MEPs have approved their final shortlist for the EU’s human rights award, the Sakharov Prize.
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MEPs have approved their final shortlist for the EU’s human rights award, the Sakharov Prize.
They include Turkish reporter Can Dündar, Nadia Murad Basee, who survived ISIS atrocities in Iraq, and Mustafa Dzemilev, a Crimean Tartar leader.
Lamiya Aji Bashar, another Yazidi survivor of enslavement by ISIS, is also nominated.
Barbara Lochbihler, a German Green MEP, said “it is now very important to talk about freedom of expression, freedom of the press in Turkey.”
“(Dündar) was an ideal candidate because he was very courageous and also needed support.”
On the nomination of Basee and Bashar, Lochbihler said that “we are hoping to draw more attention to the more than 3,000 women who are in captivity.”
Nadia Murad Basee was named as a UN Goodwill Ambassador last month.
The winner of the Sakharov Prize, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, will be picked at the end of October.