The “Ambassador for a Day Competition 2022: Freedom and Democracy“ is a joint initiative by the Embassies of Canada, United Kingdom and United States to the Czech Republic.
Objectives
The theme of this year’s competition is freedom and democracy. Currently, the importance of our shared values of freedom and democracy are top of the international news agenda. Two years of restrictions in response to COVID have also impacted some people’s attitudes to what freedom and democracy mean. In international relations and conflict resolution, women’s voices are often absent or sidelined, yet research shows they can make a difference to how issues are approached and managed, and the resilience of responses.
How to participate
Submit an essay of 500-700 words in English that responds to the following questions:
| Why more women’s voices need to be heard in international affairs, conflict resolution, and policymaking more generally; |
| Why women’s engagement and participation in decision-making processes is important; |
| What difference women’s voices can make in this field; |
| What freedom and democracy mean to you in the Czech Republic in 2022. |
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Your essay should be submitted via this form or via ukinczechrepublic@fco.gov.uk. Applicants are required to submit: surname, name, email, nationality, age, present occupation, where they learnt about this contest, and indicate their presence on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn).
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The Contest is open to females, aged 16-25, who are resident in the Czech Republic and are able to communicate in both English and Czech.
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The essay must be submitted by midnight, 31st March 2022 via the above-mentioned form or email.
- Once submitted, the essay cannot be edited, updated, or resubmitted. Only one entry per person.
- Participation in the Contest is understood as acceptance of all the rules of the Contest.
Platforms
The information about the essay Contest, including the selection process, announcement of the winner, as well as activities engaging the winners will be communicated on social media platforms of all the sponsors, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Communication between the sponsors and participants will take place via email or phone. Announcement of the competition winners will be communicated on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, however, none of these platforms are partners or sponsors of the Contest.
Submissions of essays – format
Please, submit your essays in doc, docx, or pdf format. Each submission should include the name of the contestant.
Content
Submissions must be original pieces, must not include text protected by intellectual property rights or third party’s ownership rights.
Eligibility
The Contest is open to females aged 16 to 25 who are residents of the Czech Republic and are able to communicate in both English and Czech.
Only the person who submits the essay will be considered as the Contest participant. To participate in the Contest, the participant must submit all the requested information, which will be strictly used only for the purpose of the Contest and will not be shared with third parties.
The Contest is not open to employees and interns of any of the sponsors, nor it is open to family members of such employees and interns.
After submission of the essay, the Contest participants may be publicly identified.
Selection of winners
The sponsors reserve the right to discount all entries to the Contest that do not fulfill the requirements of the competition.
The winners will be selected by representatives of all three Embassies. Each Embassy will choose one winner (three in total).
Winners
Each participating embassy will choose a winning essay whose author will win the opportunity to work shadow the American, British or Canadian Ambassador (or Chargé) for the day to experience first hand a “day at the office” of a senior diplomat. Winners will be announced on 25th April 2022. Our aim is to inspire young women to think about what freedom and democracy means to them, and how women can contribute to international affairs. The winners will gain insight into the work of our Embassies on the issues, and perhaps inspire young women to consider a career in diplomacy.
Although the competition will launch on International Women’s Day (8 March), the actual work shadowing day will take place later in the summer months, when the COVID-19 situation allows and through mutual agreement with the winners. It will cover a day’s worth of meetings and activities on the subject of freedom, democracy and foreign affairs.
The winners will also have the opportunity to work on our respective Embassies’ social media feeds for a day to share their experiences.
Awards
Each of the three winners may expect: * To spend a day at the Embassy with Embassy staff, shadowing the Ambassador and/or other Embassy representatives. * Program of meetings with stakeholders, selected and planned by the Embassy * Social media take-over for a day * Small gifts from the Sponsors
The sponsors reserve the right to make the winning essay available online on either Embassy website and/or on social media.
The winners must respond to Embassy’s email within a week. If the winner does not accept the selection, the sponsors reserve the right to reach out to the runner-up.
The fulfilment of the awards cannot be passed on a third person, cannot be exchanged for a different activity, and cannot be reimbursed in monetary value.
Rights and responsibilities
- The sponsors’ selection does not automatically mean endorsement of the ideas in the essays.
- The Contest and the sponsors will not support any activity violating intellectual property rights and therefore reserve the right to disqualify any submission in the Contest that would be in violation with these rules. 3 Contest participants will retain all the rights to their work. At the same time, participants explicitly agree to sponsors’ use of any material related to the Contest (essay, photos etc. ).
- Sponsors reserve the right to check the authenticity of the submissions and remove anyone who violates the above-mentioned rules from the Contest.
- The sponsors reserve the right to disqualify any contestant who violates the rules of the Contest
- The sponsors reserve the right to change the awarded prize in case of outside circumstances prohibiting the execution of the afore-mentioned program at each of the Embassies.
- The sponsors reserve the right to disqualify a person from the Contest if they deem the person violated the rules of the Contest, violated rules of an online platform involved in the promotion of the Contest, or otherwise acted in bad faith.
- The sponsors reserve the right to change the process of the Contest or cancel the Contest. Participants agree to protect the good name of the sponsors, their parent, subsidiary and affiliates, officials, directors, employees, trainees and agents. In case of damaging their interests, the participants in the Contest will be responsible for all claims, damages, obligations, losses, liabilities, costs or debts; and expenses (including but not limited to legal fees) arising from (i) breaches of these official Contest rules; (ii) infringement of a third party’s right, including but not limited to copyright, trademark, intellectual property, right to privacy, right of publication or other proprietary right in connection with the Contest; or (iii) any claim that the Contest entry has caused any harm to a third party, including financial loss. These compensation and protection obligations remain in force permanently even after the end of the Contest.
- Sponsors will take all precautions to protect PII of the participants in the Contest.
- The Sponsors of the Contest do not accept any liability or liability for any damage or injury resulting from the participation of any user in the Contest or the attempt to participate in the Contest or the ability or inability to upload, download or otherwise obtain information related to the Contest.
- The sponsors of the Contest do not accept any responsibility or liability for technical problems or technical failures arising in connection with the operation of the Contest, including: hardware or software errors; defective computer, telephone, cable, satellite, network, electronic, wireless or internet connection or other problems with online communication; errors or limitations of any ISPs, servers, hosting providers or providers; distorted, disordered or erroneous data transmission; failure to send or receive e-mail transmissions; lost, delayed, delayed or withheld electronic mail transmissions; complete or partial inaccessibility of the Contest site for any reason; congestion of the internet network or Contest site; unauthorized human intervention or other interference with the course of the Contest, including but not limited to tampering, unauthorized access, theft, virus, software bugs and worms; or the destruction of any aspect of the Contest or the loss, miscalculation, misdirection, inaccessibility or unavailability of the e-mail account used in connection with the Contest.
- Use of the Contest website is at the user’s own risk. The sponsors of the Contest are not liable for personal injury, property damage or loss of any kind possibly suffered on the computer equipment because of participating in the Contest, using the Contest website or downloading information from the Contest website. By participating in the Contest, the competitor relieves the sponsors of the Contest of all claims arising directly or indirectly as a result of or in connection with the participation of the competitor in the Contest.
- Sponsors are not held liable for any delay in the Contest proceedings caused by external factors, such as weather, fire, strike, public health or other unforeseen circumstances.
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