CAEN, FRANCE, 19 Feb. - (ANA) - From February 9 to 13, 2026, the international jury met at the Dôme and at the Lycée Augustin Fresnel in Caen to review the 634 proposals submitted by young people from 17 countries and select three individuals and associations committed to the fight for freedom.

 

Chaired by Hadja Idrissa Bah, the jury announced the names of the three nominees for the eighth edition of the Freedom Prize on Friday, February 13. They are China Labor Watch, Nemonte Nenquimo, and Matiullah Wesa.

 

 

 

 

Founded in 2000, China Labor Watch is an independent American organization founded by Chinese labor activist Li Qiang. Over the past 20 years, CLW has been dedicated to monitoring and reporting on factory labor practices, defending workers' rights, building communities, strengthening collective action, and sharing knowledge with workers, governments, and other partners. In the past, CLW has exposed serious abuses, including child labor, forced overtime, and gender discrimination, notably through investigations into forced labor in China, Serbia, and Indonesia.

 

 

 

 

Nemonte Nenquimo's voice has been heard around the world with a powerful message: the jungle is not for sale. She grew up in the heart of the Amazon and was the first woman to lead the Waorani nation in the province of Pastaza, one of Ecuador's 14 indigenous nationalities. A symbol of socio-environmental justice, she faces the cameras to insist to the world that the path to solving the climate crisis begins with listening to and respecting indigenous peoples as guardians of the planet's most biodiverse places. She is co-founder of the Ceibo Alliance, a collective of indigenous activists. In 2020, she received the Goldman Environmental Prize after leading the lawsuit in which the Waorani recovered 500,000 hectares of jungle that the state had put up for sale to oil companies. She is also co-author of “We Will Be Jaguars,” the first book written by an indigenous Amazonian woman to be translated into seven languages.

 

 

 

 

Matiullah Wesa, a young Afghan, campaigns for women's rights and access to education, particularly for girls in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have banned school since 2021. Matiullah Wesa is the founder of Pen Path, a non-governmental organization that works throughout Afghanistan to promote education for boys and girls, public awareness, human rights, and women's rights. He works to reopen closed schools, establish new schools with the support of local communities and authorities, create libraries, and distribute humanitarian aid and educational materials. In March 2023, Matiullah Wesa was arrested and imprisoned for seven months by the Taliban for taking a stand against the ban on girls' education through his door-to-door campaigning and posts on social media. 

 

Under the patronage of Hervé Morin, President of the Normandy Region, Bertrand Deniaud, Vice-President of the Normandy Region, responsible for high schools and education, and the International Institute for Human Rights and Peace, the jury was composed of twenty-four young people aged 15 to 25 from fourteen countries.  - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/20 February 2026 - - -