Club / News / Program
Three candidates shortlisted for the 2023 Václav Havel Prize 05/09/23
The selection panel of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, which rewards outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights in Europe and beyond, has today announced the shortlist for the 2023 Award. Meeting in Prague today, the panel – made up of independent figures from the world of human rights and chaired by the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Tiny Kox – decided to shortlist the following three nominees, in alphabetical order: More
Three candidates shortlisted for the 2022 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 06/09/22
The discussion among the seven-member jury helmed by the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe centred on the importance of the issue of human rights during this tense period. The finalists include Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political prisoner and leading Russian democracy campaigner; Ukraine’s 5 AM Coalition, which gathers evidence of human rights abuses stemming from Russia’s invasion of the country; and Hungary’s Rainbow Coalition defending LGBTQIA+ rights. “This year’s selection reflects the central role that human rights play in the current European crisis,” says Michael Žantovský, jury member and executive director of the Václav Havel Library, which bestows the prize in cooperation with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Nadace Charty 77.
The Other Europe 27/04/22
Dear Friends, After three years we have completed the international project The Other Europe, during which, in cooperation with partner institutions, we have processed and made public recordings of interviews shot in 1987 and 1988 behind the Iron Curtain, and in exile, with important representatives of the opposition and the arts, as well as random citizens. Over those three years we have prepared video, audio and text of 106 interviews in speakers’ native languages and English translation. Despite public health restrictions in the Covid period, we have jointly prepared 16 international conferences and public presentations in six Central and Eastern European states. More
From Schuman to Havel – what next? 16/02/22
The Václav Havel Library is a proud partner of the project Beyond Robert Schuman’s Europe More
Program for April 2021<>
entry-free
International conference in honour of the laureate of the 2020 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize
- Where: on-line
- When: April 19, 2021, 12:30 – 14:30
- Where: www.havelchannel.com
- When: April 19, 2021, 13:00 –14:30
- Organizers: Knihovna Václava Havla, Nadace Charty 77
- Partners: Forum 2000, Parlamentního shromáždění Rady Evropy
At first glance it might appear that the pandemic does not discriminate, impacting all equally. However, the struggle against the coronavirus should not obscure the urgency of the struggle for human rights, and should in no way provide a pretext or excuse for their breach. Tyrannical regimes may attempt to capitalise on, and hide behind, the period of crisis. Last year served as a warning in that respect. We need to keep a close eye on the severe crackdown on human rights in Hong Kong, the continued oppression of the Uyghurs, the Myanmar regime’s brutal pogroms against people demonstrating for democracy and the metastasis of Islamic State terror in some African states.
In all these struggles for a dignified, normal life, women play an important, frequently leading, role. This makes it more than fitting that the finalists in this year’s Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize are women.
All of us hope that the right to a normal life will also return when the pandemic ends. But in many countries around the world, whether Congo, Saudi Arabia or Nepal, women are unwilling and unable to wait; what they want is normal lives right now.
PROGRAM
12.30 – 13.00 Live broadcast from session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg
13.00 – 13.10 Launch of the international conference by Michael Žantovský, director of the Václav Havel Library
13.10 – 13.20 Keynote address from Kateřina Šimáčková, Czech Constitutional Court judge
13.20 – 13.30 Profiles of finalists
13.30 – 13.40 Interview with the laureate of the 2020 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize
13.40 – 14.30 Panel discussion with finalists, moderated by Michael Žantovský
Three finalists of the Prize
Loujain Alhathloul (Saudi Arabia)
The nominee is one of the leaders of the Saudi feminist movement. Ms Alhathloul is a prominent womens’ rights activist known for defying the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia and for opposing the Saudi male guardianship system. She has been detained on several occasions, sentenced and has been in prison since 2018.
