The European Parliament this month awarded the 10th annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Dr Ibrahim Rugova, the Kosovo Albanian political activist.
Named after Andrei Sakharov, the late Russian physicist and democrat, the prize is awarded to an individual or group making a significant contribution to promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The Sakharov Prize grew out of the horrors of war and the desire to say "never again". The value of the prize is €15,000. Past winners have included Nelson Mandela, the Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, the Bosnian newspaper Oslobodjenje, and the Mothers of the Plaza Mayo who campaigned for justice in Argentina.
Presenting the award, Parliament's President Jose Maria Gil-Robles saluted Dr Rugova as a man "who has chosen the path of non-violence and negotiation in the search for a political solution which would guarantee basic freedoms for Kosovo's people. He is a true representative of his people who has provided an extraordinary example of human resourcefulness, ingenuity and resistance in the face of oppression."
President Gil-Robles reminded MEPs that a number of winners of the Sakharov Prize had seen their cause prevail, including Nelson Mandela who was the first winner and later became President of South Africa and the former Czech leader Alexander Dubcek who witnessed the restoration of democracy in his country.
Other winners however still languished in prison, including the 1995 winner Leyla Zana who is an elected member of the Turkish Parliament and Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the Burmese democratic movement who is under house arrest in her country despite winning a landslide election victory in 1990, the year of her award.
In accepting the award Dr Rugova stated that the prize had become a "symbol of peace, freedom and humanity".
Dr Rugova was born in 1944 and has a literary and journalistic background.
Since 1992 he has been "President of the Republic of Kosovo". He has argued that there should be an international protectorate for Kosovo for a period of transition, but believes that ultimately the only solution to the problem is independence.