Civic Pride — celebrating activism.
With our civic pride campaign, we celebrate activism. Over the years, our campaign has taken different themes and forms but our core motivation remains the same: to celebrate inspiring activists and movements who stand up for democracy, solidarity and fundamental rights. Check out our campaigns below!
Civic Pride 2025
In 2025, we’re celebrating 20 years since the founding of the European Civic Forum. We’ve spent the last two decades working to unite civil society, defend fundamental rights, and work for a democracy, solidarity, and rights for all! For this year’s civic pride we’re looking both to the past and to the future. We’re highlighting some of the most inspiring laureates of our Civic Pride Awards over the years. Plus, we’re calling CSOs and activists to get involved with the EU’s new Civil Society Strategy. Find out more below!
20 Years of ECF
2025 marks 20 years since the founding of the European Civic Forum in Strasbourg, back in 2005.
Over the years, ECF has become an essential actor in European civil society, bringing together nearly 100 associations and NGOs across Europe, and serving as a leading advocate for democracy, solidarity, freedom and rights for all.
To mark this anniversary, we’re looking back at some of the highlights of our Civic Pride Awards over the years.
Civil Society Strategy: From Words to Action!
Last month, the European Commission published its long-awaited Civil Society Strategy, after years of campaigning from NGOs and activists.
The strategy recognises the key role civil society organisations (CSOs) and activists play in our democracies, and that member states have a responsibility to engage, support, protect, and fund civil society.
Now, we need EU institutions and member states to turn the positive words in this strategy into action.
PREVIOUS CAMPAIGNS
Civic Pride Month 2024
In 2024, we held the first-ever Civic Pride Month. Over the course of several weeks, we put three of the year’s most inspiring, but also most heavily repressed, movements in the spotlight: Palestine Solidarity, Climate Justice, and Migrants’ Rights.
Civic Pride Week 2023 – Celebrating everyday human rights heroes.
In 2023, we marked 75 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To recognise #HumanRights75, we wanted to celebrate the everyday heroes of human rights: civil society organisations, movements and activists.
That’s why we launched Civic Pride Week – to amplify the stories of outstanding civic actors and initiatives. They are the driving force working to ensure basic human rights are respected!
CIVIC PRIDE AWARDS
Civic Pride Awards 2023
The European Civic Forum presents Civic Pride Awards to outstanding activists, movements and civil society organisations across Europe.
2023’s winners represent a diverse range of issues and communities. Out of 123 applications for the European Civic Academy, the Selection Committee selected three outstanding stories to receive a Civic Pride Award: TGEU, Gribu palīdzēt bēgļiem (“I want to help refugees”) from Latvia, and the Saami Council and the Indigenous Sámi rights movement from Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia.
Additionally, a special commendation was given to the Hungarian Teachers’ Movement, fighting for public education.
The awards were presented at a ceremony in Brussels on 18 September 2023.
Previous editions
Civic Pride Awards 2021
The Civic Pride Awards 2021 celebrated six outstanding civic initiatives from different EU countries: Civilizáció coalition from Hungary, Union des Sans-Papiers pour la régularisation from Belgium, Observatoires des pratiques policières from France, Deystvie & Denitsa Lyubenova from Bulgaria, National Federation of NGOs (OFOP) & Shipyard Foundation from Poland, and Action Aid Denmark, Amnesty International Denmark & Nyt Europa from Denmark. Their stories are all collected in Activizenship #6: Stories of hope in dark times.
Civic Pride Awards 2020
The Civic Pride Awards 2020 aimed at discovering and collecting inspiring stories of activists, associations, movements or groups of citizens who were organising and making policy proposals to ensure rights were at the centre of the response amid the COVID-19 crisis, in face of a restricted civic space. Seven winners were chosen: We Are Fair – Czech Republic, The Greek Forum of Refugees, Women on the Road Foundation – Poland, Citizen protests – Slovenia, SEDOAC, the Active Domestic Service Association – Spain, The Wheel – Ireland and #Unteilbar (Indivisible) – Germany. Their stories are all collected in Activizenship #5 – Stories from the lockdown.
Watch the Civic Pride 2020 videos!
Civic Pride Awards 2019
The 2019 Civic Pride Awards highlighted remarkable stories of resistance. This year’s winners were Mediterranea – Saving Humans, from Italy; Defender a Quien Defiende, from Spain; Comité justice et vérité pour Adama, from France; Kõigi Eesti, from Estonia; Linda Greta Zsiga, from Romania, and Krakow Smong Alert from Poland.
Their stories were collected in the fourth edition of Activizenship.
