# Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent

Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent is an award established in 2012 by the New York City-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF). According to HRF President Thor Halvorssen, the prize recognizes individuals "who engage in creative dissent, exhibiting courage and creativity to challenge injustice and live in truth".
Named in honor of Czech dissident playwright and politician Václav Havel, who died in December 2011, the award was founded with the help of his widow, Dagmar Havlová. Google co-founder Sergei Brin and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel provided part of the prize's funding.

## Recipients

| Year | Laureates | Notes |
| 2012 | Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei, Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, and Saudi Arabian women's rights activist Manal al-Sharif | Presented on 9 May in Oslo, Norway by the Oslo Freedom Forum. After al-Sharif's speech was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube, she lost her job as an Internet security consultant at Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia. Presenter Garry Kasparov stated that the three awardees had "shown not only courage, but passion and humor, that exposes the inhumanity of dictatorship". |
| 2013 | Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat, North Korean democracy activist Park Sang Hak, and Cuban civil society group the Ladies in White | Presented on 15 May by the Oslo Freedom Forum. Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White, received the award on her first journey outside of her native Cuba, while also receiving the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. |
| 2014 | Turkish protester and performance artist Erdem Gunduz, Russian punk rock protest group Pussy Riot, and Tibetan documentary filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen | |
| 2015 | Sudanese nonviolent resistance movement Girifna, Indonesian stand-up comedian Sakdiyah Ma'ruf, and Cuban graffiti artist and activist El Sexto. | |
| 2016 | Iranian cartoonist Atena Farghadani, Russian performance artist Petr Pavlensky and Uzbek photojournalist Umida Akhmedova. | Pavlensky's prize was withdrawn by the Human Rights Foundation after he announced his intention to dedicate the award and prize money to the "Primorsky Partisans," a group of six then-teenagers in the Russian Far East who in 2010 declared a "guerrilla war" on police to "protest corruption and lawlessness and were given lengthy prison sentences for the murder of three officers, robbery, and theft". In a letter, the Foundation said that the revocation was "unfortunate and unprecedented" and that those who have "advocated the use of violence as a valid method to fight government oppression" are barred from receiving the award. |
| 2017 | Zimbabwean artist and activist Silvanos Mudzvova, Bahraini poet and activist Ayat Al-Qurmezi and Venezuelan satirical website El Chigüire Bipolar. | Presented on 24 May by the Oslo Freedom Forum. |
| 2018 | Emmanuel Jal, Belarus Free Theatre and Mai Khôi. | Presented on 30 May by the Oslo Freedom Forum. |
| 2019 | Rap Against Dictatorship (Thai rappers), Rayma Suprani, Venezuelan cartoonist; Ramy Essam, Egyptian musician. | Presented on 29 May at the Oslo Freedom Forum. |
| 2020 | Chinese artist Badiucao, Saudi vlogger Omar Abdulaziz and Rwandan gospel singer Kizito Mihigo. | Presented online on 25 September during the Virtual Oslo Freedom Forum. |
| 2022 | Professional basketball player and human rights advocate Enes Kanter Freedom, Iranian artist project PaykanArtCar, and Ukrainian-born Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova. | Enes Kanter Freedom received the prize for raising awareness of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s human rights abuses, PaykanArtCar for inspiring diaspora Iranian artists to advocate for human rights in Iran, and Marina Ovsyannikova for staging a protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a news broadcast of Russian state TV. Presented on 25 May by the Oslo Freedom Forum. |
| 2024 | Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, Uyghur poet filmmaker and activist Tahir Hamut Izgil, and Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero. | Presented on 22 May by the Oslo Freedom Forum. |