Hello!
A couple of blog posts ago I mentioned that I’d be going to
Normandy for a week to act as a member of the international panel shortlisting
the candidates for the Prix Liberté 2020. Today I’ll tell you more about that.
 |
| (c) Julien Buyck |
What is the Prix Liberté or Freedom Prize?
I guess, to
begin with, you’re wondering what the Prix Liberté actually is. The Freedom
Prize or Prix Liberté is a prize granted by Région Normandie in collaboration
with the Institut International des Droits de l’Homme et de la Paix and other
partners such as educational authorities or the Canopé network, embedded within
the Normandie pour la Paix project.
The prize aims to recognise an individual or organisation’s significant work
towards peace and provides not only media attention on said fight but also a € 25 000 cash prize. Last year’s winner was Greta Thunberg and voting
for this year’s winner will soon go live!
The unique
part of this prize though, is that young people are at the heart of it: it is
15 to 25 years old from France and all over the world who submit the candidates
to the prize, shortlist the 3 finalists through an international panel (which
is what I did) and then vote for the winner. This is important. If you don’t
know, the beaches in Normandy are the D-Day landing beaches where the Allies
entered France during the Second World War and subsequently fought their way to
victory. The world as we know it today would be so much different if this
hadn’t happened and last year was the 75th anniversary of the landings.
The majority of those who fought are no longer with us and so this prize aims
to honour their actions and engage the youth in the fight for freedom as a way
to remember what happened in those beaches so many years ago.
During the
first stage, participants are encouraged to submit application forms for the
candidates they believe are worthy of the prize. This year there were over 230
submissions from all over the world, which were brought down to 167 once all
the repeat submissions had been discarded.
During the
second stage, an international panel meets in Normandy for two full days of
deliberations in order to shortlist the three finalists. This year, the jury
was made up of 24 members: 6 from the region of Normandy, 6 from the rest of
France and 12 from abroad (Spain, Egypt, Madagascar, Colombia, Cambodia, Togo,
Burkina Faso, India, Lebanon, Canada, Ireland and the United States). The ages
of the member ranged from 15 all the way to 25, the average falling on 20 years
old. Furthermore, the President of the jury this year was editor-in-chief of Le
Monde Emmanuel Davindenkoff.
 |
| (c) Julien Buyck |
Finally,
after the jury selects the three finalists, these are put up for public vote (this
year between the 9th of March to the 12th of April 2020)
in order to select a winner, who will receive their prize during the Forum pour la Paix at the beginning of
June in Caen.
If you
would like further details on how the prize works, I would suggest you do a
quick Google search or check out these links:
And if you
would like to participate (either by voting this year, or as a participant or
member of the jury in the future), I would suggest you follow the updates on
the Facebook page:
Personally,
I first learnt about this prize out of sheer luck. My mum is a high school
teacher and she forwarded me an email which she’d been forwarded herself from
the Francophonie representative in the Canary Islands sharing information on
the applications. I didn’t have anything to lose so I applied and… well… here
we are! If you are between 15 and 25, I would highly encourage you to take
part, it was an amazing experience!
How my week went: 11th to 18th of February 2020
After being
told I had been selected back in December, I filled the required forms and the
members of the 2IDHP booked my flights.
I travelled
to France on Tuesday the 11th and it was a long day… First, the
flight to Barajas from Los Rodeos was stressful: there was a massive queue at
the check-in desks and I had to run to the gate in order to make the flight.
Then, it was so foggy in Madrid that they almost diverted us to Valencia (no
way I was getting to Paris in time if that had been the case…), but fortunately
they attempted the landing and it was ok. I then had to run from one side of
the terminal to the other to catch my flight to Orly (and I mean run!), which
was a bumpy ride but I eventually made it to Paris. At the airport I picked up
my bag and bought some lunch while I waited for the driver to find me at the
terminal. It took a while but eventually we set off to Charles de Gaulle to
join the others. There I met Thomas, from the 2IDHP, and two other jury
members: Pi from Cambodia and Rouba from Lebanon. We waited at the airport for
almost two hours until Andrés, from Colombia, arrived and then set off to
Normandy in the little van. Four hours later, we had arrived at the Les Joies
du Rivage centre in St-Aubin-sur-Mer, where we were going to stay for the week.
