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Zayed Award announces $1M prize recipients; Vatican cardinal sits on judging committee
January 27, 2026
The Zayed Award for Human Fraternity has announced its three 2026 honorees: the Azerbaijan-Armenia Peace Agreement, brokered by President Donald Trump; Zarqa Yaftali, an Afghan girls’ education advocate; and Taawon, a Palestinian development association. Each of the honorees will receive a $1-million prize on February 4, the anniversary of the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity.
The six-member judging committee includes a papal designee: Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, the prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education. The award is named after Sheikh Zayed ibn Sultan Al Nahyan (c. 1918-2004), the president of the United Arab Emirates from 1971 until his death.
The award’s first recipients in 2019 were Pope Francis and Sunni Muslim leader Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar in Egypt. During Pope Francis’s apostolic journey to the United Arab Emirates that year, he and the Grand Imam signed the Document on Human Fraternity.
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