The Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy

GENEVA, April 19, 2021 – A coalition of 25 human rights groups announced today that its prestigious international human rights award will go this year to Alexe Navalny.

The Russian political prisoner's current condition is so severe that U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan yesterday warned Moscow that “there will be consequences if Mr. Navalny dies.”

.@leonidvolkov , the dissident’s chief strategist, welcomed the news. “It is very important and valuable that Alexey Navalny’s moral courage is recognized internationally exactly at that point of time, when he goes through the most challenging test of his life,” said Volkov.

Volkov continued, "He's been put in prison unlawfully, only for the fact that he dared to survive a poison attack that nearly took his life. And for the fact that he was brave enough to return to Russia to continue his fight for a better life in a better Russia."

"We consider this award as a very important sign of support from the international human rights community towards Alexey’s cause,” said Volkov.

The jailed Kremlin critic risks cardiac arrest at “any minute” as his health has rapidly deteriorated, doctors warned Saturday. On March 31, Putin’s most prominent opponent went on hunger strike to demand proper medical treatment for back pain and numbness in his hands and legs.

Navalny was imprisoned in February on trumped-up embezzlement charges, and is serving two-and-a-half years in a penal colony 100km east of Moscow.

His 20-year-old daughter, Daria Navalnaya, will receive the 2021 Geneva Summit Courage Award on his behalf on June 8 before an online audience of diplomats, activists and journalists from around the world gathered for the 13th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy.

Navalny barely survived a poisoning with the novichok nerve agent in August, which he has blamed on the Kremlin. After being saved in a German hospital, the Russian dissident returned to his home country, and was promptly arrested.

Navalny was chosen for his “extraordinary courage & heroic efforts to sound the alarm about the Putin regime’s grave violations of human rights of the Russian people,” said Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, a Summit co-organizer with more than 20 other rights groups from 5 continents.

Previous laureates of the Courage Award include jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, Venezuelan opposition leader Antonio Ledezma and Vladimir Kara-Murza, another leading dissident against Russia’s Putin regime.

Other courageous human rights champions from around the world at this year’s Geneva Summit will include dissidents, activists, victims, & former political prisoners from China, Cuba, Iran, Turkey, Belarus & Zimbabwe, who will be testify on the rights situation in their countries.

The conference will be held in advance of the UN Human Rights Council’s annual June session. The Geneva Summit will showcase the voices of the world’s true human rights defenders. “It’s a focal point for dissidents worldwide,” said Neuer.

The global gathering is acclaimed as a one-stop opportunity to hear from and meet front-line human rights advocates, many of whom have personally suffered imprisonment and torture.

Subjects on the program this year include discrimination against women, jailing of dissidents and journalists, arbitrary detention, internet freedom, religious intolerance, and the persecution of human rights defenders.

Videos of past speaker testimonies are available at http://genevasummit.org . Admission to this year’s summit is free and open to the public, but registration is mandatory. For accreditation, program, and schedule information, visit http://genevasummit.org .