It was a really long day as I had left my house at 5:30am and made it to the
centre at around midnight.
At the
centre we met Benoîst and Clémence from the 2IDHP, as well as Yomna from Egypt,
Cassy from the United States, Somya from India and Ronny from Madagascar (all
the other members were due to arrive the next day after lunch).
The first
night it was absolutely freezing: there was no heating or hot water due to the
storms the previous weekend, so we slept with two duvets and wrapped up warm.
There was also no WiFi at the centre, which was something that they
unfortunately weren’t able to sort out, but luckily the hot water and heating
came back the next day. A shaky start to what turned out to be a great week.
The next
day I decided to explore the town and drop by the little supermarket for some
snacks before joining the others for lunch and waiting for the rest of the
members to arrive. In regards to food, we had breakfast at the centre, then
usually a packed lunch we made ourselves at the centre and then a warm dinner back
at the centre after a long day of activities. Main issue? I’m a vegetarian and
it always seems a struggle for people to understand that I don’t eat any type
of meat or fish, like at all. There
were a few slips here and there with the vegetarian options but on the whole it
worked out. In terms of living arrangements, we had the centre to ourselves and
I shared my room with Elise, from France. She was super nice and we got along
well. The room was made out of two sets of bunk beds, a cubicle for the toilet
and another cubicle with the ensuite shower and washbasin. Like a hostel
essentially.
Anyhow, by
lunch everybody else had arrived: the other members of 2IDHP, Jonas and Maxime
as well as the other jury members: Kodjo from Togo, Myriam from Canada, Djemila
from Burkina Faso, Kate from Ireland and all the French people – Swana,
Deborah, Elise, Axelle, Amel, Émile (Jean-Pierre), Abdullah, Camille,
Guillaume, Mathis, Lucas and Théo. Throughout the week, we all gelled together
super well and it felt like a big school trip: young people, music on the bus,
late nights joking around, cantine dinners… It was a lot of fun! What I liked
the most was hearing from those who had never experienced international
exchanges before and how enriching and eye-opening they found the whole week,
being able to interact with people of a similar age but with such different
backgrounds. Plus, we all had similar values seeing that we were all there to
defend freedom, so it was lovely to meet all of them and I hope to stay in
touch in the future!
That first
afternoon together was spent doing ice-breaker games at the centre and theatre
activities after dinner.
The
following day we got up early and headed to the Abbaye aux Dames in Caen for
our first day of proper workshops. I think this was one of my favourite days.
We were stationed in the loft of the building for the next three days and this
first day was packed with interactive activities led by the 2IDHP about what
freedom means to us, what criteria we thought the jury should apply when
shortlisting candidates, what problems we might face and how to solve them… We
also met the President of the jury Emmanuel Davidenkoff who was very kind,
down-to-earth and good at guiding our work throughout the deliberations, as
well as Clovis, who was doing his compulsory week placement for high school
with the Institute that week and fit in perfectly with the group. That
afternoon we visited a photography exhibition by Jacques Langevin titled Tian’anmen 1989 and got to do a Q&A
with the photographer which was really interesting, as well as attended the
official welcome cocktail with the press and prize partners. It was also an
honour to meet Charles Norman Shay, a WWII and Korean War veteran who spoke
about the importance of peace and involving the youth. It was a lovely evening.
The next
day was the first proper day of deliberations. We had to cut down the
candidates from 167 to 10! Fortunately, the system designed by the 2IDHP works
very well and after individual decisions, for and against debates and group
work, we succeeded. That afternoon we also met the President of the Region of
Normandy and managed to snap a photo with him.