Nuns of the Drukpa Order (Nepal)
The nominee is a group of young Buddhist nuns, promoting gender equality, environmental sustainability and intercultural tolerance in their home villages in the Himalayas. They are known for their delivery of supplies to hard-to-reach villages after an earthquake struck Kathmandu in 2015. The Nuns of the Drukpa Order have also taught self-defence classes for women and biked over 20,000 kilometres to protest against the trafficking of women and girls.
Julienne Lusenge (Congo)
The nominee is a Congolese human rights activist who has been documenting sexual abuse and acts of violence against women in Congo. She was instrumental in obtaining the conviction of those accused of recruiting for enlisting child soldiers and as well as obtaining the convictions of hundreds of perpetrators of sexual violence against women at national level. She has been threatened for her work on several occasions.
From April to the Velvet Revolution
- Where: on-line
- When: April 20, 2021, 18:00 – 20:20
The fight goes on and lessons learned in Portugal and in Czechoslovakia as an inspiration for future transformation
The program, organized under the auspices of the Ambassador of Portugal to the Czech Republic, H.E. Luís de Almeida Sampaio together with the Václav Havel Library, will be streamed in English on The Havel Channel as a part of a series of events on the occasion of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The Flying University
- Where: on-line
- When: April 29, 2021, 19:00 – 20:00
How the CEU made its way from Prague to Budapest to Vienna in thirty years, and what it says about Central Europe today
In 1989, a group of European intellectuals from three Central European countries, came together to discuss the idea of a new educational institution, which would transcend national borders and the constraints of history, tradition and prejudice. In April 1990 in Bratislava, the leaders of three Central European countries endorsed the idea of a university to champion the principles of democracy and free societies in the region, A year later, with the support of the financier and philanthropist George Soros, the Central European University started operating in Prague. That same year, the university opened two sister branches, in Budapest and Warsaw. In 1996, the Prague branch of CEU, made to feel unwelcome by the government of the Czech Republic, relocated to Budapest. Less than three decades later, in 2019, following the passing of legislation by the Hungarian government and parliament targeting CEU, the university was once more forced to relocate its teaching, this time to Vienna.
CEU’s story is both illustrative, and a result of some of the broader developments and challenges of Central Europe after 1989. To mark the anniversary of the university’s founding 30 years ago, the Václav Havel Library will host a panel discussion with the current and two former rectors along with a Czech sociologist and CEU alumna, who has made the university the subject of her scholarly work.
Michael Ignatieff - CEU President and Rector since 2016 - , Canadian author, historian and former politician
John Shattuck - Former CEU President and Rector, (2009 - 2016), international legal scholar and human rights leader, former US Ambassador to the Czech Republic.
Josef Jařab - Former CEU President and Rector, (1997 - 1999), Academician, American scholar, literary historian, translator, former senator.
Tereza Pospíšilová - Czech sociologist and CEU alumna, author of “Different from the others: Central European University in Prague, 1990 - 1996” and other publications on the subject.
Moderator: Michael Žantovský, Executive Director, Václav Havel Library
The program will be streamed live in English on Havel Channel
Havel Channel
Havel Channel je audiovizuální projekt Knihovny Václava Havla, jehož cílem je šířit myšlenkový, literární a politický odkaz Václava Havla, bez ohledu na vzdálenost, zeměpisné hranice či nouzové stavy. Jeho páteř tvoří debaty, vzdělávací projekty a rozhovory. Velký prostor je věnován též konferencím, autorským čtením, záznamům divadelních inscenací a koncertům. Audiovizuální projekt Knihovny Václava Havla Havel Channel se uskutečňuje díky laskavé podpoře Karel Komárek Family Foundation.
Publications / E-shop
The central focus of the Library’s publishing programme is the life and work of Václav Havel, his family and close collaborators and friends. For clarity, the programme is divided into six series: Václav Havel Library Notebooks, Václav Havel Library Editions, Student Line, Talks from Lány, Václav Havel Documents, Works of Pavel Juráček and Václav Havel Library Conferences. Titles that cannot be incorporated into any of the given series but which are nonetheless important for the Library’s publishing activities are issued independently, outside the series framework.
