We are delighted to announce Organization for animals right and the environment EVA, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the 2024 winners of the Geoffrey Deckers Award.

Established in 2019, in Sarajevo, EVA’s fundamental goal is to work to ensure the rights and adequate legal protection of all animal species. Their work focuses on a number of different projects and includes work on legal protection, including the establishment and implementation of legal regulation and cruelty-free activities related to the use of animals for education, pharmaceutical and the cosmetics industry.

The award honours Geoffrey Deckers, the much loved former Chair of the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments and Cruelty Free Europe, who passed away in June 2020. Geoffrey, a dedicated animal protection campaigner who co-founded Dutch animal protection group, Diervriendelijk Nederland, led many successful campaigns in the Netherlands, across Europe and worldwide.

The award is given annually to animal protection groups who are dedicated to ending animal suffering in laboratories, and is presented on Geoffrey’s birthday, 13 January. Organization for animals right and the environment EVA will use the funds from this award to continue the introduction of alternative methods to animal testing at other biomedical faculties at the University of Sarajevo.

This year, it will be the Pharmaceutical Faculty in Sarajevo. The funds will help organize EVA’s 3rd Conference on Humane Alternatives in Education, together with helping the Pharmaceutical Faculty to adopt new alternatives and become the next cruelty-free faculty at the University of Sarajevo. This programme builds on their work that was supported with a previous award.

Adrie van Steijn, member of the board of Cruelty Free Europe, says: “Geoffrey was always there for anyone who wanted to make a difference for animals. With the Geoffrey Deckers Award, we honour Geoffrey's spirit for outreach and collaboration, and on his behalf, we are helping to continue to help animals in laboratories. The board is pleased to award the fourth prize to EVA his name and looks forward to seeing them use the award to help end animal testing in their country”.

Nora Mahmutović, Organization for animals right and the environment EVA, says ''We are deeply grateful for recognizing the importance of our work and for supporting our efforts to end animal testing. This recognition inspires us to continue advocating for a world where animals are spared from unnecessary suffering and to strive for even greater achievements in the future.''