European Parliament: Sakharov Prize 2023, nominees include mgr. Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, bishop of Matagalpa (Nicaragua)

The winner of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2023 will be chosen by the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament from a shortlist of three nominees. They will have to choose between Jina Mahsa Amini – the Kurdish girl killed in Teheran in September 2022 by the so-called moral police because her veil did not properly cover her hair – and the Woman, Life, Freedom Movement born in Iran after that tragic death. Other shortlisted nominees include Vilma Núñez de Escorcia and the Catholic bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, who is currently in prison where he is serving a 26-year sentence: both did and do work hard for the defence of human rights in Nicaragua, paying a very high price for opposing Daniel Ortega’s rule. The third nominee is a group of three women – Justyna Wydrzyńska (Poland), Morena Herrera (El Salvador) and Colleen McNichols (USA) – who fight for a free, safe and legal abortion. The winner of the Sakharov Prize will be selected on 19th October, and the prize will be awarded to the winner at the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 13th December. The Prize takes its name from the Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov and includes a monetary award of 50,000 euros. In 2022, it was awarded to the “brave Ukrainian population”.
Valentina Bombelli