Diary IV. 1974–1989
399,- CZK
Foolish Writing
299,- CZK
Havel to the Castle
149,- CZK
Kilián Nedory
199,- CZK
Case for a Novice Headsman
199,- CZK
I am not sad. Audience & Vernissage
129,- CZK
To the Castle and Back
249,- CZK
I am the Gypsy Baron
299,- CZK
Conferences & prizes
Václav Havel European Dialogues
The Václav Havel European Dialogues is an international project that aims to initiate and stimulate a discussion about issues determining the direction of contemporary Europe while referring to the European spiritual legacy of Václav Havel. This idea takes its main inspiration from Václav Havel’s essay “Power of the Powerless”. More than other similarly focused projects, the Václav Havel European Dialogues aims to offer the “powerless” a platform to express themselves and in so doing to boost their position within Europe.
The Václav Havel European Dialogues is planned as a long-term project and involves cooperation with other organisations in various European cities. Individual meetings, which take the form of a conference, are targeted primarily at secondary and third-level students, as well as specialists and members of the public interested in European issues.
Prague 2022Olomouc Prague 2023PragueMnichov 2020Brussels 2020Prague 2019Brussels 2019Prague 2018Brussels 2018Europe at the Crossroads (e-book)Prague 2017Brussels 2017Prague 2016Brussels 2016Prague 2015Brussels 2015Brussels 2014Berlin 2014Prague 2014 - J. GauckBruges 2014Prague 2014
Václav Havel Human Rights Prize
The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize is awarded each year by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in partnership with the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation to reward outstanding civil society action in the defence of human rights in Europe and beyond.
11th Year of the Prize (2023)10th Year of the Prize (2022)9th Year of the Prize (2021)8th Year of the Prize (2020)7th Year of the Prize (2019)6th Year of the Prize (2018)5th Year of the Prize (2017)4th Year of the Prize (2016)3rd Year of the Prize (2015)2nd Year of the Prize (2014)1st Year of the Prize (2013)History of the prize
Havel - Albright Transatlantic Dialogues
Since the first Václav Havel Transatlantic Dialogues at GLOBSEC and FORUM 2000 conferences last year, we have lost another stalwart advocate of the transatlantic bond and of the need to face threats to democracy and international order together on both sides of the Atlantic, the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. In view of the close bond between Václav Havel and Madeleine Albright and, after Havel's death, between the Secretary and the Library, the Václav Havel Library, with the approval of Madeleine Albright's family, renamed and rebranded the program as The Havel-Albright Transatlantic Dialogues (HATD), after the two major figures with roots in Central Europe who have personified the bond. Together, Václav Havel and Madeleine Albright symbolize the transatlantic relationship and the fundamental values underpinning it perhaps better than any other two people in recent history. The upcoming Dialogues “The Indispensable Woman: The Legacy of Madeleine K. Albright”, at the FORUM 2000 conference on September 1, and at the “Havel and our Crisis” conference at Colby College, ME, on September 28, will thus become venues for a well-deserved tribute to the pair we all respected and admired.
Transatlantic Dialogues 2021Transatlantic Dialogues 2022HATD 2022 Prague
Václav Havel
Václav Havel
* 5. 10. 1936 Praha
† 18. 12. 2011 Hrádeček u Trutnova
- spisovatel a dramatik, publicista a filozof
- jeden z trojice prvních mluvčích Charty 77
- vůdčí autorita československé společenské změny v listopadu 1989
- poslední prezident Československa a
- první prezident České republiky
- celoživotní zastánce lidských práv a svobod doma i ve světě.
Educational projects
Archive / Documentation centre / Research projects
The Václav Havel Library is gradually gathering, digitizing, and making accessible written materials, photographs, sound recordings and other materials linked to the person of Václav Havel.
