Right Livelihood Award honours women taking on power

Four laureates who confront authoritarian rule, patriarchal violence and unchecked artificial intelligence have won this year's Right Livelihood Award, often called the Alternative Nobel Prize.

The winners were announced in Stockholm on Wednesday. This year, all of the laureates are women or women-led organisations.

The laureates

Jalila Haider, from Pakistan, was recognised "for breaking barriers, as the first female lawyer from her Hazara community, to challenge ethnic, state and patriarchal persecution, guided by the conviction that no human being is illegal". The Hazara community has suffered repeated targeted killings. In 2018 she led a seven-day hunger strike against the attacks, and she founded We the Humans, which has helped more than 400 widows become financially independent.

"Justice is not an abstract principle. It is the dignity of being heard, the freedom to speak, and the right to live without fear," she said.

The Rural Women's Assembly was honoured "for organising rural women across Southern Africa into a united force defending land, seed, and bodily autonomy against corporate and patriarchal dispossession". The self-organised movement brings together more than 178,000 small-scale farmers in 11 countries. It has set up 24 sites for multiplying traditional seeds and helped to secure a law in Zambia in 2016 requiring land to be allocated equally to women.

Its regional co-ordinator, Mercia Andrews, said: "No single voice moves a mountain; it is the patient, collective weight of thousands of rural women organising together."

The Georgian Young Lawyers' Association won "for building and safeguarding Georgian democracy and sustaining civic power in the face of an autocratic crackdown". Founded by volunteer lawyers in 1994, it has provided around 1.5 million free legal consultations. It is the first laureate from Georgia.

Its chair, Tamar Oniani, said: "This Award is the acknowledgement of GYLA's role in building a democratic country."

Timnit Gebru, from the United States, was recognised "for challenging concentrated power in artificial intelligence and pioneering digital technology rooted in justice, lived experience and human agency". An AI researcher, she founded the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute and co-founded the organisation Black in AI. Her research has highlighted how AI systems can harm marginalised communities.

"I am very honoured, especially for the human rights aspects of my work, to be recognised in this way," she said.

"Women who refused to wait"

Ole von Uexkull, executive director of the Right Livelihood Foundation, said: "A system built to serve the few was never going to hold. This year, we honour women who refused to wait for permission."

About the award

The jury considered 200 nominations from 72 countries. The laureates will be honoured at a ceremony in Stockholm on 1 December.

The award was founded in 1980 by the Swedish-German writer and philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, after the Nobel Foundation turned down his proposal to create new Nobel Prizes for the environment and for the knowledge and needs of the world's poorest people. It has now honoured 207 laureates from 82 countries.

Why it matters

Unlike many international prizes, the Right Livelihood Award often goes to grassroots campaigners and organisations working in difficult conditions. The foundation says the recognition, and the international attention it brings, can offer laureates a measure of protection, as well as practical support for their work.

Nobel season

The announcement comes just before the Nobel Prizes, which will be announced from 5 to 12 October, beginning with the prize in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo on Friday 9 October.