Prize For Freedom
Encyclopedia
The Prize For Freedom is an annual prize presented by the Liberal International
since 1985. With the prize the organization honors an individual which has made an outstanding contribution to human rights
and political freedoms.
Liberal International
Liberal International is a political international federation for liberal parties. Its headquarters is located at 1 Whitehall Place, London, SW1A 2HD within the National Liberal Club. It was founded in Oxford in 1947, and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties and for the...
since 1985. With the prize the organization honors an individual which has made an outstanding contribution to human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and political freedoms.
Awards
- 1985 - Raúl AlfonsínRaúl AlfonsínRaúl Ricardo Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and statesman, who served as the President of Argentina from December 10, 1983, to July 8, 1989. Alfonsín was the first democratically-elected president of Argentina following the military government known as the National Reorganization...
- 1986 - Sheena DuncanSheena DuncanSheena Duncan was a South African anti-Apartheid activist and counselor. Duncan was the leader of Black Sash, a group of white, middle-class South African women who offered support to black South Africans and advocated the non-violent abolishment of the Apartheid system...
- 1987 - Corazon AquinoCorazon AquinoMaria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino was the 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office in Philippine history. She is best remembered for leading the 1986 People Power Revolution, which toppled Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines...
- 1988 - Hans-Dietrich GenscherHans-Dietrich GenscherHans-Dietrich Genscher is a German politician of the liberal Free Democratic Party . He served as Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany from 1974 to 1982 and, after a two-week pause, from 1982 to 1992, making him Germany's longest serving Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor...
- 1989 - Benazir BhuttoBenazir BhuttoBenazir Bhutto was a democratic socialist who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996....
- 1990 - Václav HavelVáclav HavelVáclav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
- 1991 - Gitobu ImanyaraGitobu ImanyaraGitobu Imanyara is a Kenyan human rights lawyer, journalist, and politician.-Biography:After Imanyara spent more than two years in Maximum Security Prison on charges associated with his work as a human rights lawyer, he founded the Nairobi Law Monthly in 1987...
and Domingo LainoDomingo LainoDomingo Isabelino Laino Figueredo is a Paraguayan politician, economist, and activist. The leader of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, a Senator, and a former Member of the Chamber of Deputies, Laino first became known for his opposition to the Stroessner dictatorship: in 1956, he was arrested... - 1992 - María Elena Cruz Varela
- 1993 - Mary RobinsonMary RobinsonMary Therese Winifred Robinson served as the seventh, and first female, President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister, campaigner and member of the Irish Senate...
- 1994 - Sadako OgataSadako Ogata, is a Japanese academic, diplomat, author, administrator and professor emeritus at Sophia University.-Early life:Sadako Nakamura was born in 1927...
- 1995 - Aung San Suu KyiAung San Suu KyiAung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 81% of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained...
- 1996 - Martin LeeMartin LeeMartin Lee , QC, SC, JP, was the founding chairman of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong. He was a directly-elected Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Island geographical constituency...
- 1997 - Olusegun Obasanjo
- 1998 - Khalida Messaoudi
- 1999 - Lennart MeriLennart MeriLennart Georg Meri was a writer, film director and statesman who served as the second President of Estonia from 1992 to 2001. Meri was a leader of the Estonian independence movement.-Early life:...
- 2000 - Asma JahangirAsma JahangirAsma Jilani Jahangir is a leading Pakistani lawyer, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, President Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan and human rights activist, who works both in Pakistan and internationally to prevent the persecution of religious minorities, women, and exploitation...
- 2001 - Chen Shui-bianChen Shui-bianChen Shui-bian is a former Taiwanese politician who was the 10th and 11th-term President of the Republic of China from 2000 to 2008. Chen, whose Democratic Progressive Party has traditionally been supportive of Taiwan independence, ended more than fifty years of Kuomintang rule in Taiwan...
- 2002 - Helen SuzmanHelen SuzmanHelen Suzman, DBE was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician.-Biography:Helen Suzman, a life-long citizen of South Africa, was born as Helen Gavronsky in 1917 to Jewish immigrants....
- 2003 - Abdoulaye WadeAbdoulaye WadeAbdoulaye Wade is the third and current President of Senegal, in office since 2000. He is also the Secretary-General of the Senegalese Democratic Party and has led the party since it was founded in 1974...
- 2004 - Grigory Yavlinsky
- 2005 - Antonino ZichichiAntonino ZichichiAntonino Zichichi is an Italian physicist who has worked in the field of nuclear physics.-Biography:Zichichi was born in Trapani, Sicily, in 1929. He has collaborated to several important discoveries in the field of subnuclear physics and has worked in some of the most important research...
- 2006 - Sam RainsySam RainsySam Rainsy is a Cambodian politician.Sam Rainsy was born in Phnom Penh, son of Sam Sary, a member of Cambodia's government for a time in the 1950s. He moved to France in 1965, studied there and then worked in a variety of Parisian financial companies...
- 2007 - Alaksandar MilinkievičAlaksandar MilinkievicAliaksandr Uładzimiravič Milinkevič is a Belarusian politician. He was nominated by the leading opposition parties in Belarus to run against incumbent Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential election on 19 March 2006.-Biography:...
- 2008 - Padraig O'MalleyPadraig O'MalleyPadraig O'Malley is a peacemaker, noted author and professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston who specializes in the problems of divided societies, such as South Africa and Northern Ireland...
- 2009 - Eric AveburyEric Lubbock, 4th Baron AveburyEric Reginald Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury, PC is an English politician. A Liberal Member of Parliament from 1962 to 1970, he succeeded as Baron Avebury in 1971...
- 2010 - Shirin EbadiShirin EbadiShirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's,...
- 2011 - Chee Soon JuanChee Soon JuanChee Soon Juan, PhD is a politician and political activist from Singapore. He is currently the leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party ....