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun, two civil society movements of women from Israel and Palestine.
The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is named after Andrei Sakharov, the nuclear physicist who strongly criticised the Soviet regime and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. In 2023, the prize was posthumously awarded to Iranian activist Mahsi Amini and the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
The award ceremony will take place on 18 December.