Anton Srholec
An award of the President of the Trnava Self-Governing Region conferred on individuals and initiatives that have made an outstanding contribution to the defence of human rights, democracy and civil society.
The award of the President of the Trnava Self-Governing Region is conferred on individuals and initiatives for their contribution to the protection of human rights, to strengthening democracy and the rule of law, and for acts of exceptional civic courage.
The laureates of the award embody courage, perseverance and the ability to bring about positive change even in difficult social circumstances.
Priest, political prisoner, charity worker, philanthropist, writer and human rights defender. His life and deeds bear witness to a tireless struggle for his faith, for freedom and for human rights under the communist regime.
A total of 33 laureates across all editions. Below are the laureates of the 2025 edition.
Martin Bútora is a sociologist, writer, university lecturer and diplomat. He was born on 7 October 1944 in Bratislava, where he also graduated from the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University. In the 1960s he was an editor of the magazines Echo, Reflex and Kultúrny život. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 he fell into political disfavour and for years worked as a sociologist and therapist at an alcohol addiction counselling centre.
More about the laureateJozef Jablonický was a Slovak historian and dissident. He was born on 3 January 1933 in Zavar. He studied history at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. From 1960 he worked at the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. In the 1960s he offered an interpretation of the Slovak National Uprising that differed from the one the Communist Party wished to promote. In 1969 he published the book Z ilegality do povstania (From Illegality to Uprising), in which he also documented the non-communist resistance. In doing so, he challenged the Communist Party's efforts to appropriate the Slovak National Uprising.
More about the laureateFather Fidél Ambróz Jurčovič was a Franciscan, theologian, preacher, writer and long-serving provincial. He was born on 17 July 1916 in Vištuk, entered the Franciscan Order in 1931 and was ordained a priest on 23 March 1940 in Rome, where he completed his doctorate in theology three years later. After returning to Slovakia, he taught liturgy and biblical studies in Žilina until the dissolution of the monasteries under Action K in 1950.
More about the laureateMsgr. Károly Lénár was born on 4 April 1923 in the small village of Dolinka in the Ipeľ valley. In 1943 he graduated from the Benedictine Grammar School in Esztergom. He completed his theological studies in Bratislava and Budapest and, although he could have remained there after the Second World War, he decided to return to his homeland, where he was ordained a priest in Bratislava in 1948.
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