Human Rights Award of the Tonhalle Duesseldorf 2024 goes to Sergej Lukaschewski

SOCIETY

Menschenrechtspreis (Human Rights Award) of the Tonhalle Düsseldorf 2024 goes to Sergej Lukaschewski

Every year since 2016, the Principal Conductor of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra has honoured a person or organisation that is particularly committed to human rights.

Award ceremony is on 28 January 2024

Source: Tonhalle

Article in German

Sergej Lukaschewski ©Masha Kushnir

Düsseldorf, 25 November 2023: Düsseldorf, 26, November 2023: The 2024 Tonhalle Düsseldorf Menschenrechtspreis (Human Rights Award) will go to Sergei Lukashevsky. The trained historian and human rights activist is an important voice of Russian intellectuals and war critics abroad. Lukashevsky was head of the renowned Sakharov Centre in Moscow for 15 years before going into exile. The centre was regarded as a meeting place for liberal Moscow. In spring 2023, the cultural institution was declared a "foreign agent" and its dissolution was announced by a Moscow court. Sergei Lukashevsky then told the AFP news agency that the organisation would be re-established as a "collective" in Russia in the event of dissolution. The 48-year-old is now editor-in-chief of "Radio Sakharov", which is supported by the Berlin research centre CORRECTIV. Lukashevsky previously worked for the human rights organisation Memorial, the Moscow Helsinki Group and as an advisor to the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Russian Federation.

The Tonhalle Human Rights Prize will be awarded for the ninth time in 2024. It was initiated by the Hungarian conductor Adam Fischer. Each year, it honours a person or organisation that is particularly committed to human rights. Adam Fischer has been Principal Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Artistic Advisor to the Tonhalle since the 2015/16 season. The prize money for the Human Rights Award totalling 10,000 euros is donated by the Society of Friends and Sponsors. Previous winners have included Praxis ohne Grenzen in Bad Segeberg (2019), the climate activists from Fridays for Future Germany (2021), the Turkish human rights activist Osman Kavala (2022) and the Iranian activist Sanaz Azimipour from the Woman*Life Freedom Collective Berlin (2023).

Adam Fischer said of this year's award winner: "In Sergei Lukashevsky, we are honouring a man who has spent practically his entire professional life working for human and civil rights, despite having to endure numerous setbacks in his work. Almost all the institutions he has worked for in recent years - be it the Moscow Helsinki Group, Russia's oldest human rights organisation, or the Russian organisation Memorial, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 - have now been banned by the Russian authorities. I deeply admire the fact that Sergei Lukashevsky is not discouraged by this and continues to stand up for his convictions - even after he was forced to leave his home country. Even in exile in Germany, he does not give up the fight and gives other people hope."

The award ceremony will take place on 28 January 2024 as part of the human rights concert in the Tonhalle. Sergej Lukashevsky will receive the award in person.

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Source: Tonhalle