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Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 2022

The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 2022 was awarded to VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, a Russian dissident who is currently in jail for speaking out against Putin’s war in Ukraine. Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian politician, author, and historian. A longtime colleague of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, he has served as deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party and was a candidate for the Russian Parliament. Kara-Murza played a key role in the passage of “Magnitsky laws” in countries around the world – including the U.S., the UK, and Canada – that imposed personal sanctions on Russian officials involved in human rights abuses. Twice, in 2015 and 2017, he was targeted for assassination by poisoning by operatives of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who were later identified in a media investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel. In April 2022 Kara-Murza was arrested and since was imprisoned for his public opposition to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. Kara-Murza is the author or contributor of several books and documentaries on Russian politics and history. He holds an M.A. in History from Cambridge. At begining of May 2024, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his extraordinary columns written from prison cell as a contributor for The Washington Post. On August 1, 2024, was released as part of a complex prisoner swap between Russia, the US and other Western nations.

Three Shortlisted Nominees

  • Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian politician, author and historian.  He is one of the opposition leaders in the Russian Federation. The nominee is a coordinator for the Open Russia Foundation, founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky. 

  • Rainbow Coalition/Invalid Campaign for LGBTQIA+ rights is a coalition of human rights organisations, LGBTQI rights groups and other civic movements. The Rainbow Coalition has been campaigning and mobilizing support for the defense of LGBTQI rights in Hungary.

  • Ukraine 5 AM Coalition is a coalition of Ukrainian human rights organisations whose aim is to uncover, document, collect and preserve evidence, while raising awareness of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine during the ongoing war of aggression by the Russian Federation.

International Conference in Honour of the Laureate

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