Watch the 2018 Award Presentation live on 23 November

The 2018 Right Livelihood Award Presentation will take place on 23 November at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. With speeches and performances, the Award Presentation showcases and celebrates the achievement of this year's Right Livelihood Award Laureates. Do not miss the opportunity to follow this unique event through the livestream  on our website. The Award Presentation is followed by public events and high-level meetings in Geneva, Zurich and Berlin. Learn more about the extensive Award Week programme at the end of this newsletter and on our website.

Share this article

Paul Ekins is our New Chair of the Board

Paul Ekins (UK) is new Chair of the Foundation’s board. Ekins has been a member of the board since 1995 and succeeds Dr Monika Griefahn who had held the position since 2015. Dr Griefahn is continuing her engagement with the Foundation as member of the board. Paul Ekins commented: “In the name of the whole board, I want to thank Monika Griefahn for her effective, inclusive and very successful chairmanship for a three-year term since 2015. Under Monika's leadership during this period, the foundation established an office in Geneva, which one third of our Laureates have visited so far, and acquired consultative status with the United Nations. Donations to the foundation - and thus our capacity to increase the visibility and impact of our Laureates - rose by more than 50% during this time. She steps down with the Foundation in excellent shape. I am delighted that she has agreed to remain on the Board.” Read our interview with Ekins.

Share this article

2013 Laureate Paul Walker joins the Board

Paul Walker (USA) is the first Right Livelihood Award Laureate ever to be elected member of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation’s board. Walker is Director of Green Cross International’s Environmental Security and Sustainability programme and received the Right Livelihood Award “for working tirelessly to rid the world of chemical weapons”. Marianne Andersson (Sweden) has decided to step down from the board. Andersson was Member of the Swedish Parliament (Centre Party) for almost 20 years and joined the board in 2004. Learn more about Walker's work.

Share this article

Calling for accountability for human rights violations in Saudi Arabia

Recognising the fundamental right to express our views, free from repression, we joined the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) and more than 170 civil society organisations to call on the international community to take immediate steps to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for grave human rights violations.  The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi and rampant arrests of human rights defenders, including 2018 Right Livelihood Award Laureates Waleed Abu Al-Khair, Abdullah Al-Hamid, and Mohammad Fahad Al-Qahtani, are only some of many gross and systematic violations committed by the Saudi authorities.  Read our full statement.

Share this article

Jair Bolsonaro accuses our Laureate MST of terrorist acts

Brazil’s recently elected president Jair Bolsonaro intends to classify all activities by the Right Livelihood Award Laureate Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra (MST) as terrorist acts. We express deep alarm over Mr Bolsonaro’s statement and calls on him to respect the vital work of land and environmental defenders, and their struggles in the name of social justice and human rights. Jair Bolsonaro’s allegations are extremely distressing. Not only because they violate Brazil’s domestic and international commitments to fundamental rights and freedoms and basic principles of democracy, but also because they reinforce the criminalisation of social movements in the country and the region. Read our full statement.

Share this article