(AGENPARL) – Mon 29 September 2025 Image
PRESS RELEASE
Communication Division
PACE 072 (2025)
2025 Václav Havel Prize awarded to Ukrainian journalist and human rights defender Maksym Butkevych
The two runners-up for the 2025 Prize are Georgian journalist Mzia Amaghlobeli and Azerbaijani journalist Ulvi Hasanli. As both of them are currently detained in their home countries, their representatives – Ms Amaghlobeli’s lawyer and Mr Hasanli’s wife – each received diplomas on their behalf at today’s award ceremony.
Urging the immediate release of Ms Amaghlobeli and Mr Hasanli, he said: “Your voice may be silenced, but your testimony is heard loud and clear.” The President – himself a former journalist – also thanked all three candidates for their courage in opposing authoritarianism and for acting as role-models for a whole generation of journalists and human rights defenders: “Governments should not be afraid of the truth,” he declared.
Accepting the award, Mr Butkevych said it was “a great honour, which means so much to me, and to all of us” and would have been “only a dream” while he was in Russian captivity a year ago. He dedicated it to Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians illegally detained by Russia, as well as all fellow journalists deprived of their liberty in authoritarian regimes. He urged the world not to forget them, and all those who fight for freedom and dignity: “Ukraine defends not only its territorial integrity, but also fundamental values. Our co-operation, our freedom and our desire to live in mutual respect, with dignity and without fear, are based on these values.”
The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize is awarded each year by PACE, in partnership with the Václav Havel Library and the Charta 77 Foundation, “to honour outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights in Europe and beyond”. It consists of a sum of 60,000 euros, a trophy and a diploma.
Since its creation, the Prize has been awarded in turn to María Corina Machado (2024), Osman Kavala (2023), Vladimir Kara-Murza (2022), Maria Kalesnikava (2021), Loujain Alhathloul (2020), jointly to 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).
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
The Assembly brings together 306 members from the national parliaments of the 46 member states. President: Theodoros Rousopoulos – Secretary General of the Assembly: Despina Chatzivassiliou. Political groups: SOC (Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group); EPP/CD (Group of the European People’s Party); ECPA (European Conservatives, Patriots & Affiliates); ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe); UEL (Group of the Unified European Left).
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