“In honoring them, we also send a message of hope to the millions of people they represent and for whom they work: human rights have no frontiers,” PACE president Liliane Maury Pasquier said during a prize-giving ceremony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE<\/strong>✔<\/strong>@PACE_News<\/a> \u00b7 Sep 30, 2019<\/a><\/a>Replying to @PACE_News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Enver Can of the Ilham Tohti Initiative receives the Prize on behalf of Mr Tohti, who has been in prison in China since 2014: “Today’s prize honours one person, but it also recognises a whole population in giving the entire #Uyghur<\/a> people a voice.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n PACE<\/strong>✔<\/strong>@PACE_News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ivan Djuric receives the #HavelPrize<\/a> on behalf of @YIHR_Croatia<\/a> @YIHRSerbia<\/a> @YIHRKosovo<\/a> @YIHRBiH<\/a> and http:\/\/yihr.me <\/a> http:\/\/yihr.org <\/a> with pride, but warns: “Don’t play deaf to the sound of war drums from the Balkans\u2026 we’re not strangers, we’re Europeans.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n 28<\/a>11:04 AM – Sep 30, 2019<\/a>Twitter Ads info and privacy<\/a>See PACE’s other Tweets<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Vaclav Havel Human Rights Award \u2014 named after the famed former playwright, president of the Czech Republic and democracy activist \u2014 carries a prize of \u20ac60,000 ($65,500). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Enver Can of the Ilham Tohti Initiative, who represented Tohti at the event, vowed to continue efforts to free the Uighur economist, who was jailed for life in 2014 by a Chinese court on charges of inciting separatism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The YIHR in the Balkans, founded in 2003, describes itself as a group campaigning for justice, equality, democracy and peace; it places particular importance on building cooperation between young activists from different countries and communities in the Balkans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Don’t play deaf to the sound of war drums from the Balkans,” warned Ivan Djuric, Serbian YIHR director, on accepting the prize. “We’re not strangers; we’re Europeans.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2019 shortlist also included Tajik human rights lawyer Buzurgmehr Yorov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year’s prize went to Russian activist Oyub Titiev. The 62-year-old heads the Memorial Human Rights Center in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. Memorial is the last influential human rights organization still active in the troubled Russian republic in the North Caucasus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Council of Europe has been awarding the prize since 2013. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/760377304732332032\/VQmTlzgh_normal.jpg\")
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