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UNESCO awards the International José Martà Prize to the Association of United Midwives of the Pacific (ASOPARUPA)
The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, awarded the 2025 International UNESCO / José Martà Prize, in its 10th edition, to the Association of United Midwives of the Pacific / Asociación de Parteras Unidas del PacÃfico (ASOPAPURA), based in Colombia, founded in 1996.
The Award Ceremony took place on Monday 28 January in Havana (Cuba), within the framework of the Sixth International Conference "For World Balance: With All and For the Good of All. For Dialogue among Civilizations and for a Culture of Peace".
The director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Havana, Anne Lemaistre, presented the Award to Liceth Quiñones, Director of the Association of United Midwives of the Pacific.
José Martà was not only a hero of Cuban independence, but also a defender of Latin America's cultural identity, its people, its roots and its struggles. Its values resonate strongly in the work we do at ASOPARUPA, where our mission is to preserve the ancestral knowledge of traditional Afro-descendant and indigenous midwives, protect our cultural identity and strengthen the unity of our communities
The jury selected ASOPAPURA for its work in favor of community integration, solidarity and unity among the nations and peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Through her work, the association promotes the ideals and spirit of José Martà by safeguarding indigenous and Afro-descendant traditions, histories, and identities, and fostering community integration with a focus on wellness and traditional midwifery.
Each year, the Association organizes the Festival of Ancestral Memory and Encounter, which highlights the importance of social and cultural unity in the LAC region and brings communities together for knowledge exchange. The Association also promotes biocultural conservation (meaning the interaction between the biological and the cultural) and the sustainable use of natural resources for community resilience, collaboration, eco-tourism and local job creation.
The candidate was proposed by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Knowledge of Colombia through the Colombian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO. It is the first time in the history of the Prize that a Colombian entity has been awarded.
The Jury of the 10th edition of the Prize was chaired by Professor Theresa Moyo (South Africa) and co-chaired by Alice Miquet (Canada), with members of the jury including Ramit Singh Chimni (India), Professor Sari Hanafi (Syria) and Professor Eduardo Torres Cuevas (Cuba).
Some of the most recent winners of the Prize are the French historian and writer Paul Estrade (2023), the Cuban poet and literary critic Roberto Fernández Retamar (2019), the Mexican surgeon Alfonso Herrera Franyutti (2016) and the Brazilian friar Frei Betto (2013).
