Oslo Freedom Forum - Václav Havel Prize
11.05.2012 / 15:03 | Aktualizováno: 11.05.2012 / 15:13
(This article expired 12.05.2013 / 02:00.)
Oslo Freedom Forum is a human rights conference in Oslo arranged every year by the New York-based Human Right Foundation. It was arranged for the fourth time 7-9. May 2012. The conference attracts participants and lecturers of high quality from the whole world. For the first time this year the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent will be awarded. The Prize “will celebrate those who engage in creative dissent, exhibiting courage and creativity to challenge injustice and live in truth.”
The Vaclav Havel Award was initiated by HRF with support from Havel's widow, Dagmar Havlova. Havlova, which is also a member of the award committee, stated that "This is a magnificent way to honour the memory of Václav Havel -- by recognizing those who, with bravery and ingenuity, unmask the lie of dictatorship by living in truth". Vaclav Havel himself participated in the Oslo Freedom Forum in 2009 through a video segment. The first Vaclav Havel Prize will be awarded to the Chinese artists Ai Weiwei, the Saudi women's rights advocate Manal al-Sharif, and the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The prize winners will each be awarded an artist's representation of the iconic Goddess of Democracy statue, that was erected during the protests at the Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989 by Chinese student leaders. The prize winners will also share 350.000 Norwegian crowns. The Havel Prize is funded jointly by the Brin Wojcicki Foundation og the Thiel Foundation
