Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent is an award established in 2012 by the New York City-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF). According to HRF President Thor Halvorssen, the prize recognizes individuals "who engage in creative dissent, exhibiting courage and creativity to challenge injustice and live in truth".

Named in honor of Czech dissident playwright and politician Václav Havel, who died in December 2011, the award was founded with the help of his widow, Dagmar Havlová. Google co-founder Sergei Brin and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel provided part of the prize's funding.

Recipients Year Laureates Country/EthnicityDescription Notes 2012 Ai WeiweiChinaDissident Presented on 9 May in Oslo, Norway by the Oslo Freedom Forum. After al-Sharif's speech was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube, she lost her job as an Internet security consultant at Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia.Paul Aarts & Carolien Roelants, Saudi Arabia: A Kingdom in Peril (Oxford University Press, 2015), p. 76. Presenter Garry Kasparov stated that the three awardees had "shown not only courage, but passion and humor, that exposes the inhumanity of dictatorship".Aung San Suu KyiMyanmarDemocracy activist Manal al-SharifSaudi ArabiaWomen's rights activist2013Ali FarzatSyriaCartoonistPresented on 15 May by the Oslo Freedom Forum. Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, received the award on her first journey outside of her native Cuba, while also receiving the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.Park Sang-hakNorth KoreaDemocracy activist Ladies in WhiteCubaCivil society group 2014 Erdem GunduzTurkeyProtester and performance artist Pussy RiotRussiaPunk rock protest groupDhondup WangchenTibetDocumentary filmmaker 2015 GirifnaSudannonviolent resistance movement Sakdiyah Ma'rufIndonesiaStand-up comedianEl SextoCubaGraffiti artist and activist2016Atena FarghadaniIranCartoonist Pavlensky's prize was withdrawn by the Human Rights Foundation after he announced his intention to dedicate the award and prize money to the "Primorsky Partisans," a group of six then-teenagers in the Russian Far East who in 2010 declared a "guerrilla war" on police to "protest corruption and lawlessness and were given lengthy prison sentences for the murder of three officers, robbery, and theft".Tom Balmforth, Russian Protest Artist Stripped Of Havel Prize Over Support For 'Partisans', Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (July 8, 2016). In a letter, the Foundation said that the revocation was "unfortunate and unprecedented" and that those who have "advocated the use of violence as a valid method to fight government oppression" are barred from receiving the award.Petr PavlenskyRussiaPerformance artistUmida AkhmedovaUzbekistanPhotojournalist2017Silvanos MudzvovaZimbabweArtist and activistPresented on 24 May by the Oslo Freedom Forum.Ayat Al-QurmeziBahrainPoet and activistEl Chigüire BipolarVenezuelaSatirical website2018Emmanuel JalCanadaActivistPresented on 30 May by the Oslo Freedom Forum.Belarus Free Theatre BelarusTheater groupMai KhôiVietnamMusician2019Rap Against Dictatorship ThailandRappersPresented on 29 May at the Oslo Freedom Forum.Rayma SupraniVenezuelaCartoonistRamy EssamEgyptMusician2020BadiucaoChinaArtistPresented online on 25 September during the Virtual Oslo Freedom Forum.Omar AbdulazizSaudi ArabiaVloggerKizito MihigoRwandaGospel Singer2022Enes Kanter FreedomUnited StatesBasketball player and human rights advocate Enes Kanter Freedom received the prize for raising awareness of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s human rights abuses,PaykanArtCar for inspiring diaspora Iranian artists to advocate for human rights in Iran, andMarina Ovsyannikova for staging a protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a news broadcast of Russian state TV. Presented on 25 May by the Oslo Freedom Forum.PaykanArtCarIranArtist projectMarina OvsyannikovaUkrainian-born, RussiaJournalist2024Toomaj SalehiIranRapperPresented on 22 May by the Oslo Freedom Forum.Tahir Hamut IzgilUyghurs(Chinese dissidents)Poet filmmaker and activistGabriela MonteroVenezuelaPianist2025Luis Manuel Otero AlcántaraCubaArtist and pro-democracy activist Presented at the 2025 Oslo Freedom Forum.Azza Abo RebiehSyriaActivist and artistAlexandra Skochilenko.RussiaArtist, poet, and musician

See also

Václav Havel Award for Human Rights

References