Right Livelihood

27/05/2026

What does it take to make human rights more than words on paper? 🤔

For Theo van Boven, it meant a lifetime of work to place them at the centre of international law.

The Dutch lawyer and scholar, who received the Right Livelihood Award in 1985, worked across the UN, academia, government and civil society to make human rights protections real and enforceable.

He pushed the UN to confront violations honestly — enforced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary executions — and challenged the idea that different countries should be held to different standards.

He passed away on May 9, at the age of 91.

“His legacy will live on in the many different arenas his work spanned and among the Right Livelihood community,” said Ole von Uexkull, Right Livelihood’s Executive Director.

We honour his life, his courage and his lifelong commitment to justice.

🔗: https://rightlivelihood.org/news/theo-van-boven-who-put-human-rights-at-the-centre-of-international-law-passes-away-at-91/

25/05/2026

Right Livelihood and Nobel Laureate Ales Bialiatski spent over four years in a Belarusian penal colony before his release alongside 122 other political prisoners.

During that time, he endured isolation, punishment cells and denied medical care.

Now, as he speaks out, his story stands as a powerful reminder: nearly 1,000 political prisoners in Belarus are still waiting for their release.

Ales hasn’t forgotten them. Neither should we.

Hear his experience firsthand ➡️ http://bit.ly/4uqPC6t

18/05/2026

“Collectively, we can put pressure to actually end it and lift the suffering of the Sudanese people.”

Every day, families across Sudan are enduring the devastating consequences of war: forced from their homes, separated from loved ones, and exposed to relentless violence.

In the face of this crisis, Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) المنتدى التضامني لغرف الطوارئ - السودان have built a nationwide network of volunteers delivering food, safety, medical support, and hope to communities under attack.

Rooted in solidarity and mutual aid, ERRs continue to stand alongside people in danger — refusing to abandon their communities, even in the darkest moments.

👉 Take a deep dive into the reality on the ground as Alsanosi Adam, who represented ERRs at the 2025 Right Livelihood Award Presentation, shares how grassroots courage, determination, and collective action are helping shape Sudan’s future!

🎥: https://youtu.be/B1mND_vynDk

14/05/2026

“The cyberspace, like any conflict region, there are people waging peace — and people can free the future together.”

Democracy does not fail because of technology. It fails when the people it serves are not allowed to steer it.

Taiwan’s Audrey Tang 唐鳳 is showing that technology can strengthen democracy rather than divide it, creating spaces where communities can listen, collaborate, and find “uncommon ground” across differences.

👉 Take a deep dive with Audrey, a 2025 Right Livelihood Laureate, as she explores how collective intelligence, trust, and digital participation can help shape more inclusive and resilient societies!

🎥: https://youtu.be/GQgJe0Xh11o?si=eCJJqljVKVV36fJ5

04/05/2026

“We are part of a wider movement to dismantle the Myanmar military cartel.”

Since the 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military has perpetrated mass killings, torture, sexual violence, and airstrikes on its own people.

But this system is being challenged.

Working in anonymity, a covert group of activists is exposing the financial networks that keep the military junta in power — pushing governments and companies worldwide to cut ties 🔍

👉 Take a deep dive with 2025 Right Livelihood Laureate, Justice For Myanmar, and Amnesty International’s Montse Ferrer. From the frontlines of fear to the fight for justice, JFM and its partners are challenging the military junta and working to reshape Myanmar’s future.

🎥: https://youtu.be/mzyn_0aknyo

27/04/2026

“We need to know what happens when states fail to regulate the fossil fuel industry, fail to reduce their emissions.”

For years, questions like these were left unanswered, while vulnerable Pacific communities stood alone on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

Until 27 law students in Vanuatu chose to rise together ✊

From urgency came action. From action, a movement was born: Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. Ideas sparked in a classroom became a groundbreaking moment that changed the course of legal history.

👉 Take a deep dive with the 2025 Right Livelihood Laureates, Julian Aguon and PISFCC (represented by Belyndar Rikimani). From the courtroom to the frontlines, they’re shaping a new framework for accountability — where climate inaction carries legal consequences.

🎥: https://youtu.be/2IoPz-PKSwc

17/04/2026

Nasrin Sotoudeh has spent decades defending women’s rights in Iran. Now, she has been arrested again.

Right Livelihood’s Women Laureates Hub stands in solidarity with the 2020 Laureate following her re-arrest.

Sotoudeh’s case is not isolated. It reflects a wider reality where women across Iran face violence, intimidation and punishment for claiming their fundamental rights.

And yet, they continue.

Across the country, women are leading, resisting, and demanding change, often at great personal risk.

At a time of deepening repression and growing insecurity due to the ongoing conflict, solidarity is essential.

We join voices around the world in calling for Nasrin Sotoudeh’s immediate and unconditional release, and stand with all those in Iran defending women’s rights with courage and conviction.

Read more 👉 https://rightlivelihood.org/news/statement-by-the-women-laureates-hub-on-the-rearrest-of-nasrin-sotoudeh/

Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center Ms. Magazine Feminist Majority Foundation PEN America The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights

16/04/2026

Six years ago, when Ales Bialiatski received the Right Livelihood Award, he used his moment on stage to send a message of support to fellow Laureate Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was imprisoned at the time and unable to attend.

Now, after her recent arrest amid an escalating crackdown in Iran, he is once again speaking out in solidarity.

This video brings together his words from 2020 and today.

🎥 Watch the full message�✊ Stand with Nasrin

10/04/2026

🇸🇪 Han satt fängslad i Belarus i 4,5 år som politisk fånge. För första gången sedan hans frisläppning besöker han nu Stockholm.

Ales Bjaljatski, belarusisk människorättsförsvarare och mottagare av Right Livelihood- och Nobels fredspris, kommer till Stockholm i april för ett samtal om situationen i Belarus, de kvarvarande politiska fångarna och vad det internationella samfundet faktiskt kan göra.

Samtalet modereras av Carin Klaesson från Nobel Prize Museum, och Bjaljatski gästas i samtalet av Jon Fridholm (Östgruppen för demokrati och mänskliga rättigheter) och journalisten Johanna Melén. Publiken ges möjlighet att ställa frågor, och efter samtalet följer mingel.

📍 Nobelprismuseet, Stockholm
🗓 15 april 2026, 18-20

Anmäl dig till [email protected]. Först till kvarn!

(English below)

🌎 He spent 4.5 years in jail as a prisoner of conscience. For the first time since his release, he’s coming to Stockholm.

Ales Bialiatski, Belarusian human rights defender and Laureate of both the Right Livelihood Award and the Nobel Peace Prize, visits Stockholm in April for a conversation about the situation in Belarus today, the country's remaining political prisoners, and what the international community can actually do.

The conversation will be moderated by Carin Klaesson from the Nobel Prize Museum, with Jon Fridholm and journalist Johanna Melén joining Bialiatski in discussion. The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions, followed by a mingle.

📍 Nobel Prize Museum, Stockholm
🗓 April 15, 2026, 18:00-20:00

The event will be in Swedish.
Register at [email protected] — places are limited!

24/02/2026

Civil resistance takes many forms ✊

From organising communities and defending human rights to challenging racial injustice and confronting the climate crisis, Right Livelihood Laureates have been showing what this courage looks like for decades.

📚 We’re honouring their work through a new book exhibition, now open at the Bibliothèque IHEID!

Come visit to discover how the Laureates build change from the ground up!

🗓️ February 24 – April 15
📍 Salon Davis (Library), Geneva Graduate Institute

Visit our latest book exhibition and step into stories of courage and resistance. A guest post by Right Livelihood.