The 2011 Ion Ratiu Democracy Award was presented to its seventh winner at the beginning of December 2011, during a ceremony at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC.

The 2011 winner is the democracy and human rights campaigner Nabeel Rajab from Bahrain, who was present in Washington DC for a series of meetings and talks which culminated in the Ion Ratiu Democracy Workshop, held before the award ceremony on 1 December 2011, and the Youth Democracy Forum at George Washington University, on 2 December 2011.