Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms Win 2026 Balzan Prize for Peace and Fraternity Among Peoples

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The International Balzan Prize Foundation has awarded the 2026 Balzan Prize for Peace and Fraternity Among Peoples to Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms (ERR), in recognition of their exceptional role in providing direct assistance, solidarity and hope to communities affected by the country’s civil war.

In a statement issued on September 7, 2026, the Foundation said the Emergency Response Rooms, through an extensive network of local rooms and Local Coordination Councils (LCCs), have helped fill part of the vacuum created by the collapse of institutions and the difficulties in delivering international aid to people in need.

The Foundation said the Emergency Response Rooms and Local Coordination Councils emerged through civic participation and grassroots community action, and have come to play a central role in supporting people affected by the war and providing essential services amid the deterioration of state institutions.

It added that part of the prize money will be allocated to activities related to mental healthcare, given their critical importance in a context marked by violence, displacement and the acute humanitarian crisis facing Sudan.

The Balzan Prize is worth 750,000 Swiss francs.

The 2026 Balzan Prizes are scheduled to be presented in Rome, Italy, on November 19, in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic.

The Emergency Response Rooms have received widespread local and international recognition and have attracted growing attention within the international humanitarian community. In September 2025, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that around 700 Emergency Response Rooms across Sudan represented “an inspiring example of grassroots humanitarian action,” adding: “Through their work, they show another face of Sudan – the best of humanity in a country that has suffered the worst of it.”

The 2026 Balzan Prize for Peace and Fraternity Among Peoples is the sixth international award or honour received by the Emergency Response Rooms, based on a count of the recognitions they have received since the outbreak of the war:

Chatham House Prize 2025.
Rafto Prize for Human Rights 2025, sometimes referred to in the media as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”
Right Livelihood Award 2025 in Sweden.
Richard C. Holbrooke International Activist Award 2025.
European Union Human Rights Prize for Sudan 2025.

The Emergency Response Rooms were also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times between 2024 and 2025 by the Peace Research Institute Oslo, as a symbol of hope and resilience. In addition, AidEx nominated Al-Sunosi Adam, External Communications Coordinator for Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, for its Humanitarian Hero of the Year 2025 award.

Emergency Response Rooms are grassroots, voluntary initiatives that emerged across Sudan in response to the humanitarian crises caused by the war. They have become central to the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance amid conflict and instability, providing food, clean water and medicines, while managing community kitchens and health clinics and offering psychological counselling and support to survivors of sexual violence.