Svetlana Alekseevna Gannushkina (russian: Светла́на Алексе́евна Га́ннушкина, born 6 March 1942) is a mathematician and

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

activist in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

who was reported to have been a serious contender for the 2010

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

. Gannushkina became well-known in Russia as a human rights defender in 1990s when many conflicts broke in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Her human rights work dedicated especially to help refugees,

internally displaced person An internally displaced person (IDP) is someone who is forced to leave their home but who remains within their country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the legal definitions of a refugee. ...

s, victims of war.

Early life and education

Gannushkina was born in Moscow on March 6, 1942. She graduated from the Moscow State University's Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics.

Work

Gannushkina worked for many years as a professor of mathematics at the Russian State University for the Humanities. In 1990, she helped to found the Civic Assistance Committee (Komitet Grazhdanskoe Sodeistvie), 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 A foreign agent is any person or entity actively carrying out the interests of a foreign country while located in another host country, generally outside the protections offered to those working in their official capacity for a diplomatic missio ...

" by the

Russian government The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russ ...

.The Nobel Peace Prize: Who will win this year?

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

(6 October 2016) Gannushkina was a member of

Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights The Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights is a consultative body to the President of the Russian Federation, tasked with assisting him in guaranteeing and protecting human rights and freedoms in Russia. Sinc ...

until 2011. She is also on the council of

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of ...

, a society dedicated to the remembrance of victims of Soviet repression. Gannushkina is a member of the

Yabloko The Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko (RUDP Yabloko) (russian: Росси́йская объединённая демократи́ческая па́ртия «Я́блоко», Rossíyskaya obyedinyónnaya demokratícheskaya pártiya "Y ...

Federal Political Committee.

Awards

* 1997

Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is a grantmaking network founded and chaired by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with a st ...

prize for trailblazing work in Russia. * 2006

Homo Homini Award The Homo Homini Award ( Latin: "A human to another human") is given annually by the Czech human rights organization People in Need to "an individual in recognition of a dedication to the promotion of human rights, democracy and non-violent solution ...

for human rights activism by the Czech group

People in Need People in Need (PIN) ( cz, Člověk v tísni) is a Czech nonprofit, non-governmental organisation based in Prague, Czech Republic. PIN implements humanitarian relief and long term development projects, educational programmes, and human rights pr ...

. * 2016

Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob vo ...

, often referred to as "Alternative Nobel Prize", in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropo ...

, Sweden, "''for her decades-long commitment to promoting human rights and justice for refugees and forced migrants, and tolerance among different ethnic groups''".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gannushkina, Svetlana 1942 births Living people Moscow State University faculty Memorial (society) Soviet mathematicians Soviet women mathematicians Women mathematicians Russian human rights activists Women human rights activists

Early life and education

Work

Awards

See also

References