Awarding the Alternative Nobel Prizes: Giving people a voice in crisis

This year the Alternative Nobel Prize goes to Georgia and Pakistan, the USA and southern Africa. The award goes to people and organizations who work to protect democracy, to strengthen persecuted minorities, for their own sovereignty over land and agriculture and against the dominance of AI companies.

The organization behind the “Right Livelihood Awards” announced this on Wednesday morning in Stockholm. Its director, Ole von Uexküll, sees one thing in common in all four award winners: They are all committed to moving fundamental human values ​​to the center of society - away from the margins to which others would have pushed them.

Whether it's about climate change, the risks of AI or regression in democracy, "only a few benefit from these crises, most suffer from them," said von Uexküll on the occasion of the announcement of this year's honorees: They show the possibility of a better life for everyone. In their very different fields, they managed to make complicated crises tangible and show individuals how they can have an influence. “You give people a voice in crisis,” says von Uexküll.

Thanks to the nominations that they have long since received from every conceivable country, “Right Livelihood” is also hearing about many projects for the first time. There were 200 nominations this year. The eleven jury members were particularly impressed by how much transformative power their prize winners had achieved through broad activation in the civilian population.

It is part of the Right Livelihood Awards to particularly emphasize that people already have solutions to existing crises and that their efforts are permanently improving the world. The award, which has been awarded for more than 40 years, is also called the Alternative Nobel Prize. It was founded after the Nobel Foundation rejected the proposal to introduce prizes for promoting social justice and environmental protection in addition to the previous ones.

Jalila Haider: Human rights lawyer Jalila Haider receives the Alternative Nobel Prize in recognition of her fight against ethnic, state and patriarchal persecution of people in Pakistan. As the first lawyer from her Hazara community, she broke barriers, always driven by the conviction that no human being is illegal, the statement says.

“Rural Women’s Assembly” (RWA): The women of the “Rural Women’s Assembly” (RWA) describe themselves as guardians of “land, life, seeds and love”. The movement now connects more than 178,000 rural women in eleven countries in southern Africa. The common enemies of the combined forces are, for example, agricultural corporations and patriarchal expropriation.

With a volunteer structure since 2009, the women have created one of the largest autonomous platforms in the region, Right Livelihood explains the decision. The movement has achieved progress in food safety and women's physical empowerment.

Georgian Young Lawyers' Association (Gyla): The association of young lawyers in Georgia is being honored for their contributions to building democracy in their homeland after the end of the Soviet Union - and for not giving up in the face of the most recent democratic setbacks. In its statement, Right Livelihood highlights the wide range of Gyla's legal work, from a network for free legal advice to the documentation of human rights violations to lawsuits against unconstitutional legislation.

Timnit Gebru: The AI ​​expert receives the prize because her work takes action against the concentrated power of tech companies via artificial intelligence. It shows the dangers that AI systems already pose and develops alternative technologies based on justice and human participation.

“Their research has helped change international debates about the meaning, purpose and regulation of artificial intelligence,” emphasizes Right Livelihood. The US researcher – born in Ethiopia and with roots in Eritrea – discovered early on that neither science nor technology was without prejudice. The DAIR (Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute), founded by the former Google employee, brings people together who work together on technological alternatives.