2011 Right Livelihood Awards put the spotlight on solutions to global wrongs
The 2011 Right Livelihood Awards were announced today at a press conference in Stockholm by Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director, and Monika Griefahn, Co-Chair and Jury member of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation.
The 2011 Right Livelihood Awards go to four recipients. One award is an honorary award, the three other laureates will share the € 150,000 cash award.
HUANG MING
Huang Ming (China) receives the 2011 Honorary Award “for his outstanding success in the development and mass-deployment of cutting-edge technologies for harnessing solar energy, thereby showing how dynamic emerging economies can contribute to resolving the global crisis of anthropogenic climate change”.
It is the first time that a Right Livelihood Award goes to China.
JACQUELINE MOUDEINA
The Jury awards Jacqueline Moudeina (Chad) “for her tireless efforts at great personal risk to win justice for the victims of the former dictatorship in Chad and to increase awareness and observance of human rights in Africa”.
It is the first time that a Right Livelihood Award goes to Chad.
GRAIN
The Jury awards GRAIN (International) “for their worldwide work to protect the livelihoods and rights of farming communities and to expose the massive purchases of farmland in developing countries by foreign financial interests”.
INA MAY GASKIN
The Jury recognises Ina May Gaskin (USA) “for her whole-life’s work teaching and advocating safe, woman-centred childbirth methods that best promote the physical and mental health of mother and child”.
Further information and material supporting this press release can be accessed via www.rightlivelihood.org
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Quote
Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation:
“Global climate chaos may well be the biggest challenge of our time threatening all other achievements. At the same time, land grabs on all continents by financial investors aggravate the global food situation and threaten biodiversity. These land grabs benefit from a lack of democratic structures in countries, where often also the human rights situation leaves much to be desired. In some countries dictators and torturers go unpunished while parents sell their children to work on farms because poverty does not leave them any other choice. And in the developed world, we are fast becoming out of touch with ourselves, and with the most natural processes of our species like giving birth. The 2011 Right Livelihood Award Laureates highlight all these issues and present solutions how to overcome them.”
Interview possibilities on September 29th
* Huang Ming (available in Denmark): +86-139 0534 27 54
* Henk Hobbelink, GRAIN (available in Barcelona): +34 93 3011381
If needed, interviews in Spanish and French can also be organised.
* Jacqueline Moudeina (available in Chad, interviews need be conducted in French):
+235 251 88 53 (secretariat ATPDH), +235-6627 0992 (mobile)
* Ina May Gaskin (available in Tennessee, U.S.): +1 931 964 2519
* Jakob von Uexkull, Founder and Co-Chair of the Right Livelihood Award (available in London):
+ 44 20 7321 3811
* Ole von Uexkull, Exec. Dir., and Monika Griefahn, Co-Chair and Jury Member of the Right Livelihood
Award Foundation (Sweden, afternoon): +46 8 70 20 337
Upcoming: Award Ceremony
The Award will be presented at a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament on December 5, 2011, at 6 pm, hosted by the Society for the Right Livelihood Award in the Swedish Parliament.
A press conference with the 2011 Laureates will take place the same day at the Swedish Foreign Office Press Room at 9.30 am.
Background
Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Awards are presented annually in the Swedish Parliament and are often referred to as ‘Alternative Nobel Prizes’. They were introduced “to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”.
Jakob von Uexkull, a Swedish-German professional philatelist, sold his business to provide the original funding. Since then, the Award has been financed by individual donors.
This year, there were 123 proposals from 59 countries. From today, there are 145 Right Livelihood Award Laureates from 61 countries.
Contact
RIGHT LIVELIHOOD AWARD FOUNDATION
Birgit Jaeckel, Communications Consultant;
Kajsa Övergaard, Foundation Manager
Phone: +46 8 70 20 340, Fax: +46 8 70 20 338
Cell phones: +46 76 817 99 97, and +49 170 24 49 348
info[at]rightlivelihood.org