The last 10 Sakharov Prize laureates

(STRASBOURG) - The European Parliament's Sakharov Prize, awarded on Thursday to Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, has been given annually since 1988 to recognise exceptional contribution to human rights.

Here are the last 10 laureates:

2014: Denis Mukwege, a doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who has treated thousands of women brutalised by rape.

2013: Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani who fights for the right to education and who survived an attack by the Taliban in 2012. She also won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.

2012: Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian lawyer and her compatriot, film director Jafar Panahi.

2011: Five leaders of the Arab Spring revolts: Mohamed Bouazizi, of Tunisia (posthumously), Ali Ferzat and Razan Zeitouneh, both from Syria, Asmaa Mahfouz, from Egypt, and Ahmed El-Senussi, of Libya.

2010: Guillermo Farinas, a Cuban dissident.

2009: Memorial, a Russian rights non-governmental organisation.

2008: Hu Jia, a Chinese rights activist, who was in prison when the prize was awarded. In particular he defends the environment and the fight against AIDS.

2007: Salih Mahmoud Osman, a Sudanese lawyer.

2006: Alexander Milinkevich, a Belarussian dissident.

2005: Ladies in White, Cuba, the wives and families of dissidents who were imprisoned by the government led by Fidel Castro, Nigerian lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim and media organisation Reporters Without Borders, based in France.

Among other Sakharov laureates are Nelson Mandela, in 1988 at a time he was in prison in South Africa and who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the award in 1990, before winning the Nobel prize in 1991.