Sakharov Prize 2008 awarded to Hu Jia

Sakharov Prize 2008 awarded to Hu Jia

 

The European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has been awarded this year to Chinese political activist Hu Jia, EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering announced in Strasbourg today. The prize ceremony will take place in Strasbourg on 17 December.

The decision of Parliament's political group leaders to award the prize to Hu Jia was communicated to the plenary by Mr Pöttering, who said: "By awarding the Sakharov Prize to Hu Jia the European Parliament firmly and resolutely acknowledges the daily struggle for freedom of all Chinese human rights defenders."
 
Hu Jia is a prominent human rights activist and dissident in the People's Republic of China. He has embraced a wide range of causes, including environmental issues, HIV/AIDS advocacy and a call for an official enquiry into the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. He has also acted as a coordinator of the 'barefoot lawyers movement'. 
 
Having already been arrested several times, he spoke to MEPs in November 2007 from house arrest via conference call during a public meeting of the EP Human Rights Subcommittee on human rights in China in the run-up to the Olympic Games. As a result he was charged by the authorities with "inciting subversion of state power" and sentenced on 3 April 2008 to three-and-a-half years in jail.
 
Protests against his arrest have come from all over the world. The European Parliament passed a resolution in January 2008 demanding his release. On 8 August 2008 and 6 September 2008, Hu Jia's name appeared alongside other signatories on open letters calling for more attention to be paid to human rights in China.
 
20th anniversary of Sakharov Prize
 
The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named in honour of the Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, has been awarded by the European Parliament every year since 1988 to individuals or organisations who have made an important contribution to the fight for human rights or democracy.  To mark the 20th anniversary, a special event to which all previous winners of the prize are being invited will be held in Strasbourg on Tuesday 16 December. 
 
This year's prize certificate will be awarded in Strasbourg the next day, Wednesday 17 December.  In addition to the title, the winner receives the sum of €50,000.
 
Previous winners of the prize
 
1988    Nelson Mandela and Anatoli Marchenko (posthumously)
1989    Alexander Dubcek
1990    Aung San Suu Kyi
1991    Adem Demaçi
1992    Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo
1993    Oslobodjenje
1994    Taslima Nasreen
1995    Leyla Zana
1996    Wei Jinsheng
1997    Salima Ghezali
1998    Ibrahim Rugova
1999    Xanana Gusmão
2000    ¡Basta Ya!
2001    Izzat Ghazzawi, Nurit Peled-Elhanan and Dom Zacarias Kamwenho
2002    Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas
2003    UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and all the UN staff
2004    Belarusian Association of Journalists
2005    Ladies in White, Hauwa Ibrahim, Reporters without Frontiers
2006    Alexander Milinkevich
2007    Salih Mahmoud Mohamed Osman