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HomeAfricaActivists From Kenya, Cambodia Are Among ‘alternative Nobel’ Prize Winners

Activists From Kenya, Cambodia Are Among ‘alternative Nobel’ Prize Winners


SOS Mediterranee refugee rescue group as well as environment and human rights defenders win the Right Livelihood Award.

SOS Mediterranee refugee rescue group as well as environment and human rights defenders win the Right Livelihood Award.

The Cambodian advocacy group was cited for its “fearless and engaging activism to preserve Cambodia’s natural environment in the context of a highly restricted democratic space” while the non-profit charity that operates in international waters north of Libya was credited with carrying out “life-saving humanitarian search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea”.

Kenyan grassroots environmental activist Omido received the award “for her groundbreaking struggle to secure land and environmental rights for local communities while advancing the field of environmental law”, it said.

The foundation said Brookman-Amissah was honoured “for pioneering discussions on women’s reproductive rights in Africa, paving the way for liberalised abortion laws and improved safe abortion access”.

This year, there were 170 nominees from 68 countries, the foundation said. It said the laureates will be recognised at an awards presentation in Stockholm on November 29.

Previous awards

Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honours efforts that the prize founder, Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.

To date, 190 laureates from 74 countries have received the award. Ole von Uexkull is a nephew of the prize founder.

Previous winners include Ukrainian human rights defender Oleksandra Matviichuk, Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Matviichuk and Mukwege received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 and 2018, respectively.

Source: Al Jazeera

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