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Council of Europe Awards Human Rights Prize to Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado 

María Corina Machado’s Venezuelan Election Results Website Goes Live and Crashes Instantly  
Credit: VOA

María Corina Machado, the prominent Venezuelan opposition leader, has been awarded the prestigious Václav Havel Human Rights Prize, bestowed annually by the Council of Europe. The award, which honors significant civil society contributions to the defense of human rights across Europe and beyond, was presented by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in collaboration with the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation.

Machado, however, could not attend the ceremony in Strasbourg due to threats from Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Instead, her daughter, Ana, accepted the 60,000-euro award on her behalf. During the presentation, PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos emphasized the Council’s solidarity with “those who risk their lives to make our societies more democratic and just.” 

What Has María Corina Machado Done?

Recognized as a key figure in Venezuela’s political landscape, Machado has long been involved in exposing human rights abuses and defending democracy and the rule of law in her country. Speaking remotely from Venezuela, Machado expressed her deep gratitude, noting her honor at being the first Latin American to receive the award. “I want to dedicate this recognition to the millions of Venezuelans who, every day, embody the values and ideas of Václav Havel, some without even realizing it.” She added, “Today our struggle continues, because truth persists until it prevails,” while also highlighting that her movement had demonstrated “the victory of democrats over dictatorship” in recent elections. Machado has been under increased threat since August when she was barred from running in Venezuela’s elections by Maduro’s regime, leaving her concerned for her life and freedom. 

Who Does the Václav Havel Prize Recognize?

The Václav Havel Prize, awarded annually, recognized two other finalists this year: Akif Gurbanov, an Azerbaijani human rights activist currently in preventive detention in Baku, and Babutsa Pataraia, a Georgian feminist activist and human rights lawyer. As part of the ceremony, Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara Murza, who was imprisoned in Russia when he received the 2022 Václav Havel Prize, also addressed the assembly, having been released in August this year as part of a prisoner exchange. 

During his opening remarks at the award ceremony, the president of PACE condemned the fact that six of the eleven previous winners of the Václav Havel Prize remain imprisoned, calling for their immediate release. “These individuals committed only one ‘crime’: they dared to raise their voices, to share their vision of a just and free society.”

Since its inception, the Václav Havel Prize has honored several prominent human rights defenders, including Osman Kavala (2023), Vladimir Kara-Murza (2022), Maria Kalesnikava (2021), Loujain Alhathloul (2020), Ilham Tohti and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (2019), Oyub Titiev (2018), Murat Arslan (2017), Nadia Murad (2016), Ludmilla Alexeeva (2015), Anar Mammadli (2014), and Ales Bialiatski (2013). 

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