The Freedom Prize is an educational program to raise awareness of freedom, peace and human rights anchored in the values carried by the Landings of June 6, 1944 in Normandy. It invites young people aged 15 to 25 in France and around the world to nominate each year a person or an organization engaged in an exemplary fight in favor of freedom. The call for proposals “Our Freedom Prize 2021” closed on January 18, 2021. 370 proposals from all over the world were received against 238 last year and 113 for the first edition. After studying the duplicates, there are 251 proposals from people and organizations that the international jury will have to study in the coming days in order to collectively determine the three people or organizations whose fights are, according to them, the most representative of a fight for freedom in 2021.
An important step in the Freedom Prize, the call for proposals "Our Freedom Prize 2021" invited young people aged 15 to 25 from all over the world to present in a form the person or organization whose fight for freedom they wish to make known. For this, young people had to meet in groups of at least two people in order to propose, in the form of a well-argued file, a candidate for the Freedom Prize 2021. No less than 370 proposals were sent by 1,386 young people.
International mobilization on the rise
The majority of the proposals come from France but among all those received, 50 were sent by young people living in Germany, Benin, Canada, Colombia, Spain, the United States, India, Italy, Kenya, in Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uruguay. That's 37 more cases coming from overseas, compared to last year.
The educational support work of the International Institute for Human Rights and Peace
Finally, among these 370 proposals, 194 result from the educational support work offered by the International Institute for Human Rights and Peace which intervened during the months of November and December in 30 classes in Normandy in order to raise awareness 862 high school, CFA and BTS students at the Freedom Prize.
Note also the strong involvement of the Norman associative networks this year, following a new mobilization strategy and the organization of a training day provided by the International Institute of Human Rights and Peace in October. In total, 41 cases came from the Norman associative network, including Unis-Cité, AFEV, LADAPT, Les Francas and MJC d´Elbeuf.
Next step: the deliberations of the international panel of judges
After studying the files and merging the duplicates, 250 people or organizations will be studied by the international jury during the deliberations to be held on February 12 & 13, 2021. There will then be only 3 people and / or organizations who will then be decided by an online vote open from March 15 to April 25 to all 15-25 year olds around the world.
