Attribution Criteria of the Prize

By its Prize, the Foundation wishes to highlight the role of those who engage themselves spiritually to militate for the dignity of the human person by their research, their ideas, their communication skills. Its purpose is to reward persons who thus work in a remarkable way to deepen, spread and renew the ideas and commitments of Henry Dunant.

The Foundation awards the Prize in two forms: the Henry Dunant Prize – Field, and the Henry Dunant Prize – Research.

The Henry Dunant Prize – Field was awarded for the first time in 1995. The Board of the Foundation awards the Field prize on the basis of candidacies proposed by its members. Its wish is to reward persons rather than institutions or organizations. It favours persons who have become engaged having personally witnessed or been victims of human suffering, rather than humanitarian career professionals.  It gives finally priority to persons working directly in countries or regions concerned by armed conflicts or other situations of human suffering.

The Henry Dunant Prize – Research was awarded for the first time in 2005 and is the fruit of a partnership with the Academy of Humanitarian International law and Human Rights Law in Geneva (ADH, www.adh-geneve.ch). Awarded annually within the framework of the program of education of the ADH, its purpose is to reward an exceptional academic work which contributes to deepen, spread and renew the ideals of Henry Dunant, through Law.

CRITERIA OF ATTRIBUTION OF THE HENRY DUNANT PRIZE

The Board of the Foundation awards the Henry Dunant Prize under its two forms to persons who pursue Henry Dunant’s work along its themes and the spirit of his commitment through research (Research Prize) or their action (Field Prize).

Candidacies must be sponsored by a qualified third party engaged in humanitarian work or humanitarian rights law, or by a member of the Foundation board. Self-sponsored candidacies will not be considered.

THE THEMES AND FIGHTS OF HENRY DUNANT

The victims of persecutions

  • Religious: the Huguenots after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes; the evangelics in Italy in the middle of the XIXth century; the Jews from Ancient Rome to more recently Russia, or in the Ottoman Empire of the XIXth century
  • Sociocultural: the unfortunate or persecuted geniuses, the prophets and the visionaries

The victims of war and militarism

  • The wounded servicemen, the war prisoners, the franc-tireurs, the young soldiers traumatized by the violence of their acts
  • The civilians in battle zones or uprooted by war
  • The poorest classes of society

Feminism

  • To value the role of women in humanitarian aid
    Organize a “Green Cross” which would protect the woman and her children as the Red Cross protects injured soldiers
  • Restore the place of the woman in the modern society, as factor of peace and protection of the civilization

The anticolonialism

  • Fight against the domination of the big empires
  • Rebel against the destruction of extra-European civilizations
  • Question the superiority of the Christian West

The pacifism

  • Denounce the disasters caused by war: human losses, the demoralization or dehumanization of soldiers, the economic disasters
  • Promote international arbitration

THE HENRY DUNANT SPIRIT

Humanity

  • A compassion for those whom progress leaves behind
  • A basic aversion for the strong that exploit the weak
  • A hyper-sensibility in the face of any human suffering

Communication

  • A power to request support from all angles
  • A reminder of the duty of elites
  • A need to educate public opinion, especially the decision-makers
  • A will to address oneself to all humanity

Commitment without limit

  • A refusal to accept the established order, when it shocks
  • A conviction that an individual can change things
  • A determination to proclaim convictions, in spite of preconceived ideas
  • A sense of the mission, on the verge of the prediction

21 September 2015