I
particularly enjoyed the group work part of this first day of deliberations. We were split into groups of 5 and given two
hours to pick 2 candidates out of 20. Not an easy feat, but it was amazing to
be given full freedom on how to approach our selection process and to voice our
own opinions on the candidates and come to an agreement together. I’m super
proud of my little group for their work as a team – you did fantastic! And I’m
also proud of the whole jury as there were no nasty discussions at any point,
which just goes to show how young people are able to maturely work together to
achieve a common goal!
 |
| (c) Julien Buyck |
On the
second day of deliberations we had to select the three finalists from our list
of 10 candidates that had passed the previous round. This day entailed more
in-depth research about the candidates, done in groups, not just about the good
aspects of each candidate, but also their weaknesses. After lunch we listened
to the presentations of the findings on each candidate and could ask questions
or comment on what was being said, in order to be as informed as possible when
deciding individually and casting our anonymous votes afterwards.
So, here
are the 3 finalists for the 2020 Freedom Prize:
·
Loujain
Al-Hathloul: Saudi Arabian women’s rights activist.
·
Father
Pedro Opeka: Argentinian missionary who fights poverty in Madagascar.
·
Nasrin
Sotoudeh: Iranian human rights and women’s rights lawyer.
We finally
made it and it felt amazing to have risen up to the challenge!
The
following days were spent exploring the region. On Sunday we visited Le Havre
on a guided tour which I found pretty interesting. I had been to the city
before during my year abroad but through the visit I learnt a lot more about
the Le Havre and we were also allowed into the Perret show flat which was a 50s
dream. After lunch we were given free time in Honfleur so I walked around this
little seaside town and then we all got absolutely drenched by the rain on our
way back to the bus…
On Monday
we visited La Cambe German war cemetery, Omaha beach and the Normandy American
Cemetery and Memorial (Colleville-sur-Mer) with a guide. I had been to the
beach and American cemetery before but not the German one and it was
interesting to compare the two: white crosses for the Allies and black crosses
for the Germans…
After lunch we visited the Mémorial de Caen which is a great
museum about war around the world and its consequences during the 20th
century. It is full of information and artefacts and I found the exhibition
super interesting. I would’ve loved to spend more time there but we had to go
to the city centre of Caen (we were given some free time to walk around- again,
not my first time in Caen) and then had our official farewell dinner at Le
Bistronome.
After very
little sleep, the next morning it was an early rise to get my 6am coach to the
airport to fly back home. I had to do a lot of waiting around since my flight
was not until 5:30pm, but we had to go past Charles de Gaulle to drop off some
of the other internationals first, so I had to leave that early… I eventually
got home at around midnight, completely exhausted.
I had an
amazing week. I found the deliberation side extremely interesting: not just
learning about each candidate but also discussing, researching and working
together with the other members, who I wouldn’t have met otherwise. I know all
of them have very bright futures ahead of them and I can’t wait to see what
they get up to! I will miss the international dances in the evening, the sweet
messages and guessing each other’s secrets, sharing delicious international
treats, dancing and just chilling until late (well, not that late for me
because I’m a grandma and if I don’t sleep I can’t function the following
day…). MERCI à tous, ça a été
un plaisir de partager cette expérience avec vous !
The next steps of the prize
What next?
Well, voting for the winner opens on the 9th of March, so keep your
eyes peeled on social media and the links I shared above to take part!
And… guess
what… in June I should be off to Caen again (if I can take leave) to attend the
official ceremony and the Peace Forum.
I hope I can make it and I can’t wait to see the others again. Thanks again for
the amazing opportunity.
À bientòt!
Zoe
Photo
credits: Julien Buyck (as stated), other jury members and myself
Follow me on my social media!
Instagram: @zoeamz (personal) / @ecobyzoe (zero waste)
Instagram: @zoeamz (personal) / @ecobyzoe (zero waste)
