Parliament's Socialists Nominate International Criminal Court for Sakharov Prize

The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament has formally nominated the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its officials for the 2026 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Highlighting the Hague-based tribunal's record on prosecuting war crimes, sexual violence, and the recruitment of child soldiers, the assembly's second-largest political group praised the court for holding perpetrators of international atrocities to account.

The Sakharov Prize is the European Parliament's highest tribute to human rights defenders, carrying a €50,000 award and substantial diplomatic visibility. By backing a permanent judicial tribunal rather than an individual dissident, the Socialist group is seeking to reinforce support for multilateral legal institutions at a moment when global compliance with international law faces severe political headwinds.

Every autumn, Parliament's political groups—the party families that organise MEPs across national lines—put forward candidate names, transforming the prize into an annual ritual of institutional messaging. Candidates require the backing of a political group or a coalition of at least 40 individual lawmakers. The exercise allows party leaders to advertise their global priorities long before the final laureate is selected behind closed doors.

Parliament's foreign affairs and development committees will jointly vote to whittle down the complete list of nominees to a shortlist of three finalists. The Conference of Presidents—the Parliament president alongside the heads of every political group—will then choose the winner, with the laureate invited to a formal ceremony during a Strasbourg plenary session.