The North–South Prize of the Council of Europe is awarded annually since 1995 by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe to two public figures who are recognised for their deep commitment, outstanding achievements and hope they have generated in the field of protection of human rights, the defence of pluralist democracy and North-South partnership and solidarity.
Call for candidates and selection Anyone can submit a nomination. The "quadrilogue" (made up of governments, members of parliament, local and regional authorities, and non-governmental organisations from civil society) involved in overseeing the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe, along with media representatives and international and regional government organisations, are invited to name individuals or an organisation whose activities are considered worthy of distinction. The call for candidates is made on its website. The Centre's partners are similarly asked to inform their respective media organs. The file is sent for review to each member of the jury. After studying the files, the Jury makes a final decision on the candidates.
Candidate selection criteria The Prize is awarded every year to two nominees, selected from a combination of the categories Global, North and South, keeping, when possible, the gender and geographical balance.The Prize rewards their commitment to the defence and promotion of human rights, democracy and the rule of law as well as to the development of intercultural dialogue and the reinforcement of the North-South partnership and solidarity, in conformity with the principles and priorities of the Council of Europe.
Jury The Jury is presided by the Chair of the North-South Centre Executive Committee and is made up of members of the Bureau of the North-South Centre and a representative of the North-South Centre‘s host country, if the country’s representative is not a Bureau member.
The winners
Year Recipients Country1995 Peter Gabriel United KingdomVera DuarteCape Verde1996Danielle MitterrandFranceAlgerian womenAlgeria1997 Mary RobinsonIrelandPatricio AylwinChile1998Graça Machel MozambiqueLloyd AxworthyCanada1999Emma Bonino ItalyAbderrahmane YoussoufiMorocco2000 Marguerite BarankitseBurundiMário SoaresPortugal2001Maria de Nazaré Gadelha Ferreira FernandesBrazilCornelio SommarugaSwitzerland2002Albina du BoisrouvrayFranceXanana GusmãoEast Timor2003Frene GinwalaSouth AfricaAntónio de Almeida SantosPortugal2004Nawal El SaadawiEgyptStéphane HesselFrance2005Bogaletch GebreEthiopiaBob GeldofIreland2006Mukhtaran BibiPakistanFrancisco Van Der HoffNetherlands2007Kofi AnnanGhanaSimone VeilFrance2008Jorge SampaioPortugalRania al-AbdullahJordan2009Mikhail GorbachevRussiaRola DashtiKuwait2010Louise ArbourCanadaLula da SilvaBrazil2011Boris TadićSerbiaSouhayr BelhassenTunisia2012Monika Hauser SwitzerlandAsma JahangirPakistan2013Aga Khan IV United KingdomSuzanne JabbourLebanon2014 Maura Lynch IrelandAndré AzoulayMorocco2015Lora Pappa GreeceJoaquim Alberto ChissanoMozambique2016Giuseppina NicoliniItalyMbarka BrahmiTunisia2017Kristiina KumpulaFinlandAbbas GulletKenya2018Jaha Mapenzi DukurehGambiaDamien CarêmeFrance2019Nabila HamzaTunisiaLeoluca OrlandoItaly2020Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change (MedECC)FranceInternational Commission against the Death Penalty (ICDP)Spain2021Covax MechanismZarifa GhafariAfghanistan2022Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC)UkraineThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)Switzerland2023Amina BouayachMoroccoGlobal Campus of Human RightsItaly2024Miguel Ángel MoratinosSpainThe initiative enabling refugees to compete in the Olympic and Paralympic Games (led by the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic Refuge Foundation, and the International Paralympic Committee)
External links North-South Centre of the Council of Europe
References