Loujain Al Hathloul, a Saudi Arabian women’s rights activist, has been named the winner of the Freedom Prize 2020 and succeeds Greta Thunberg. Barbara Hendricks has agreed to be the host of the Freedom Prize 2020. Given that Ms Al Hathloul is still in prison, Barbara Hendricks will award the prize to her sisters at Abbaye-aux-Dames in Caen on 2 October. The Freedom Prize’s trophy was made by Lycée Napoléon in L’Aigle and the prize money of €25,000 will go towards the causes championed by Loujain Al Hathloul.

Nearly 5,500 young people between the ages of 15 and 25 from 81 countries took part in the vote, which ended on 6 June 2020, to elect Loujain Al Hathloul. She won 42% of the votes, with 2,321 votes in total. Father Pedro Opeka from Madagascar and the lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh respectively won 29% and 25% of the vote.

Organised by the Normandy Region, in partnership with the International Institute for Human Rights and Peace, the academic authorities of Normandy and the Réseau Canopé and Ouest-France, the Freedom Prize pays tribute to all those who have fought and continue to fight for this ideal.

(Re)watch the ceremony: