Pedro X. Molina wins the 2023 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent

Established in 2012, the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent is awarded to innovative artists who ‘unmask the lie of dictatorship through art’. Pedro X. Molina was one of this year’s laureates for his political cartoons, addressing the situation in his home country of Nicaragua, across the Americas, including in the USA where he currently lives.

As a recipient of the prize, Molina received a bronze statue of the ‘Goddess of Democracy’, the figure erected at the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Following the award ceremony at the Oslo Freedom Forum, Pedro X. Molina said:

‘In 2018 I posted a cartoon on Twitter that says ‘For those who have been brutally silenced, we cannot lower our voices. It is still there to remind me to renew this commitment every day until I see a free Nicaragua.’

Pedro X. Molina is an award-winning political cartoonist and journalist from Nicaragua. His work has featured in major international media outlets, including The Washington Post, the BBC, and POLITICO. Molina has received several awards, including the 2019 Maria Moors Cabot Prize, and the 2018 Excellence in Journalism Award by the Inter American Press Association.

Molina was forced to flee Nicaragua on Christmas Day 2018, following the murder and imprisonment of journalists, and the ransacking of the offices El Confidencial, the newspaper where Molina’s cartoons were frequently published. He was the ICORN resident in Ithaca, NY, USA between 2018 and 2020 through Ithaca City of Asylum.

The Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent

The prize is named after the late president of the Czech Republic Václav Havel, who was also a dissident, poet, playwright, and the leader of the non-violent revolution which helped to free Czechoslovakia from Communism. As someone who has consistently and creatively challenged injustice and power abuses in his country, The Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent celebrates exactly these contributions to global political and social discourse.

The other laureates of the 2023 edition of the prize include Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, and an award shared between four Ukrainian artists: the late conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko, illustrator Mariia Loniuk, and the ‘Art Residency in Occupation’ and ‘Stand Up for Ukraine’ projects.  

Honouring the 2023 recipients of the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent, the HRF’s Chief Executive Officer Thor Halvorssen said:

‘In the face of oppression and stifling silence, this year’s laureates have chosen to speak the unspoken, echoing Václav Havel’s creativity and courageous spirit.’

Saudi women’s rights activist Manal al-Sharif, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, and Egyptian musician and former ICORN resident in Malmö Ramy Essam were among the former recipients of the Havel prize.

Ithaca City of Asylum and Ithaca ICORN City of Refuge

Ithaca City of Asylum was founded in 2001 as an all-volunteer project, part of the Center for Transformative Action with the aim to ‘provide refuge for persecuted writers and artists’. A long-time partner of ICORN, Ithaca officially joined the network in 2015.

One of three ICORN Cities of Refuge in the USA, Ithaca has hosted writers, artists, and journalists from China, Iran, Swaziland, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Nicaragua. As well as hosting Pedro X. Molina, Ithaca’s ICORN residents have included prominent journalist and lawyer Sonali Samarasinghe and leading journalist, author, and policy analyst Raza Rumi.