Human Rights Watch and 95 partner groups have urged Unesco to cancel the Obiang Prize at its next session in October.

In a statement to the world body's executive board members, the groups insisted that the prize be cancelled definitively "rather than simply postponed."

In June, Unesco agreed to delay the prize to allow for further consultation, following a public outcry from a diverse group across the world.

The groups then thanked the body's director-general, Irina Bokova, and the executive board for recognising their concerns.Offends standards and goals

"A prize in President Teodoro Obiang's name or supported by money provided by him offends the very standards and goals Unesco promotes," the groups said in their statement.

President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea along with his Congolese counterpart Dennis Sasso Nguesso are being pursued by rights groups in France for allegedly stealing public funds to purchase several palaces in France and elsewhere.

Despite Equatorial Guinea's vast wealth from natural resources -- which gives it the highest per-capita GDP in sub-Saharan Africa -- it has shocking low health and development indicators.

And rights groups suspect that the dictator is using the ill-acquired wealth to fund the $3 million Obiang Prize that he wants Unesco to support.

Instead, the groups want the $3 million offered by Obiang diverted to education and health in Equatorial Guinea.