Jailed journalists in Belarus and Georgia, students in Serbia, and aid workers and reporters in Gaza are vying for the top EU rights prize, which will be awarded by the European Parliament on Wednesday.

The Sakharov Prize, set up in 1988 and named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, is bestowed annually on individuals or organizations to recognize their fight for human rights or democracy. Sakharov, who was among the most prominent Soviet human rights activists, was also an outspoken opponent of antisemitism and an advocate for Soviet Jewry.

Three groups of finalists are in the running this year for the prize: humanitarian workers and journalists in Gaza; jailed Georgian journalist and editor Mzia Amaghlobeli and Polish-Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut; and a Serbian student movement that has shaken the country for nearly a year.

The European Parliament’s political groups as well as individual lawmakers can nominate contenders for the prize, which comes with a 50,000 euro ($58,000) endowment and will be handed out in a European Parliament ceremony on December 16.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, were last year’s winners. Machado went on to win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

The laureate or laureates will be decided in a meeting of the chamber’s seven political........

© The Times of Israel