The European Parliament has elected the winner of the 2022 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The Ukrainian people, represented by President Volodymyr Zelensky, became the winner.
The Sakharov Prize is the main human rights award of the European Union. On October 19, this prize was awarded to Ukrainians who daily fight for their independence, freedom and democracy.
Reference. The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is an annual honor of the European Parliament, founded in 1988. The award is presented for outstanding achievements in the field of human rights protection, development of democracy and upholding the rule of law, as well as for the protection of the rights of minorities.
Note that the proposal to award the Andriy Sakharov honors to the brave Ukrainian people represented by President Zelensky was put forward by a group of the European People's Party ( EPP), which has been supporting Ukraine since the first days of a full-scale invasion.
Who were in the top three
3 nominees entered the final of the 2022 Sakharov Prize for freedom of opinion. In addition to the people of Ukraine represented by Zelensky, among the finalists were:
- Julian Assange, journalist and founder of WikiLeaks;
- Columbia Truth Commission.
Recall that the first Ukrainian to be awarded the Sakharov Prize was Oleg Sentsov. The European Parliament declared him the winner in 2018, but the director could not pick up the award in person, because he was in Russian captivity. The Ukrainian director received it a few months after his dismissal, in November 2019.
