Since 1985 the Prize for Freedom has been granted annually for "consistent defence of the principles of democracy and human rights". The laureates of the Prize for Freedom of the previous years are President of Argentina Raul Alfonsin, Foreign Minister of Germany Hans-Ditrich Genscher, President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Agata and other well-known political and public figures.

Yavlinsky was nominated for the Prize in June of the last year by faction "Liberals, democrats and reformers" (LDR) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Faction LDR has 90 PACE members from 30 countries: faction is a member of Liberal International. The decision to award G.Yavlinsky the Prize was adopted at the Congress of Liberal International which took place in Dakar (Senegal) on October 25, 2003.

Liberal International was created in 1947 at the congress in Oxford. Today it consists of 84 liberal parties from 67 countries in six continents.

Since November 1998 the YABLOKO Association has had an observer status in Liberal International and participated in its meetings. At the 51st Congress of Liberal International (which took place on March 21-23, 2002, in Budapest) the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO was adopted as a fully-fledged member of Liberal International.

See also:

The information on a site of Liberal International

YABLOKO as a member of Liberal International