Václav Havel

Under the motto of former President Vaclav Havel "Europe as a task", from July 1, 2022 the Czech Republic takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Apart from the direct impact on public health, a crisis of this magnitude can trigger at least two direct kinds of economic shock.

The first is a shock to production, owing to disrupted global supply chains. Suspending the production of basic pharmaceutical chemicals in China disrupts the production of generic drugs in India, which in turn reduces drug shipments to the United States.

Chramostova signed the Charter 77 petition demanding the regime respect human rights and was banned from performing in public again.

By contrast, Gott publicly urged his fellow artists to sign the "Anti-Charter" opposing the dissidents and became the "golden voice" of the conformist "Normalisation" period of the 1980s. 

Ivan Djuric, the programme director of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights' branch in Serbia, told BIRN in an interview that the organisation's nomination for the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize is a recognition that anti-war campaigning remains necessary in the Balkan region.

The government-appointed Committee for Disclosing the Documents and Announcing the Affiliation of Bulgarian Citizens to the State Security and Intelligence Services of the Bulgarian National Army alleged on Tuesday that Julia Kristeva was an agent of the Communist-era security apparatus.

The Czech Republic is set to take a Euroskeptic turn in a general election this weekend — even though the EU has hardly featured in the campaign, Politico writes.

A former Turkish judge was shortlisted for the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize 2017, alongside two others from Austria and Hungary. 

Murat Arslan, who has been under arrest since 2016, is described by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as "a well-known and reputed judge."

The Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize - which honours outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights - was awarded on Monday to Nadia Murad, a Yazidi rights activist who was kidnapped and detained by Islamic State, ISIS, in Iraq in 2014.

The Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize - which honours outstanding civil society action in defence of human rights - is to be awarded at a special ceremony on the opening day of the autumn plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Monday.

BIRN regional director Gordana Igric is among the three candidates for the award this year.

BELGRADE - Governing through a sense of duty and not of power brings real change, and that is precisely what has released a lot of energy in Albania and put collaboration, transparency and modernization in the forefront, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said in an exclusive opinion piece for Tanjug ahead of the Third Meeting of Heads of Government of China and Central and Eastern European count