Sakharov Fellowship Programme: chance for human rights defenders to collaborate
On Wednesday, 2017 Sakharov Prize laureate Lorent Saleh will visit the European Parliament Visitors’ Centre in Brussels and speak to media.
From Monday 11 October to Sunday 23 October, up to 14 human rights defenders from all over the world will visit Brussels and the Global Campus for Human Rights in Venice - under the umbrella of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Fellowship Programme - to discover new ways to collaborate, help break barriers, and to react swiftly to defend urgent human rights questions.
The 2021 fellows come from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Chile, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Mexico, North Macedonia, Nigeria, the Russian Federation and Ukraine.
On Wednesday morning at 9.30 CEST, the Sakharov fellows will accompany Venezuelan Sakharov Prize laureate Lorent Saleh on a visit to the European Parliament Visitors’ Centre in Brussels (Parlamentarium), which is exhibiting a flight map that belongs to Mr Saleh. The map shows his journey to freedom in 2018 from Venezuela to Spain. It is part of the latest addition to the Parlamentarium exhibition, which educates visitors on the European Union’s political priorities.
Interviews
Journalists who are interested in interviewing Lorent Saleh or one of the Sakharov fellows can send a request to viktor.almqvist@europarl.europa.eu. While journalists do not need to be accredited to enter the Parlamentarium, a permit is required ahead of any audio or video recordings. Read more here.
Mr Saleh speaks Spanish, while the other fellows can be interviewed in English.
Sakharov fellows available for interviews in Brussels:
Jorge Ruiz Reyes (Mexico, 1993): researcher at the Human Rights Center of Universidad Iberoamericana, in Mexico. His work covers several fields of human rights activity: women's rights, children, minorities, indigenous people, environment, business and human rights and LGBTIQ rights. He has gathered proof of enforced disappearances and clandestine graves findings in Mexico for several years.
Abdelsamee Abouelhamd (Egypt, 1986): activist and artist using theatre and performance to raise awareness about civil and economic rights in Egypt. Mr Abouelhamd is an individual human rights defender, campaigner, and civil society activist in Egypt and the Middle East and North Africa. He works in several fields of human rights activity: gender equality, women's rights, children rights, access of civic spaces and economic justice.
WHEN: Wednesday 13 October at 10.00 CEST.
WHERE: Parlamentarium in Brussels (Place du Luxembourg 100).
Background
The Sakharov Fellowship Programme is an annual programme run by the European Parliament since 2016 in support of human rights activists and defenders around the world. The purpose of the programme is for participants to exchange ideas and experiences and discover new ways of cooperation. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020’s edition was held online.