Established 25 years ago and awarded each year by the European Parliament, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has finally announced the list of nominees for this year. The seven finalists were announced on September 16th in Brussels, including Malala Yousafzai and Edward Snowden.

Named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, the prize was set up in 1988 aiming to honour individuals or organisations that have exceptionally fought to defend human rights and the freedom of thought. The nominations made by political groups (or Members of the European Parliament – MEPs) are followed by a selection process; Foreign Affairs and Development committees choose and shortlist the three finalists, and the final selection of the Laureate is made by the Conference of Presidents in Strasbourg, France.

The European Parliament organises an annual ceremony around December 10th (Human Rights Day) in Strasbourg, to award the human rights prize plus a monetary grant of €50,000.

Among the historical winners are Nelson Mandela and Anatoly Marchenko, the first awardees (1988), as well as Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi (1990). Some organisations, such as Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1992), ¡Basta Ya! (2000), Ladies in White (2005) and Memorial (2009) have also seen their work recognized.

This year, the seven shortlisted finalists are:

• Pakistani Malala Yousoufzai, a 16-year-old girl who was shot in the neck by Taliban forces for advocating for girls’ education. You can read about her story in this article from The AEGEEan magazine.
• Former CIA and NSA contractor Edward Snowden, an American computer specialist who leaked details about mass surveillance programs held by the top-secret United States and British government.
• Ethiopian journalists Reeyot Alemu and Eskinder Nega, who are serving prison term on terrorism charges after writing critical articles about their government.
• Former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, considered a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Khodorkovsky was sentenced in 2005 for fraud after his company, Yukos, collapsed and had its shares frozen by Vladimir Putin’s government.
• Belorussian activist Ales Bialatski, head of Viasna Human Rights Centre and vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights.
• The “Standing Man” protesters from Turkey, a peaceful form of protest initiated by Erdem Gündüz during the Gezi demonstrations in Istanbul.
• The “CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery”, a 2011 report that exposed modern-day slavery and initiated a global campaign against human trafficking and child labour.

In October, the Conference of Presidents will decide the final Laureate for the Sakharov Prize in the European Parliament. The award ceremony may take place at the Plenary Session of the Parliament, in November.

Written by Human Rights Working Group

Featured picture from the European Parliament‘s Flickr

Since the discussion about whether or not the internet is a human right is ongoing in AEGEE, I’d like to share with you my latest eastern observations on this issue. I’ve recently read a letter published by Emin Milli, an Azerbaijani blogger and youth activist, in The Independent (source: article). I expect that most of us imagine his statement should express the common Azerbaijani point of view. Surprisingly, it’s not that evident. Let’s have a look at it with Ulfat Abbassoy and Durdana Boyukkishiyeva from AEGEE-Baki.

When I read it for the first time, it seemed clear to me that the Internet is not for the common good in Azerbaijan. Emin Milli (alias “milli” in Azerbaijani means “national”), a former prisoner of conscience, expresses in this letter his discontent that the president Ilham Aliev ties the Azerbaijanis to use the internet freely: (originally) “As someone who was jailed for using the internet to criticize you and your policies, I have experienced an inconvenient truth – the internet is not free in Azerbaijan and it is definitely not free from fear.” Amongst his statements, we can easily find this one which says that the Internet is still under control: (originally) “The Internet governance can’t properly serve sustainable human, economic and social development without freedom of expression, the rule of law and efficient democratic governance.” According to him, the current use of the Internet is actually connected with a fear of being imprisoned. I was a little taken aback while reading this letter, so I decided to publish it on Facebook to go ahead with the discussion. And then the serious one started.

It was Ulfat Abbassoy from AEGEE-Baki who stated his opinion immediately: (originally) “Dear Adrian, this person who wrote this article is against the present government and all of us and we always write what we want, please if you want to know about something about our country first of all ask me and our friends from Azerbaijan.” Interesting, isn’t it? I asked him why he does not like a letter published by a human rights activist who was supposed to fight for freedom of the Internet. Ulfat responded that Emin Milli represents neither the youth nor the government’s side: (originally) “Nobody can understand him. We do not know what he is trying to do as writing this article. Me and all of my friends always use the Internet freely, I always read every news agency and comment there what I think and my friends too. We have a radio channel that they always have a lot of programs against and opposite to our goverment. I have a friend who is also an AEGEEan. He is a blogger and always writes acticles against something but noone dislodge him for writing this kind of article. First of all, I think these kind of articles are our internal matters and we don’t want any organization and any foreigner to intervene our internal matters. These are difficult and big problems as politics. (…) Don’t believe these kind of articles.”

