Thirty two Bulgarians and Bulgarian organizations were nominated for the Human of the Year 2011 annual awards of Bulgaria's Helsinki Committee for contributions to human rights.

The nominations include human rights activists, journalists, bloggers, magistrates and actors, while nominated practices include eight organizations striving for independent judicial system, due process, civil engagement, fair elections, freedom of speech, right to education, health care, access to information, and children, disabled, refugees and animal rights.

Eight nominations are posthumous.

Among them are John-Dimitry Panitza, a prominent Bulgarian journalist and philanthropist, who passed away at the age of 80 at the end of July; Antoaneta Tsoneva, Head of theNGO Institute for Public Environment Development, which launched the site For Fair Elections and was extremely active in monitoring and reporting on the election process in Bulgaria, Atanas Tchobanov, front-man of the site for investigative journalism bivol.bg – official partner of WikiLeaks for Bulgaria, architect Kalina Pavlova, called the face of Varna's civil society over her fight for access to information, and for preserving the city's beautiful Maritime Garden from construction, sculptor, Prof. Velislav Minekov, chair of the control committee of the Union of Bulgarian Artists, who revolted against intentions of his colleagues to make Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, an honorary member, and Asen Genov, blogger and Greens party activist, among others.

The full list of nominations in Bulgarian can be found HERE.

The public can vote for their favorite on the site www.humanoftheyear.org from November 1 until November 30. The jury will select the winner and two runner ups. The award ceremony is going to be held in the eve of International Human Rights Day – December 9.

The nominations were open for all until October 30, and were assessed by a special panel.

Last year, there were 26 nominations, while over 5 500 voted on the site. Daniela Dokovska, Head of the Supreme Bar Council, was awarded the title Human of the Year 2010.

The awards are symbolic and have no monetary value.

More on the initiative can be found HERE.

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