Charter 77

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.

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."