Svetlana Gannushkina


Svetlana Alekseevna Gannushkina is a mathematician and human rights activist in Russia who was reported to have been a serious contender for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Work

Gannushkina worked for many years as a professor of mathematics at a Moscow university. In 1990, she helped to found the group Citizen’s Assistance, an NGO which campaigns for human rights, particularly with regard to immigrants and refugees in Russian society. Since 2015 the organization is labelled a "foreign agent" by the Russian government.
Gannushkina is a member of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights. She is also on the council of Memorial, a society dedicated to the remembrance of victims of Soviet repression.

Recognition

In 2006, she was awarded the Homo Homini Award for human rights activism by the Czech group People in Need.
In 2016, Gannushkina received the Right Livelihood Award, often referred to as "Alternative Nobel Prize", in Stockholm, Sweden, "for her decades-long commitment to promoting human rights and justice for refugees and forced migrants, and tolerance among different ethnic groups".