With a feeling that something is going on, I asked another girl from Azerbaijan to express her opinion on this matter. Durdana Boyukkishiyeva from AEGEE-Baki told me that: (originally) “I use the Internet freely reading internet media every evening. Sometimes making my personal comments on it. I write my ideas about our government on my Facebook status or make comments on my friends’ status. I watch YouTube where oppositional videos are posted and sometimes give them comments and nobody tells me why I’m doing so (!). As for me I use the internet freely everyday. (…) Milli is quite famous among oppositional youngsters here. Some points he stated are fair enough but rather good reply is written below that article by Samira, please, read it as well. Samira’s point of view I support in this case….” Then, what does “Samira” state in her comment? She does not agree with Mili, saying that the Internet is free in Azerbaijan even more than in other European countries (she/he lives in Sweden right now). She evokes several examples to prove that Milli isn’t correct: (originally) “By the way, there was a documentary in Sweden about the Swedish company Telia which is operating in Azerbaijan. Your friends gave some interviews accusing Telia in helping Azerbaijans “regime” to “arrest free-thinkers.” After that it was the pressure on Swedish government to remove Telia from Azerbaijan. When I met journalists who did this report I told them that internet and globalisation are actually helping to democratisation and removing the Internet from Azerbaijan would be devastating for society. He answered “I do not care how it will affect Azerbaijan, I am doing my report.”

As a neutral observer, I’m still a little bit confused. Is the Internet free in Azerbaijan or not? If the truth is expressed by the Azerbaijani AEGEEans, why did The Independent, a respectable British magazine, publish such a letter? Unless they’re right, what’s going on? I invite you to read the article, as well as share your opinions afterwards!

PS: I’ve underlined one phrase from Samira’s comment just to affirm my personal view that the Internet is the kind of right that humans should have.

Written by Adrian Browarczyk, AEGEE-Poznań

Quite some time passed since the EBM, or at least it seems like that to me. I was thinking about the EBM, the people there and my mind stopped for a moment that I considered very significant. It was during the “Freedom of Speech: activists or militarists” workshop: Gizem stands there, goes to the center of the room and starts telling a story. The story of a girl, a 20-year old student, risking her life for getting attention for what she believes in and almost crying when she tells about it. She was that girl.

I did not know Gizem before and I did not know either that freedom of speech is still so repressed in Turkey. Together with the workshop leaders, she opened my eyes about the fact that the police do not hesitate to attack and arrest people, even when they protest are held peacefully. An episode for all: in order to show support to their friend who was sent to jail, a group of students cut their hair and sent it to the police. The result: they got arrested too!

You may think that police has too much power, but that is not true. The military was the most powerful institution, but now the government controls the military, representing an even bigger obstacle to freedom of speech. This is the reason why Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sik, two journalists who were critical of the government and of a key government supporter,  got arrested because of “belonging to a terrorist organization and inciting the public to hatred”. This topic was brought up by one guy in the audience with a T-shirt in their favor and the discussion moved on the role of media in shaping public opinion. However, national media are not the only source of information: people can learn from one another, as we did in the workshop, or as Spanish protesters “Indignados” are doing through educating fellow citizens instead of going on squares.

Having assessed the power of talking, some suggestions are to raise awareness on the topic of freedom of speech, especially connected with the Turkish situation, in your weekly meetings, write on blogs and, to make a bigger impact, make a one-day demonstration in every country. These are the suggestions that came out of our workshop, but maybe you have more!

Or maybe you have more stories that are worth spread with the rest of the network in order to let everyone know. We have freedom of speech, let’s use it!

Written by Martina Zanero, AEGEE-Torino

Photograph by Stephanie Müller, AEGEE-Heidelberg