On Sunday evening, a ceremonial presentation of the fifth Forum 2000 International Award for Courage and Responsibility took place at the Prague Congress Centre as part of the opening of the 29th Forum 2000 Conference.
This year, the award was presented to the Georgian resistance movement opposing the country’s gradual drift toward autocracy, and to one of its symbols – Mzia Amaglobeli, a respected journalist and director of the independent Georgian media platforms Batumelebi and Netgazeti. She was arrested on January 11, 2025, during peaceful protests in Batumi against government policy. Charged with assaulting a police officer, she spent seven months in pre-trial detention before being sentenced on August 6 to two years in prison, after the court, at the last minute, reclassified the charge from “assaulting a police officer” to “resisting, threatening, or using violence against a public official.”
More information about Mzia Amaglobeli and the reasons why she was granted the Forum 2000 International Award for Courage and Responsibility can be found here.
On behalf of the imprisoned Mzia Amaglobeli, representatives of the Georgian resistance movement accepted the award from Tamara Sujú, founder of the Nueva Conciencia Nacional Foundation and the civic movement Damas de Blanco — organizations dedicated to training, advocacy, and reporting on human rights and democratic values in Venezuela. Tamara Sujú herself received last year’s Forum 2000 International Award for Courage and Responsibility on behalf of imprisoned Venezuelan lawyer Rocío San Miguel.
Among those attending the award ceremony were the fifth President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili, Stanford University Professor Larry Diamond, the President of the Tibetan government-in-exile Penpa Tsering, and hundreds of other distinguished guests.
The 29th Forum 2000 Conference, titled Facing the Odds: Democratic Resilience in Action, runs until October 14. Over the course of more than eighty discussions and workshops, participants will explore ways to restore international democratic unity.
