Freedom Award

Our annual Freedom Award recognizes outstanding leaders in the cause of freedom and democracy.

For more than 80 years, Freedom House has worked to defend human rights and promote democratic change by challenging unjust governments, defending civil liberties at home and abroad, and providing support for frontline activists who bravely strive for fundamental freedoms. We act as a catalyst for freedom through a unique combination of analysis, advocacy, and action. Our yearly awards honor courageous individuals and innovative groups that have made significant contributions to the cause of human rights and democracy.

Since 1943, our annual awards dinner recognizes outstanding leaders who have championed freedom and democracy, including His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Winston Churchill, Vaclav Havel, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Hala Al-Dosari, Edward R. Murrow and Bernard Baruch. 

Past Award Winners

• 2025 — María Corina Machado, leader of Venezuela’s democratic movement
• 2024 — Dr. Wang Bingzhang, imprisoned Chinese prodemocracy activist
• 2023 — The Women of Iran and imprisoned journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza
• 2022 — Maykel Castillo Pérez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara of Movimiento San Isidro (MSI)
• 2020 — Hong Kong's Pro-Democracy Movement, the Sudanese Professionals Association, and the Organization of the December Revolution Martyrs' Families in Sudan
• 2019 — Ilham Tohti, Uyghur activist
• 2018 — Elena Milashina, journalist for Russia's Novoya Gazeta, and Igor Kochetkov, founder of the Russian LGBT Network
• 2017— Luis Almagro, of the Organization of American States, Uruguay
• 2016— Hala Aldosari, Saudi activist, and Vian Dakhil, member of Iraqi Parliament
• 2014— Maina Kiai of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission
• 2013— Chen Guancheng, Chinese human rights activist
• 2012— Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, Zainab Al-Khawaja, and Maryam Al-Khawaja of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights
• 1996— Leonid Kuchma, second president of Ukraine
• 1995— Sergei Kovalyov, Russian human rights activist
• 1993— Lane Kirkland, president of AFL-CIO, US Ambassador Max M. Kampelman, and Malcolm S. Forbes
• 1991— Vaclav Havel, first president of Czech Republic
• 1991— His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama
• 1977— Cushrow R. Irani of The Statesman, India
• 1975— Dong-A Ilbo, South Korean newspaper, and the organization Responsible Journalists of Vietnam
• 1973— 15 Soviet dissenters
• 1969— Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, and Milovan Djilas, member of Yugoslavia's Partisan movement
• 1968— Pablo Casals, musician/composer
• 1967— Roy Wilkins, NAACP
• 1966— Lyndon B. Johnson, US president
• 1965— Harry S. Truman, former US president
• 1963— Medgar W. Evers, NAACP (posthumously) and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• 1962— Jean Monnet, European Union
• 1961— Willy Brandt, German chancellor
• 1960— Alan Paton, anti-apartheid activist from South Africa
• 1959— Paul-Henri Spaak, European Union
• 1958— The Arkansas Gazette newspaper
• 1957— Hungarian Freedom Fighters
• 1956— Luis Munoz Marin, first governor of Puerto Rico, and Ramon Magsaysay, seventh president of the Philippines
• 1955— Winston Churchill, British prime minister
• 1954— Edward R. Murrow, CBS broadcast journalist
• 1953— UN soldiers in Korea
• 1952— Matthew B. Ridgway, US Army Chief of Staff
• 1952— James B. Conant, president of Harvard University, West German ambassador
• 1951— Alberto Gainza Paz, La Prensa Argentina, and Paul G. Hoffman, president of the Ford Foundation
• 1950— Dean Acheson, US Secretary of State
• 1949— David E. Lilienthal, Chair of US Atomic Energy Commission, and US Army General Lucius D. Clay
• 1948— Arthur H. Vandenberg, US senator
• 1947— George C. Marshall, US Secretary of State
• 1946— Bernard M. Baruch, US presidential advisor and philanthropist
• 1945— Dwight D. Eisenhower, Army general and future US president
• 1944— Sumner Welles, US diplomat
• 1943— Walter Lippmann, US journalist