The Sakharov Award
«The 2023 Sakharov Freedom Award is a sign of our respect for Truth Hounds and the larger struggle of the Ukrainian people in the face of unprovoked aggression, invasion and brutality.»
Berit Lindeman, Secretary General
«This award belongs to everyone who fights against attempts to destroy Ukrainianness. Moreover, it is for everyone who can read the truth in the pages of history textbooks.»
Roman Avramenko, Executive Director, Truth Hounds
The Sakharov Freedom Award was established by the NHC in 1980. The decision was supported by Soviet physicist and human rights activist Andrei Sakharov himself. Perhaps the NHC award even inspired the European Parliament to set up a Sakharov Prize in 1988.
Over the years, the award has honoured many groups and individuals who have resisted oppression and fought for human rights. Often with considerable risk to themselves.
The Sakharov Freedom Award is presented during an evening ceremony in Oslo, but the award itself often reverberates far into the future. In 2021, the award went to Yuri Dmitriev, a Russian historian associated with the Human Rights Center Memorial, specializing in excavation work of the remains of victims of Stalin’s repression. During the ceremony in Oslo City Hall, Russian politician Vladimir Kara-Murza made a moving speech about the importance of Dmitriev’s work. Shortly after, Kara-Murza was arrested in Moscow. To back up the absurd charges of «treason», Russian prosecutors produced a copy of the speech he made at Oslo City Hall. In April 2023, Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The 2023 recipients of the Sakharov Freedom Award face dangers of a different character in their work. Truth Hounds is a Ukrainian human rights organization devoted to investigating and documenting war crimes. Truth Hounds came to life during the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity and the following Russian invasion of Crimea and Donbas in 2014. Over the years, the group has grown into a highly professional team of experts.
Their work is fuelled by a desire to see justice done on behalf of victims and their families. The award underscored how grassroots activism combined with cutting-edge technologies provides the international court system with evidence to combat impunity and ensure accountability for war crimes.
The NHC has worked with Truth Hounds on documentation of war crimes since 2014. The contribution focuses on capacity building of registration, analysis, and case building in a database designed to investigate human rights violations. It is based on the I-DOC software solution developed by our partner Case Matrix Network, built on experiences from the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.
Read more in the chapter about the Documentation and Accountability work.