Jailed Kurdish leader Demirtas nominated for Vaclav Havel Prize

STRASBOURG, France (Kurdistan24) - The imprisoned co-leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas was nominated by the Group of the Unified European Left (UEL) for the 2017 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) annually rewards outstanding civil society action.

The €60,000 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize honors outstanding civil society action in defense of human rights.

The UEL said in a statement that Demirtas greatly deserves the recognition of his enduring struggle in the name of human rights and especially in the name of the rights of the Kurdish population.

"The biography of Mr. Selahattin Demirtaş shows that since a very young age, seeing what was happening then in Turkey, he mindfully has chosen his vocation – the defence of human rights, long before his political awakening. The path towards better protection and development of the Kurdish rights, as well as more justice in his country has proven to be very difficult," the statement reads.

Currently, in a super-max prison in Edirne and in poor health conditions, "Demirtaş continues to fight from prison by means of hunger strikes in solidarity with the protest actions of political prisoners across Turkey whose rights severely were restricted after the failed July 15 coup," UEL said.

"Mr. Selahattin Demirtaş is a figure admired all over Turkey by people from very different backgrounds and it is a privilege to present the nomination of such a devoted person who gave and continues to give hope to thousands of people," the group said.

They added that no award can do justice to the struggles of true human rights advocates who dare to risk their lives for the cause they believe in and to bear the consequences. Yet this award could be a worthy recognition of the merits and actions undertaken since the early start of his vocation as human rights defender.

The award is presented in memory of the Vaclav Havel, the former president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, and replaces the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Human Rights Prize.

In 2016, Nadia Murad the Kurdish Yezidi (Ezidi) woman and one-time sex slave of the Islamic State (IS) was awarded a prestigious human rights prize.