France, April 17 -- Bestowed by the Roosevelt Foundation, established in 1982, the awards honour the "Four Freedoms" outlined by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his 1941 State of the Union address: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

The Four Freedoms awards are presented annually in the New Church in Middelburg, in the Dutch province of Zeeland, where Roosevelt's ancestors hail from.

Previous winners include Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Germany's former Chancellor Angela Merkel, and organisations including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

This year, Frenchwoman Pelicot received the Freedom from Fear Award for her calls for societal ...