fbpx Skip to main content

Havel Prize

Celebrating Those Who Unmask the Lie of Dictatorship Through Art

The Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent, established by HRF in 2012, is an award for artistic innovation.

The rain starts with a single drop.

Manal al-SharifSaudi women's rights advocate and 2012 Havel Prize laureate

Who is Václav Havel?

This prize is given in honor of the late poet, playwright, philosopher, statesman, and Human Rights Foundation chairman, Václav Havel.

Havel led the nonviolent revolution that freed Czechoslovakia from communist rule, using first his poetry and plays, and later political essays and the Charter 77 manifesto, to challenge arbitrary power and injustice in his country.

For Havel, living in truth meant an unwavering commitment to living according to one’s belief in democracy and civil liberty.

In his 1978 essay “The Power of the Powerless,” Havel describes how ordinary citizens naturally resist dictatorship just by living their lives.

He tells us the parable of the greengrocer, who puts a communist propaganda sign into his store window simply because that is the way things are done: the sign arrives with his carrots and onions and he displays it alongside them.

If he fails to display the sign, there would be trouble. He may disagree with the message on the sign, but he is compelled to put it up, and thus lives within a lie.

Havel explains that dictatorships rely on this kind of social control, where in order to preserve a normal life, people are willing to submit to the system.

If one day the greengrocer refuses to put the sign up, his quiet defiance of the limits set by the system has the potential to inspire others and ignite a mass revolt , channeling what Havel calls a “singular, explosive, incalculable political power.”

Havel Prize Impact

10

Years

26

Laureates

2023 Laureates

Pedro X. Molina
Kakwenza Rukirabashaija
Yuriy Kerpatenk
Art Residency in Occupation
Mariia Loniuk
Stand Up for Ukraine

2022 Laureates

Enes Kanter Freedom
PaykanArtCar
Marina Ovsyannikova

2021 Laureates

Badiucao
Kizito Mihigo
Omar Abdulaziz

2019 Laureates

Rap Against Dictatorship
Rayma Suprani
Ramy Essam

2018 Laureates

Emmanuel Jal
Belarus Free Theatre
Mai Khôi

2017 Laureates

Silvanos Mudzvova
Aayat Alqormozi
El Chigüire Bipolar

2015 Laureates

Every single day, our partners are at the front lines fighting for human rights. Help them change the world.