Freedom to Create Prize

Winners were announced in an award ceremony and concert at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town, South Africa on 19 November 2011.

Judges for the 2011 Freedom to Create Prize included: 2010 Freedom to Create Prize winner and Sudanese theatre producer Ali Mahdi Nouri; Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul; South African writer Achmat Dangor; Croatian born painter Ana Tzarev; Egyptian human rights activist Dalia Ziada; American film actress Daryl Hannah; celebrated street artist D*Face; Pakistani poet, journalist and social activist Fatima Bhutto; philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist Kwame Anthony Appiah; author Salman Rushdie; Professor Lourdes Arizpe; dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov; award-winning filmmaker and producer Mira Nair; writer and curator Sarah Lewis; and authority on the development of creativity, innovation and human resources, Sir Ken Robinson.

They were: leading international human rights lawyer and jurist on the UN's Internal Justice Council Geoffrey Robertson QC; composer and founder of West-Eastern Divan Orchestra Daniel Barenboim; co-founder, along with Kofi Annan, of global diplomatic group, The Global Elders, and founder of Indian women and micro-finance movements Dr Ela Bhatt; BBC arts correspondent Razia Iqbal; Time Out founder and chair of Human Rights Watch Tony Elliott; award-winning Anglo-Indian artist Sacha Jafri; New York-based arts lawyer Peter Stern; artist Ana Tzarev; and Zimbabwean playwright Cont Mhlanga,[4] winner of the inaugural Freedom to Create Prize in 2008.

The 2008 award was judged by a panel of artists, commentators and human rights experts including Andrew Dickson, Htein Lin, Carlos Reyes-Manzo and Ana Tzarev.

Presenting an award at the 2008 ceremony in London, renowned playwright Sir Tom Stoppard said, "My participation in the Freedom to Create Prize was my first contact with this truly admirable enterprise.

The forum was a series of panel discussions which aimed to debate the challenges and opportunities for women in building creative and prosperous lives, families and communities.

The panel featured guest of honour and 2010 Prize judge Jehan Sedat, moderator and international broadcaster Femi Oke and was accompanied by Mariane Pearl, Dalia Ziada, Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw and Dianne Laurance.

The panel included keynote speaker Graça Machel, panelists Unity Dow, Chouchou Namegabe, and Molly Melching, and moderator Gcina Mhlophe.