On its meeting on 19 November, the Executive Committee of the North-South Centre endorsed the decision of the North-South Prize Jury to award the 2021 North-South Prize of the Council of Europe to The COVAX Mechanism and Ms. Zarifa Ghafari. 

The Covax Mechanism is selected in recognition to the efforts made by this global initiative to ensure that COVID 19 vaccines are available worldwide, including in low-income countries, and ultimately for striving for a more equitable world when it comes to the protection of people’s lives and public health.

The Jury also decided to award the Prize to Ms. Zarifa Ghafari, former Mayor of Maidan Shahr, capital city of the Wardak Province in Afghanistan for her courage and strong commitment to defending women’s rights in her home country, as well as internationally.

By awarding these two Prizes the Jury intended to express its recognition to two causes which deserve our solidarity especially in the present moment: the struggle for life in front of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fight for gender equality.

For further information, you can consult the Jury’s decision.

About the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe.

The North-South Prize of the Council of Europe is awarded each year since 1995 to two nominees, one from the North and the other from the South who have stood out for their exceptional commitment to promoting North-South solidarity. The candidates, preferably a man and a woman, must have distinguished themselves in the areas of protection of human rights, defence of pluralist democracy, public awareness raising on issues of global interdependence and solidarity. Despite the variety of nationalities and fields of action of those that have received the Prize since its creation, they all have in common a strong commitment to the promotion of North-South partnership.