Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/614946
17 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2015 Inside the EP Freedoms that cannot come at the cost of others 1988 Nelson Mandela Anti-apartheid activist and later President of South Africa 1988 Anatoly Marchenko (posthumously) Soviet dissident, author and human rights activist 1989 Alexander Dubcek Slovak politician, attempted to reform the communist regime during thePrague Spring 1990 Aung San Suu Kyi Burmese politician who this year led the National League for Democracy to electoral victory after being released from 15 years of house arrest 1991 Adem Demaçi Kosovo Albanian Politician and long-term political prisoner 1992 Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo Association of Argentine mothers whose children disappeared during the Dirty War 1993 OsloboŠenje Popular newspaper that defended Bosnia and Herzegovina as a multi-ethnic state 1994 Taslima Nasrin Bangladeshi doctor, feminist author 1995 Leyla Zana Politician of Kurdish descent from Southeastern Turkey, who was imprisoned for 10 years for speaking her native language of Kurdish in the Turkish Parliament 1996 Wei Jingsheng An activist in the Chinese democracy movement 1997 Salima Ghezali Journalist and writer, an activist of women's rights, human rights and democracy in Algeria 1998 Ibrahim Rugova Albanian politician, the first President of Kosovo 1999 Xanana Gusmão Former militant who was the first President of East Timor 2000 ¡Basta Ya! Spanish organisation uniting individuals of various political positions against terrorism 2001 Nurit Peled-Elhanan Israeli peace activist 2001 Izzat Ghazzawi Palestinian writer, professor 2001 Dom Zacarias Kamwenho Angolan archbishop and peace activist 2002 Oswaldo Payá Cuban political activist and dissident 2003 Kofi Annan (& United Nations) Nobel Peace Prize recipient and seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations 2004 Belarusian Association of Journalists Non-governmental organisation "aiming to ensure freedom of speech and rights of receiving and distributing information and promoting professional standards of journalism" 2005 Ladies in White Cuban opposition movement, relatives of jailed dissidents 2005 Reporters Without Borders France-based non-governmental organisation advocating freedom of the press 2005 Hauwa Ibrahim Cuban human rights lawyer 2006 Alaksandar MilinkieviŠ Politician chosen by United Democratic Forces of Belarus as the joint candidate of the opposition in the presidential elections of 2006 2007 Salih Mahmoud Osman Sudanese human rights lawyer 2008 Hu Jia Chinese activist and dissident 2009 Memorial Russian civil rights and historical society 2010 Guillermo Fariñas Cuban doctor, journalist and political dissident 2011 Asmaa Mahfouz, Ahmed al-Senussi, Razan Zaitouneh, Ali Farzat, Mohamed Bouazizi (posthumously) • Five representatives of the Arab people, in recognition and support of their drive for freedom and human rights. 2012 Jafar Panahi,Nasrin Sotoudeh Iranian activists, Sotoudeh is a lawyer and Panahi is a film director. 2013 Malala Yousafzai Pakistani campaigner for women's rights and education 2014 Denis Mukwege Congolese gynecologist treating victims of gang rape 2015 Raif Badawi Saudi Arabian writer and activist and the creator of the website Free Saudi Liberals Past winners THE European Parliament Information Office in Malta held a Conference on Friday 4 December marking the award of this year's Sakharov Prize 2015 to Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi. The Sakharov Prize is awarded every year to individuals or organisations who, mostly through self-sacrifice, become a beacon of Human Rights in their communities, against all odds. Badawi is facing a sentence of 10 years imprisonment and 1000 lashes, 50 of which have been administered in public already, for his writings on the blog 'Free Saudi Liberals' where Badawi was critical on radical Islam beliefs and Saudi authority. Badawi has been on a hunger strike since Tuesday after being transferred to a new, isolated prison, according to his wife, Ensaf Haidar. Haidar, who lives in Canada where she and their three chil- dren were granted political asylum, confirmed the news by phone after tweeting it. Haidar is expected to travel to France to accept the Sakha- rov prize on behalf of her husband during a ceremony at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 16 December. Badawi's plight caught the eye of MEPs in the European Parliament, who voted for Badawi to be this year's nominee for the Sakharov Prize. The President of the European Par- liament, Martin Schulz called upon Saudi Arabia's authority to release Badawi so that he would be able to receive the Sakharov Prize at the award ceremony to be held in Plenary in December. The Sakharov Conference in Malta was organised to mark Badawi's plight and the European Parliament's standing for human rights and to reflect on the rel- evance of Human Rights in our society. At the conference panel former EU Commissioner Tonio Borg shared his experiences as part of the top EU ex- ecutive where Member States are kept in check on human rights matters also through peer pressure in the implemen- tation charts on EU legislation moni- tored by the Commission. Ruth Farrugia, human rights lecturer pointed out that the European Union could do a better job of walking the talk on Human Rights as she outlined a cer- tain scepticism in the European Court of Justice rulings to applying to the full the European Convention on Human Rights and the rulings by its court. Roberta Lepre, presently chairing the Platform of Human Rights Organisa- tions in Malta (PHROM) pointed out that accession to the Union has given us a quantum leap in the implementation of human rights in Malta. She insisted however, that more could be done by empowering human rights organisations to hold their gov- ernments to account on human rights. Addressing the conference MEP Miriam Dalli stressed that the humanitarian crisis that the EU is experiencing coupled with the present threats to security have brought to the fore the imperative of striking the right balance between secu- rity and Human Rights. She insisted however that she will always stand against inroads into our fundamental freedoms as a pretext for enhances security. ''The duty of the politician is to make sure that one does not come at the cost of the other,'' she said. Dalli pointed out that the Sakharov Prize is a reminder of what the Euro- pean Parliament and the EU stand for. It is the European Parliament's duty to safeguard human rights and the funda- mental values of the EU, especially to- day when terrorism is creating fear in Europe and the rest of the world. At a second panel Fr Joe Borg, media lecturer, argued that democracy cannot exist without the freedom of expres- sion. Freedom of expression however is a concept that can be vulnerable. That vulnerability does not necessarily come from politicians and their abuse of au- thority but may be imposed through the monopolisation of ideas through the media and the control of media by commercial interests. Carmen Sammut, Head of Department of International Re- lations at the University of Malta delved into how media and social media have re-shaped the whole spectrum of modern- day communication which is now becoming the ideal vector for radical groups to come out with their radical message to recruit sympathy and militants in our own society. The current debates on Human Rights in the European Parliament were then portrayed by MEP Roberta Metsola. She claimed that Europe is about values rather than geog- raphy, and thus for MEPs, Badawi is more than just a jailed person in a cell in a far away place in another continent. Metsola then gave an account of how Parliament is try- ing to strike the balance between present calls for enhanced security and the continuing safeguard of Human Rights. She announced the fresh agreement by MEPs on sharing pas- senger name records between authorities as the example to follow where records will now be shared by with a time-bar guarantee to protect privacy nonetheless. The freshly concluded Frontex rules are also another exam- ple in that direction with safeguards on immigrant's rights but decisive action for a strong EU policy on that area. The Sakharov Prize 2015 will be awarded to Badawi in the Plenary session on 16 December. Notwithstanding calls by MEPs, Badawi is expected to re- main inhibited from travelling to collect the prize. His wife Ensaf Haidar, presently hosted in Canada with their three children, is expected to collect the prize in Strasbourg in- stead of Raif Badawi. An online campaign for the liberation of Raif Badawi is presently hitting social media with hashtag #freeraif.