Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity

Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity is an annual international humanitarian award recognizing individuals for humanitarian work. It is awarded on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian genocide.[1]

The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity
Awarded forCourage, commitment to a humanitarian cause and impact on the world
CountryArmenia
Presented byAurora Humanitarian Initiative
First awarded
  • 2016 (2016)
No. of laureates5 Laureates and 15 Organizations as of 2020
WebsiteAuroraPrize.com

The Aurora Prize ceremonies take place annually in Armenia starting from April 24, 2016. The Laureate of the prize receives a $1,000,000 award.

History

The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative was founded by Noubar Afeyan, Vartan Gregorian, and Ruben Vardanyan. Tom Catena is inaugural Chair of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.[2]

The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity is one of the projects of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.[3] It was officially announced at 100 LIVES launch event in New York on March 10, 2015. The creation of the Aurora Prize was inspired by many stories of the rescue of Armenians during the Armenian Genocide.

The prize is named after Aurora Mardiganian, a survivor of the Armenian genocide and the author of the book Ravished Armenia.[4]

The Aurora Humanitarian Index is an international opinion poll that measures attitudes about humanitarian issues and the impact of humanitarian intervention.[5]

The inaugural 2016 Aurora Dialogues were held on April 23, 2016 in Matenadaran, Yerevan. Participants included Hina Jilani, Shirin Ebadi and Gareth Evans.[6][7][8][9] 2017 Aurora Dialogues took place on May 27–28 in Armenia and on December 4–5 in Berlin, Germany.[10][11][12][13] In 2018, Aurora Dialogues were held in New York (in March[14] and September[15]), Moscow,[16] Yerevan[17] and Berlin.[18] 2019 Aurora Dialogues[19] took place in Armenia on October 17 – 21, 2019, during the inaugural Aurora Forum.[20][21] Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Aurora Dialogues were online in 2020.[22] Some of the Aurora Dialogues events were online in 2021.

Aurora Prize

Nominations are solicited from humanitarian organizations and the public.[23] The members of the Expert Panel[24] assess all eligible nominations according to the Aurora Prize selection criteria to narrow the overall list to 20-25 nominees for the Selection Committee’s attention. This Panel is composed of humanitarian professionals and leaders of humanitarian organizations. The selection of finalists and the Aurora Prize Laureate is made by the independent Aurora Prize Selection Committee.[25]

2016 Aurora Prize
Selection Committee

Inaugural Selection Committee of the prize included the late Nobel Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel, as well as Óscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi and Leymah Gbowee, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, human rights activist Hina Jilani, former Australian Foreign Minister and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group Gareth Evans, President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York Vartan Gregorian, activist John Prendergast and Academy Award-winning actor and humanitarian George Clooney.[26]

Finalists
Ceremony

The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity Inaugural Ceremony was held on April 24, 2016 in Yerevan at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex.[29]

The Ceremony was hosted by an Armenian opera diva Hasmik Papian and an American journalist and novelist David Ignatius. The Ceremony was opened by an animation film directed by Eric Nazarian featuring Serj Tankian's “Aurora’s Dream” as the soundtrack.[30] Each of the finalists has been introduced with a documentary mini-film directed by Andrey Loshak.[31]

The live music during the Ceremony was performed by State Youth Orchestra of Armenia conducted by Sergey Smbatyan. The Fanfares of the Ceremony was composed by Stepan Shakaryan. The Statuette, created by Manvel Matevosyan was presented with an excerpt from “Two Suns” ballet by “Ballet2021 Foundation” dance troupe (choreographer Rudolf Kharatyan), accompanied by Avet Terteryan’s and Arno Babajanyan’s music. The State Youth Orchestra of Armenia performed an excerpt from Aram Khachaturyan’s Symphony No. 2 (Bell Symphony). The co-hostess, soprano Hasmik Papian performed Barsegh Kanachyan’s “Lullaby”. The Ceremony was concluded with the song “Pour toi, Arménie’’ (For you, Armenia) performed by Gevorg Hakobyan and the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia.[30]

Laureate

The inaugural Aurora Prize was awarded to Marguerite Barankitse from Burundi.[32]

Barankitse chose Fondation Jean-Francois Peterbroeck, Foundation du Grand-Duc et de la Grande-Duchesse, Bridderlech Deelen to receive $1 million awards as part of the prize package.[33]

The Statuette of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity was created by Manvel Matevosyan and is called Towards Eternity.[34]

2017 Aurora Prize
Selection Committee

The members of Selection Committee of 2017 Aurora Prize are George Clooney (Co-Chair), Vartan Gregorian, Oscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi, Gareth Evans, Leymah Gbowee, Hina Jilani, Mary Robinson and Ernesto Zedillo.[35][36]

Finalists

The nominations for 2017 Aurora Prize were opened on June 1 and the finalists were:

Laureate

The 2017 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity was awarded to Dr. Tom Catena.[41]

2018 Aurora Prize
Selection Committee

The members of Selection Committee of 2018 Aurora Prize are George Clooney (Co-Chair), Vartan Gregorian, Oscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi, Gareth Evans, Leymah Gbowee, Hina Jilani, Mary Robinson, Ernesto Zedillo, Lord Ara Darzi,[42] Bernard Kouchner[43] and Samantha Power.[44]

Finalists
Laureate

The 2018 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity was awarded to Mr. Kyaw Hla Aung.[48]

2019 Aurora Prize

Selection Committee

The members of Selection Committee of 2019 Aurora Prize are Oscar Arias, Shirin Ebadi, Leymah Gbowee, Mary Robinson, Hina Jilani, Gareth Evans, Ernesto Zedillo, Bernard Kouchner, Samantha Power, John Prendergast, Valery Gergiev, Vartan Gregorian, Lord Ara Darzi (Chair), Benjamin Ferencz (Honorary Co-Chair) and George Clooney (Honorary Co-Chair).

Finalists
Laureate

The 2019 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity was awarded to Mr. Mirza Dinnayi.[51]

2020 Aurora Prize

Selection Committee

The members of Selection Committee of 2020 Aurora Prize are Shirin Ebadi, Leymah Gbowee, Mary Robinson, Hina Jilani, Ernesto Zedillo, Bernard Kouchner, Samantha Power, Paul Polman, John Prendergast, Vartan Gregorian, Lord Ara Darzi (Chair), Benjamin Ferencz (Honorary Co-Chair) and George Clooney (Honorary Co-Chair).

Finalists

Laureate

The 2020 Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity was awarded to Fartuun Adan and Ilwad Elman.

2021 Aurora Prize

Selection Committee

The members of Selection Committee of 2020 Aurora Prize are Shirin Ebadi, Leymah Gbowee, Mary Robinson, Hina Jilani, Ernesto Zedillo, Bernard Kouchner, Dele Olojede, John Prendergast, Vartan Gregorian, Lord Ara Darzi (Chair), Benjamin Ferencz (Honorary Co-Chair) and George Clooney (Honorary Co-Chair).

Finalists

Laureate

The sixth annual Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity was awarded today to Julienne Lusenge, a human rights defender, co-founder of Women's Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development (SOFEPADI) and Fund for Congolese Women (FFC), who has been helping the victims of wartime sexual violence for years.

2022 Aurora Prize

Finalists

References
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