The inaugural award was presented on the heels of activities marking the 42nd International Women's Rights Day, was created by the President of France, in tribute to former Minister Simone Veil, who defended the 1975 law on the legalization of abortion in France. She later died in 2017. 

Simone Veil was most responsible for advancing women’s legal rights in France during the twentieth century and now into the twenty-first century. She is certainly the one whose name comes up most often, each time the law that bears her name is mentioned—the law that she proposed and fought for in the French Parliament, the law legalizing abortion that went into effect on January 17, 1975. She was the first female Minister in the French government.

Aissa Doumars in response to the prize, said it was dedicate to all women victims of violence and marriages, as well as victims of Boko Haram( the jihadist group). Emmanuel Macron, acknowledged her courage in helping women for close to 20 years now.

Aissa Doumara Ngatansou is a 47-year-old mother of three children from the Far North Region of Cameroon. She co-founded a branch of the Association for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (ALVF) in the city of Maroua in 1996. ALVF works with survivors, and advocates with decision-makers to end early and forced marriages, and other forms of gender-based violence. With the support of UN Women, as part of the humanitarian programme funded through United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and the Government of Japan, ALVF has been providing relief, livelihood and psychosocial support to women and girls affected by the Boko Haram insurgency in the region.