Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 2018

Oyub Titiev, a human rights defender and head of the office of the Grozny Memorial Human Rights Center in Chechnya. He has been in detention since January 2018 and was sentenced to four years in jail in March 2019. He was released on parole in June 2019 on appeal.

Three Candidates Shortlisted for the 2018 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize

The selection panel of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, comprising independent figures from the world of human rights and chaired by the President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Liliane Maury Pasquier, drew up the shortlist of candidatures in Prague on Monday 28th August 2018. The shortlisted nominees, in alphabetical order, are:

• Rosa Maria Paya (Cuba) The nominee is a young Cuban democracy and human rights activist. Rosa Maria Paya took up the work of her late father, Oswaldo Paya, who sought to gather support for democratic transition in Cuba. She launched a citizens’ initiative called Cuba Decide (Cuba Decides) and is the President of the Latin American Youth Network for Democracy.
• Nabeel Rajab (Bahrain) The nominee, in detention since 2016, is a very prominent democracy and human rights defender in Bahrain. He is the co-founder and President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) and has given proof of a life-time engagement for human rights at risk of his own life.
• Oyub Titiev (Russian Federation) The nominee, in detention since January 2018, is a prominent human rights defender and head of the Grozny representative office of Memorial Human Rights Center in Chechyna. As head of the Memorial Human Rights Centre in Chechnya, Mr Titiev succeeded Natalia Estemirova, murdered in 2009, and has made a widely recognised contribution to the defence of human rights in the region by reporting on abuses by the local authorities. ​