Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 2019
Ilham Tohti, Uyghur scientist and professor of economics in Beijing. He has worked for over 20 years to foster dialogue and understanding between the Uyghurs and the Chinese. In September 2014 he was arrested and in a rigged trial sentenced to life imprisonment. His family has not heard from him since 2017, when he was denied contact with his family and lawyers. It is not known if he is alive.
Youth Initiative for Human Rights is a regional network of non-governmental organisations founded in 2003 with programmes in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. It promotes reconciliation through networking among young people in the Balkans who come from different ethnic groups, regions and countries. YIHR seeks to expand the participation of young people in the process of transforming the justice system and to build links that will prevent further ethnic conflicts of the type that have devastated the region for so many years.