- 70920 records in total
- 27849 of events in the VH's life
- 2831 of VH's texts
- 2125 of photos
- 403of videos
- 568of audios
- 6604of letters
- 15101of texts about VH
- 8264 of books
- 40672of bibliography records
Access to the database of the VHL’s archives is free and possible after registering as a user. Accessing archival materials that exist in an unreadable form is only possible at the reading room of the Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, 110 00 Prague 1, every Tuesday (except state holidays) from 9:00 to 17:00, or by prior appointment.
We will be glad to answer your queries at archiv@vaclavhavel-library.org.
Sign in (registered users only)
Havel in a nutshell
The virtual exhibition Václav Havel in a Nutshell places the life story of Václav Havel in the broader cultural and historic context in four chronologically distinct chapters with rich visual accompaniment. The exhibition is supplemented by the interactive map Flying the World with Václav Havel, which captures in physical form Havel’s global “footprint”.
Vladimir Hanzel's revolution
Collage of recollections, images and sound recordings from Vladimír Hanzel, President Václav Havel’s personal secretary, bringing the feverish atmosphere of the Velvet Revolution to life.
Václav Havel Interviews
A database of all accessible interviews given to print media outlets by the dramatist, writer and political activist Václav Havel between the 1960s and 1989. The resulting collection documents the extraordinary life story of an individual, as well as capturing a specific picture of modern Czechoslovak history at a time when being a free-thinker was more likely to lead to jail than an official public post.
Pavel Juráček Archive
The Pavel Juráček Archive arose in February 2014 when his son Marek Juráček handed over six banana boxes and a typewriter case from his father’s estate to the Václav Havel Library. Thousands of pages of manuscripts, typescripts, photographs, documents and personal and official correspondence are gradually being classified and digitalised. The result of this work should be not only to map the life and work of one of the key figures of the New Wave of Czechoslovak film in the 1960s, but also to make his literary works accessible in the book series The Works of Pavel Juráček.
The aim of the Václav Havel Library is to ensure that Pavel Juráček finds a place in the broader cultural consciousness and to notionally build on the deep friendship he shared with Václav Havel. Soon after Juráček’s death in 1989 Havel said of him: “Pavel was a friend of mine whom I liked very much. He was one of the most sensitive and gentle people I have known – that’s why I cannot write more about him.”
All about Library
The Václav Havel Library works to preserve the legacy of Václav Havel, literary, theatrical and also political, in particular his struggle for freedom, democracy and the defence of human rights. It supports research and education on the life, values and times of Václav Havel as well as the enduring significance of his ideas for both the present and future.
The Václav Havel Library also strives to develop civil society and active civic life, serving as a platform for discussion on issues related to the support and defence of liberty and democracy, both in the Czech Republic and internationally.
The main aims of the Václav Havel Library include
- Organizing archival, archival-research, documentary, museum and library activities focused on the work of Vaclav Havel and documents or objects related to his activities, and carries out professional analysis of their influence on the life and self-reflection of society
- Serving, in a suitable manner, such as through exhibitions, the purpose of education and popularisation functions, thus presenting to the public the historical significance of the fight for human rights and freedoms in the totalitarian period and the formation of civil society during the establishment of democracy
- Organizing scientific research and publication activities in its areas of interest
Podpořte nás
We are well aware that freedom and democracy must be nurtured. Here at Ostrovní 13, but also on the audiovisual platform Havel Channel, we strive to do so through our own educational programmes, talks, discussion meetings, books, exhibitions, concerts, theatre performances. We honour Václav Havel's legacy and wish that the Library be a living organism and open to all. That is why our programme is free of charge for everyone. This would not be possible without regular financial support from our supporters. Become one of them...
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Help us expand the archive
The Vaclav Havel Library manages an archive of writings, documents, photographs, video recordings and other materials related to the life and work of Vaclav Havel. This archive is predominantly in digital form. If you or someone close to you owns any original texts, correspondence, photographs, speeches or any other work by Vaclav Havel, we would be grateful if you could contact us.
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