The brave Ukrainian people are awarded the European Parliament’s 2022 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in a ceremony, in Strasbourg. A day before the ceremony, a press seminar with the 2022 Sakharov Prize Laureates is organised. Extracts and atmopshere shots.

EU - Ukraine (T)

Strasbourg

plenary session

troubles in Ukraine (T)

solidarity with Ukraine (T)

Ukraine's application for EU membership (T)

Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought 2022 (T)

consequences of the war in Ukraine (T)

Press seminar with the 2022 Sakharov Prize laureates: extracts and atmosphere shots

SOUNDBITE (English), Heidi HAUTALA (Greens/EFA, FI), EP Vice-President, This year is special. For the first time, the Sahara Prize is awarded and dedicated to the whole people of a country, the brave people of Ukraine, with their president, elected leaders and civil society as representatives.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Francisco DE ROUX, President of the Truth Commission of Colombia , We asked the Colombian people to take ownership of their history and to acknowledge the degree of suffering that Colombian people had experienced and that the recommendations and the analysis made by the commission would be taught to Colombians, students, and that we should see the implementation of the conclusions between of the peace agreement between the state and the guerrilla fighters.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stella ASSANGE, Lawyer and wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange , There's a growing clamour for Julian's freedom. Just in the last three weeks, which we've had a joint statement by the New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, El Pais and Der SPIEGEL calling for Julian's immediate release, saying that this case is a grave threat to press freedom globally.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stella ASSANGE, Lawyer and wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Julian is in a small prison cell for over 20 hours a day. Just imagine that for years. We have two children, three and five years old. They get to see their father about one hour a week. 

SOUNDBITE (English), Stella ASSANGE, Lawyer and wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, What the United States needs to hear is from its allies to say this is intolerable and not just because Julian's life is at stake, but because this case is a threat to press freedom within the European Union.

SOUNDBITE (English), Oleksandra MATVIYCHUK, Human rights lawyer and Chair of the Center for Civil Liberties, We have been documenting the war crimes for eight years, already since this war started in 2014, and after a large scale Russian invasion, we faced with unprecedented level of atrocities. So we united several dozens of organisations, mostly regional ones, into Tribunal for Putin initiative. We built all Ukrainian network of local documentators who cover the all over eastern Ukraine, including occupied.

SOUNDBITE (English), Oleksandra MATVIYCHUK, Human rights lawyer and Chair of the Center for Civil Liberties, We documented 27,000 episodes of war crimes, 27 thousands. It's a huge number, but it's still only a tip of the iceberg because Russia uses war crimes as a methods of warfare.

SOUNDBITE (English), Oleksandra MATVIYCHUK, Human rights lawyer and Chair of the Center for Civil Liberties, International Criminal Court will limit its investigatation only to several select cases. So the question is who will provide justice for hundreds of thousands of victims of this war?

SOUNDBITE (English), Ivan FEDOROV, Elected Mayor of Melitopol , After ten months of occupation, not anyone clever citizens from Melitopol agreed to give support to Russians. And it's a great honour. It's a great resistance and it's a great example for all civilised world how we can defend for our values.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ivan FEDOROV, Elected Mayor of Melitopol, All crimes that are now situated in Ukraine and especially in fully occupied territories must be punished because if not, it can be again and again in civilised world.

SOUNDBITE (English), Oleksandra MATVIYCHUK, Human rights lawyer and Chair of the Center for Civil Liberties, We need weapons. And this is a truth because we have not only to prosecute and to hold accountable people who committed atrocities. We have to stop them and for current moment, I have no legal instrument. The whole system, international system of U.N. couldn't help me to release one single person from captivity.