Martin Bútora

Martin Bútora (born 7 October 1944) is a Slovak sociologist, writer, university professor and diplomat.

Political career In November 1989 he was a founding member of the political movement Public Against Violence, the leading movement of the democratic revolution in Slovakia. He was the human rights advisor to the former president of Czechoslovakia Václav Havel from 1990 to 1992.

Bútora placed 6th in the 2004 presidential election, receiving 6.5% of the vote.

Bútora is a member of the advisory board of the Prague European Summit.

Scholarship In the first half of the 1990s he taught at the Charles University of Prague and at the Trnava University.

His sociological work focuses on international politics, transatlantic relations, human rights, and minorities.

Key publications Abschied von der Tschechoslowakei: Ursachen und Folgen der tschechisch-slowakischen Trennung (Farewell to Czechoslovakia: Causes and Consequences of the Czech-Slovak Separation). Köln : Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1993. (with Rüdiger Kipke and Karel Vodička) "Slovakia's Democratic Awakening," Journal of Democracy 10 (1, 1999): 80–95 (with Zora Bútorova) We Saw the Holocaust. Bratislava: Milan Šimečka Foundation, 2005. (eds., with Nadácia Milana Šimečku, et al.) Active Citizenship and the Nongovernmental Sector in Slovakia: Trends and Perspectives. Bratislava: Včelí Dom, 2012. (with Zora Bútorova and Boris Strečanský)

Honors and awards 1999 – Democracy Service Medal, National Endowment for Democracy, Washington, D.C. 2019 - VIZE 97 Prize