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Call for entries for the 16th Humanitarian Visa d’or award

Des Palestiniens fuient leurs maisons dans la partie est de Khan Younis, à Gaza, le 22 juillet 2024.
Saher Alghorra / Zuma Press

Until 27 May, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is inviting all professional photojournalists to submit their entries for our Humanitarian Visa d’or award. For the 16th edition, the theme is “The fate of civilians in armed conflicts”.

Since 2011, the ICRC has been highlighting and rewarding the work that photojournalists are doing to give victims of armed conflicts a voice. The ICRC’s Humanitarian Visa d’or award rewards images that show contemporary humanitarian challenges through a documentary lens. Through photography, it contributes to better understanding the reality experienced by civilian populations, and to promoting international humanitarian law.

The award is part of the prestigious international photojournalism festival Visa pour l'image, which has been held every year in Perpignan in France since 1989. The winner will receive an award of 8,000 euros to help finance future photographic projects.

How to participate?

The contest is open to professional photographers attached to press agencies or media, and to self-employed professional photographers. It is open to photojournalists of all nationalities.

The application file must include:

  • The signed application form
  • A curriculum vitae
  • A file containing the photos numbered in the desired order, in low resolution (maximum size for each picture 3Mb), in .jpg format.
  • A Word document of no more than 15 lines, that presents the subject, the date and the place where the pictures were taken.
  • A Word document with the photos’ captions (maximum 2–3 lines each), numbered accordingly.

All applications must be sent using SwissTransfer to communication.paris@icrc.org no later than Wednesday, 27 May 2026 (at 11:59 pm – Paris time, CET). 

The winner of the Humanitarian Visa d’or award will be announced in June 2026, following a collegial and independent process. A jury comprising professionals from the photography, media, and humanitarian sectors, including a representative of the ICRC, will examine the anonymized entries before deliberation. The choice of winner is in no way the result of a unilateral decision by the ICRC.