Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi finally collects her 1990 Sakharov EU human right prize in person

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, center, arrives at Yangon International Airport Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, in Yangon, Myanmar. Suu Kyi, leaving for a five-nation tour in Europe, will receive the EU's Sakharov human rights prize in Strasbourg, France in November along with Pakistani schoolgirl and girls' education campaigner Malala Yousafzai who survived a Taliban assassination and South Africa's Nelson Mandela. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win) (The Associated Press)

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, center, arrives at Yangon International Airport Friday, Oct. 18, 2013, in Yangon, Myanmar. Suu Kyi, leaving for a five-nation tour in Europe, will receive the EU's Sakharov human rights prize in Strasbourg, France in November along with Pakistani schoolgirl and girls' education campaigner Malala Yousafzai who survived a Taliban assassination and South Africa's Nelson Mandela. (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win) (The Associated Press)

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize laureate and long-time political prisoner, has finally collected the European Union's 1990 Sakharov Prize for human rights.

In Tuesday's stirring ceremony, European Parliament President Martin Schulz said that "23 years later, we welcome you here and it is a great moment."

Suu Kyi has persevered for decades in promoting democracy. She and her National League for Democracy party were frozen out of politics by the military regime that governed until 2011, and last year she and several dozen party members won parliamentary seats. However, a clause in the army-dictated constitution disqualifies her from becoming president.

She is now seeking the constitutional changes that would allow her to seek the presidency.