On April 17, 2003, on the 21st anniversary of the signing of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Equality Day, Dr. Israel Asper announced the establishment of The Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The project is a joint partnership of The Asper Foundations, the Government of Canada, Province of Manitoba, City of Winnipeg and The Forks North Portage Partnership.

The vision of the project is to create a distinctive, architecturally exceptional museum that will help to eliminate intolerance through recognition of human rights as the foundation for human equality, dignity, and freedom worldwide. The museum has made groundbreaking history, as it will be the largest and perhaps only human rights museum in the world.

The issue of human rights is of such a worldwide concern that the decision was made to conduct an international architectural competition to select an architect and design for this important project.

The eight firms were chosen from the 30 architectural firms who were invited to submit their design proposals in Stage 2. Each of the eight winning firms will receive CA$12,000, the award that was set for Stage 2 of the competition.