The laureates

Biodessi Ulrich Ricken SOUROU is a biologist and human rights defenders committed since 2016 for sexual and gender minorities rights in Benin. He began his career as a peer educator with the Youth Action Movement of the Beninese Association for the Promotion of the Family (ABPF), where he led awareness-raising activities on sexual diversity, gender, and sexual well-being in the northern part of the country, a particularly conservative region. In 2020, he was named the movement’s “Best Young Person” in recognition of the impact of his work.

In 2019, he joined Hirondelle Club Bénin, founded in March 2013, an organization that advocates for the rights of sexual and gender minorities, where he currently serves as National President (since 2023), having previously served as Coordinator for the Northern Region. In this role, he leads key initiatives such as the “Human Rights Education for All” (EDHPT) program, supported notably by the embassies of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, as well as the celebrations of the International Days Against Homophobia and Transphobia and the Camp for Promotion, Integration, and Living Together. He also serves on the European Union’s Youth Sounding Board in Benin.

His commitment extends to the legal and political spheres: filing complaints with the Constitutional Court regarding incidents of discrimination and violence; participating in the drafting of civil society’s first midterm report for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR); and developing tools for analyzing and monitoring international recommendations within the framework of the UPR.

On the international stage, he has enhanced his skills through several training programs, notably in organizational leadership in South Africa (2024), on mechanisms for the protection of sexual and gender minorities (2023), and as part of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s Benin Young Leaders Program (2025). In Geneva (2025), an intensive training course in international advocacy enabled him to develop a project promoting the freedom of LGBTQI+ organizations to register in Benin.