HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST

“When a truth is not given complete freedom, freedom is not complete.” ~Vaclav Havel    

After leaving the presidential office, Václav Havel continued to support the values of democracy, promote respect for human rights around the world, and encourage religious, cultural and ethnic tolerance. He created Forum 2000, which provides a platform for global leaders, thinkers and brave individuals. Havel reasoned that “the best way to our own misfortune is to cover our eyes from the misfortune of others,” a belief which prompted his involvement in the advocacy for human rights in Cuba, Belarus, and Burma. When he himself could have received the Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership during the Velvet Revolution, he successfully campaigned for it to be awarded to Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.
Photo © Tomki Němec
May 7, 1992 - Václav Havel pays his respects to the approximately 2,000 political prisoners of the communist regime who had been interned in the Vojna u Lesetic concentration camp; the President placed flowers in the bunker that had served as a correctional cell.