Anar Mammadli has set up the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre, an organisation monitoring elections in Azerbaijan. In 2013 Mr Mammadli was detained on the charge of “abuse of office”. In May 2014, he was sentenced to five and a half years in prison. Mr Mammadli was the first human rights activist arrested and convicted of tax evasions in the wave of repression by the Azerbaijani regime. Tax evasion charges are often used by the Azerbaijani authorities in the fight against human rights defenders.
The Israeli organisation B’Tselem is concerned with the monitoring and reporting of human rights violations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The third nominee, the Jesuit Refugee Service Malta provides legal and psychological aid to refugees and migrants.
The selection panel, including Marek Antoni Nowicki, President of the HFHR’s Board of Directors, Thomas Hammarberg, former Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and František Janouch, Chairman of the Board of the Charta 77 Foundation, shortlisted three nominees from 60 persons and organisations registered for the Prize.
The Václav Have Human Rights Prize, awarded in memory of Václav Havel, human rights defender and former President of the Czech Republic who passed away in 2011, replaces the Council of Europe Human Rights Prize created in 2009. It is awarded once a year by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Václav Havel Library and Charta 77 Foundation.
The Prizewinner will be announced on 29 September 2014.
