Deadline: 18-Oct-20
Applications are now open for the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic “Liberté-Égalité-Fraternité” for 2020, presented by the Prime Minister of the French Government.
This Prize, created in 1988, is intended to reward and allow to carry out, in France or abroad, individual or collective actions in the field, regardless of nationality or borders, which work to promote or protect the rights of the man.
Themes
Theme 1: the right to health and the fight against exclusion
- The global health crisis has thrown a harsh light on the particular challenges faced by vulnerable or disadvantaged people in terms of realizing the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. achieve, enshrined in article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
- This right to enjoy the best possible state of health covers both freedoms and rights. Among these freedoms is the right not to be subjected to medical treatment or experience without consent, the right to integrity. These rights include the right to a prevention policy, the right of access, open to everyone on an equal footing, to a healthcare system
- The right to health presupposes that a set of social criteria favorable to the state of health of all, including the availability of health services, free access to healthcare structures, a prevention policy, medicines at affordable prices, etc. The realization of the right to health is closely linked to the realization of other rights of people, including the right to food, housing, work, education, non-discrimination, access to information and participation.
- So-called vulnerable groups or those on the margins of society are often less likely to enjoy the right to health. The most deadly diseases mainly affect poorest people in the world. Within countries, certain populations, such as indigenous communities or people living in relegation areas, face many barriers to accessing care.
- The fight against exclusion is a fight for the realization of human dignity. It involves access to care and the adaptation of prevention policies. It involves fighting extreme poverty, but also protecting whistleblowers and working to remove the barriers that hinder the full and effective participation in society of people with disabilities, on one foot. of equality with others. She also orders to integrate the gender dimension related to health issues for girls and women.
- In a large number of countries, whistleblowers, particularly in the health sector, have attempted to make public information to protect the public interest, at the risk of upsetting the economic interests of the major pharmaceutical industries. Because they warn authorities and the public of early warning signals, those announcing future disasters are essential watchdogs of our risk prevention and management systems. They should therefore be supported and protected.
- The Human Rights Prize is intended to reward any project aimed at improving access to prevention policies and access to care for so-called vulnerable people or disadvantaged populations, with a view to fighting exclusion. Organizations working to protect whistleblowers in the health field may also be eligible.
Theme 2: defense of the environment and biodiversity
- Making the link between human rights and the environment is a crucial issue in the contemporary world. Human rights and the healthy environment have a close and concrete interrelation. On the one hand, human rights violations are compounded by the deterioration of the environment, with an even greater impact on so-called vulnerable groups, in particular indigenous peoples and people living in extreme poverty. On the other hand, damage to the environment and changes in the environment due to climate change generate human rights violations: right to health, right to water, right to food, right to housing, right to life, etc. Globally, the impact of climate change on human rights is particularly visible and documented, so that the recognition of the right to a healthy environment is becoming an imperative. In the same way, the defense of biodiversity appears to be the condition for the realization of human rights.
- The United Nations identifies the following phenomena as environmental threats with an impact on human rights: environmental impacts on the atmosphere, terrestrial environmental threats, including land degradation, deforestation and desertification, degradation of the marine environment, hazardous waste, contamination by chemical rights and pollution, loss of biodiversity and finally, natural disasters.
- Defenders of the environment and biodiversity are people or groups who defend, in a non-violent manner, the right to a healthy environment and the protection of living beings with the aim of promoting, protecting and implementing civil rights, political, economic, social and cultural, following a universal approach. Certain communities maintaining a special relationship with nature, part of the youth and very many women are mobilizing in defense of the environment and biodiversity.
- Environmental rights defenders are defined as such primarily because of their concrete activities to protect the environment and biodiversity, rather than by their status. Although often journalists, activists or lawyers who speak out and oppose environmental destruction or land grabbing, environmental rights defenders can also be ordinary people who live in remote villages, forests or mountains. In many other cases, they are indigenous leaders or members of the community who defend their ancestral lands against the nuisance caused by major projects such as mining or dams. Defenders of the right to a healthy environment and biodiversity are those of human rights defenders who pay the heaviest price. Murdered, harassed, denigrated, defenders must be supported for their action in favor of the environment and biodiversity.
- In this spirit, people or non-governmental organizations carrying out one or more advocacy or field projects aiming to defend the environment and biodiversity, such as those aiming at the protection of whistleblowers and defenders, can apply. of the environment, in particular women and young environmentalists.
Award Information
- The five winners of the Prize will be invited to Paris for the official ceremony.
- They will be awarded a medal and will share the overall endowment of 70,000 euros allocated by the National Consultative Commission for Human Rights, and intended to implement their projects.
- They will be able to claim to be the winner of the 2020 edition of the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
- The next five winners will be awarded a “special mention” medal by the French ambassador to their country of origin.
Eligibility Criteria
Non-governmental organizations, or individual candidates, without consideration of nationality or borders, must submit an application corresponding to one of the two choice of themes for 2020. This application must include action on the ground or a project, to be carried out in France or abroad.
For more information, visit https://www.cncdh.fr/fr/edition-prix/prix-des-droits-de-lhomme/prix-des-droits-de-lhomme-edition-2020