The fight for democracy and human rights is non-partisan

In Venezuela, conservatives are fighting against the autocrat Maduro. With good reason, the 2024 Sakharov Prize winners come from this country. The example of Venezuela also serves as a warning for Europe.

Contrary to hopeful expectations as they became popular after the fall of the Iron Curtain, democracy is by no means on the rise – quite the opposite! Even if we continue to assume that the majority of people want to live self-determined lives and have a say in their destiny, the number of liberal democracies worldwide is declining and a large majority of people are not governed in democratically.

Even in Europe, the extent to which democracies are being dismantled varies: within the European Union, Viktor Orbán has established an ‘illiberal democracy’ in Hungary; in Georgia, on the other hand, many people are fighting for the EU’s promise of freedom, democracy and the rule of law and against the autocratic government. In Ukraine, finally, this struggle for freedom and democracy against the Russian aggressor is being waged with weapons and at a high human cost.

Courageous struggle

This year, the EU has set an example for democracy and human rights by awarding the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights to Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado. Both are members of the Venezuelan opposition and have courageously stood up in their own country against the all-powerful Maduro regime that flouts human rights. Their fight unites them not only with the first winner of the prize, Nelson Mandela, but also the namesake of the prize which has been awarded since 1988, Andrei Sakharov. The Russian physicist and long-time contributor in the USSR’s nuclear weapons programme turned against the communist regime and had to pay the price of six years of exile and the destruction of his health. In 1975, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to democracy and human rights.

This year’s laureate Urrutia has been recognised by the European Parliament as the legitimate winner of the last presidential election in Venezuela, but was forced to flee the country after Maduro claimed victory, threatening Urrutia’s personal safety. Machado, the original opposition presidential candidate and civil rights activist, had already been excluded from the election and has gone into hiding, making it necessary for her daughter to accept the prize in Strasbourg in mid-December.

Democrats live dangerously, and the tribute paid to Urrutia and Machado makes it clear once again that the fight for democracy and human rights is not partisan. While it seems to be set in early 21st century Europe that the political left in particular advocates human rights, in Venezuela it is the conservatives who are standing up against the corrupt autocracy of Maduro – a self-proclaimed socialist. This circumstance may be seen as a timely reminder that human rights, as a central achievement of the 20th century, must be unreservedly upheld by all political forces at all times, and not only when a political opponent seeks to restrict them. At the same time, the choice of this year’s Sakharov laureates emphasises that, while democracy and human rights are not identical, they do reinforce each other.

Human rights demand at least rudimentary opportunities for political participation, and the effective protection of human rights is more successful in democracies.

This is demonstrated not least by the example of Venezuela, which looks back on several decades of a functioning democracy (1950s to 1990s). Rampant political corruption has led the resource-rich country into bankruptcy; hyperinflation, mass unemployment and poverty characterise life and have led to massive emigration. The human rights situation under the oppressive regime is also precarious with regard to civil and political freedoms, whether it be freedom of expression and demonstration or protection from torture and the deprivation of personal liberty.

No self-healing system

This is also a warning for Europe. Democracy needs democrats and institutional safeguards because it is not a self-healing system. Once corrupt power has been established and democratic institutions weakened, it is not enough to hold elections to turn things around. It takes politicians who are not afraid to take responsibility and make future-oriented decisions, even if they do not please everyone. It takes populations that are motivated by the success of the community and are well-informed, that can tolerate ambiguity and ambivalence and that, in times of enormous polarisation, do not fall for the supposedly simple answers, but recognise the complexity of challenges. What is needed is a society that respectfully and objectively argues with each other for the better argument and the better solution, that accepts political defeats of even its preferred policies, that forgives, and that believes in the central promise of democracy, namely that today’s minority positions can achieve a majority tomorrow.

The European Parliament is the central democratic pillar of the Union and bears a great responsibility for the defence of democracy as a central value of an integration project that started as an economic union. This year’s selection of the Sakharov laureates is an expression of this responsibility.

This opinion piece by our scientific director Michael Lysander Fremuth and our administrative director Patricia Mussi-Mailer was first published in “der Standard” in 30 December 2024.