Sakharov Prize to be awarded to Saudi blogger Raif Badawi

The European Parliament Information Office in Malta held a Conference on Friday 4 December marking the Sakharov Prize 2015. The Sakharov Prize is awarded every year to individuals or organisations who, mostly through self-sacrifice, become a beacon of Human Rights in their communities, against all odds. 

This year the Prize will be awarded to Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi who is facing a sentence of 10 years imprisonment and 1000 lashes, 50 of which have been administered in public already, for his writings on the blog 'Free Saudi Liberals' where Badawi was critical on radical Islam beliefs and Saudi authority.

Badawi's plight caught the eye of MEPs in the European Parliament, who voted for Badawi to be this year's nominee for the Sakharov Prize. The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz called upon Saudi Arabia’s authority to release Badawi so that he would be able to receive the Sakharov Prize at the award ceremony to be held in Plenary in December.

The Sakharov Conference in Malta was organised to mark Raif Badawi's plight and the European Parliament's standing for human rights and to reflect on the relevance of Human Rights in our society. At the conference panel former EU Commissioner Tonio Borg shared his experiences as part of the top EU executive where Member States are kept in check on human rights matters also through peer pressure in the implementation charts on EU legislation monitored by the Commission.

Ruth Farrugia, human rights lecturer pointed out that the European Union could do a better job of walking the talk on Human Rights as she outlined a certain scepticism in the European Court of Justice rulings to applying to the full the European Convention on Human Rights and the rulings by its court.

Dr Roberta Lepre, presently chairing the Platform of Human Rights Organisations in Malta (PHROM) pointed out that accession to the Union has given us a quantum leap in the implementation of human rights in Malta. She insisted however, that more could be done by empowering human rights organisations to hold their governments to account on human rights.

Addressing the conference MEP Miriam Dalli stressed that the humanitarian crisis that the EU is experiencing coupled with the present threats to security have brought to the fore the imperative of striking the right balance between security and Human Rights. She insisted however that she will always stand against inroads into our fundamental freedoms as a pretext for enhances security. 

''The duty of the politician is to make sure that one does not come at the cost of the other,'' she said.

Dalli pointed out that the Sakharov Prize is a reminder of what the European Parliament and the EU stand for. It is the European Parliament’s duty to safeguard human rights and the fundamental values of the EU, especially today when terrorism is creating fear in Europe and the rest of the world.

At a second panel Fr Joe Borg, media lecturer, argued that democracy cannot exist without the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression however is a concept that can be vulnerable. That vulnerability does not necessarily come from politicians and their abuse of authority but may be imposed through the monopolisation of ideas through the media and the control of media by commercial interests.

Carmen Sammut, Head of Department of International Relations explored how media and social media have re-shaped the whole spectrum of modern-day communication which is now becoming the ideal vector for radical groups to come out with their radical message to recruit sympathy and militants in our own society.

The current debates on Human Rights in the European Parliament were then portrayed by MEP Roberta Metsola. Metsola started off by claiming that Europe is about values rather than geography, and thus for MEPs, Raif Badawi is more than just a jailed person in a cell in a far away place in another continent.

Metsola then gave an account of how Parliament is trying to strike the balance between present calls for enhanced security and the continuing safeguard of Human Rights. She announced the fresh agreement by MEPs on sharing passenger name records between authorities as the example to follow where records will now be shared by with a time-bar guarantee to protect privacy nonetheless.

The freshly concluded Frontex rules are also another example in that direction with safeguards on immigrant's rights but decisive action for a strong EU policy on that area.

The Sakharov Prize 2015 will be awarded to Raif Badawi in the Plenary session on 16 December. Notwithstanding calls by MEPs, Raif Badawi is expected to remain inhibited from travelling to collect the prize. His wife Ensaf Haidar, presently hosted in Canada with their three children, is expected to collect the prize in Strasbourg instead of Raif Badawi. 

An online campaign for the liberation of Raif Badawi is presently hitting social media with hashtag #freeraif.