The Laureates of this year’s Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’, will be announced on 26 September. The announcement will take place in Stockholm at 09:00 CET (07:00 UTC) at the Swedish Foreign Office International Press Centre, Fredsgatan 6.
The announcement will be made by Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director, and Maina Kiai, Jury member and former UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. The international Jury convened in Merlischachen, Switzerland, from 8-10 September to select the recipients of the 2017 Right Livelihood Award.
Established in 1980, the Right Livelihood Award honours and supports courageous people and organisations offering visionary and exemplary solutions to the root causes of global problems.
In addition to presenting the annual award, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation actively supports the work of its Laureates, including protecting those whose life and liberty has been put at risk by their efforts.
Today, there are 166 Right Livelihood Award Laureates from 68 countries who have been recognised for their outstanding vision and contribution to humanity and the planet.
Previous Laureates include high-profile US whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Daniel Ellsberg, British journalist Alan Rusbridger, the newspaper Cumhuriyet (Turkey), environmentalist Vandana Shiva (India), human rights activists Bianca Jagger (Nicaragua), Jacqueline Moudeina (Chad), Dr Denis Mukwege (DR Congo) and Martín Almada (Paraguay), as well as Swedish children’s book author Astrid Lindgren.
Due to security regulations, all media representatives who are not accredited with the Swedish Foreign Office must register before 25 September by sending an email to [email protected], and be in a possession of a valid ID.
The announcement will be live streamed via: https://www.facebook.com/rightlivelihood/
Indian activist Medha Patkar, leader of Save the Narmada Movement (Narmada Bachao Andolan) with which she shared the 1991 Right Livelihood Award, has been released on bail on charges of kidnapping a government official during the mass protest against the Sardar Sarovar dam. She is now due to stand trial.
“Today we enter a new phase in the Sardar Sarovar fight to stop irreparable loss to livelihoods. I thank the Right Livelihood Award for all actions taken. Next phase will be equally challenging,” Medha Patkar told the Foundation after her release from Dhar district jail in Madhya Pradesh where she had been held since her arrest on 9 August for breach of the peace.
Veteran activist Patkar, 62, has been protesting the inadequate rehabilitation policies of some 40,0000 citizens who would lose their homes as a result of being displaced by the Sardar Sarovar dam. Patkar was detained on 7 August when the Madhya Pradesh police charged the camp of peaceful protesters using tactics such as baton charges and clubs tipped with nails, injuring 42 people in the process of dislodging the protesters. Her health condition remains poor.
“We join the voices of many concerned members of civil society from India and around the world in calling for all charges against Medha Patkar to be dropped. It is crystal clear that Medha is being targeted by the authorities solely for exercising her constitutional rights to peacefully protest against government policies. As India enters its 70th year as an independent country, India’s government should rethink how it interacts with activists and facilitate not obstruct the activities of its vibrant civil society,” Sharan Srinivas, the Foundation’s Director of Research and Advocacy, has commented.
Patkar’s arrest was in clear violation of her right to freedom of assembly guaranteed by Article 19 of the Indian Constitution and Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which India has ratified and is thus legally bound by.
The Right Livelihood Award Foundation has written to various officials in the Indian government, the Indian National Human Rights Commission and has filed urgent appeals to the UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders and freedom of assembly.
Medha Patkar and Baba Amte / Narmada Bachao Andolan received the 1991 Right Livelihood Award “for their inspired opposition to the disastrous Narmada Valley dams project and their promotion of alternatives designed to benefit the poor and the environment.”