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Illuminating the Paths to a Positive Future

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Illuminating the Paths to a Positive Future Illuminating the paths to a positive future !e Right Livelihood Award www.rightlivelihood.org Protecting Environments Defending Human Rights Developing Alternatives Preserving Resources Fighting Poverty Holistic !inking Supporting Indigenous Peoples Expressing Solidarity Forming the Future O"ering Solutions Projects of Hope ew Delhi, April 17, 2006. It is the 20th day of Medha Patkar’s hunger strike. She Nis weak, and her blood pressure alarmingly low. But she won’t back down. !e Right Livelihood Award Recipient and spokeswoman of the organisation ‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’ will keep on "ghting for something that she regards as more important than her own health: the rights and lives of people who are threatened by one of the largest and most controversial dam projects ever – the Narmada dams. Honouring Courage !e Right – even at the risk of their own. Oil kills Livelihood For the Indian villagers, who are still “!e inconveniences which I and the Ogo- Award ho- "ghting for proper rehabilitation, Medha ni su"er, the harassment, arrests, detention, nours people Patkar is a hero. And for the rest of the even death itself are a proper price to pay who grow world, too: men and women like Medha for ending the nightmare of millions of in adversity Patkar and Ken Saro-Wiwa personify our people engulfed by the wasting storms of instead of ideals. !ey represent our highest values denigrating poverty on the sea of dehuma- falling silent. Since 1980, more than 140 and help form our characters. A world nization.” such individuals and organisations from without visions and without heroes, who !ose were the words of Ken Saro-Wiwa, over 60 countries have received the Right make them come real, is a world with- founder of the Nigerian ‘Movement Livelihood Award or ‘Alternative Nobel out hope. !e Right Livelihood Award for the Survival of the Ogoni People’ Prize’ as it is often called. Laureates are role models, who inspire (MOSOP), when he received the Right !ey work for democracy, peace and and encourage us to dare the seemingly Livelihood Award in December 1994. justice. !ey protect nature and save lives impossible. !e speech was read in his name, be- cause at that time Ken Saro-Wiwa was in jail. Less than one year later, he and eight other members of MOSOP were execu- ted despite international protests. !e "ght that cost their lives was the Ogoni’s struggle for self-determination and justice, against the destructive con- sequences of oil production in the Niger Protecting Delta. !e struggle continues. Environments 1 sunción, February 2005. “What the Right Livelihood Award Ameant to me?” Martín Almada is sitting on the steps to his veranda. Behind him, in his house, there is a showcase. It contains the pincers and other instruments with which he was tortured un- der the military dictatorship of General Stroessner. In front of him, on the other side of the meadow, sunlight sparkles on the solar cells on his house. “Maybe you should ask: What did the Award mean to my country?” Martín Almada had been searching for evidence of the torture and state terror un- der Stroessner’s regime for years, until he "nally discovered the so-called ‘Archives of Terror.’ !ese documents proved the reign of terror in several South-American military dictatorships and played an important role in the case against the Chilean General Pi- nochet. In 2002, Martín Almada received the Right Livelihood Award for his outstan- ding courage in bringing torturers to justice, and promoting democracy, human rights and sustainable development. !e prize to him strengthened the cause for human rights in Paraguay considerably. A smile crosses his face. “Stroessner will not return to Paraguay as a free man,” he says. Indefatigable “If he returns, then in chains. !is is what the Prize has meant.” “Because we Jews know what it is to su"er, we must not oppress others.” Stroessner never returned to Paraguay. He died in exile in Brazil in 2006, right on the day when Martín Almada opened the ‘Museum of Memory, the Dictatorship and De- After the Six-Day War in 1967, mocracy’ in what was once one of the Stroessner regime’s clandestine torture centres. lawyer Felicia Langer began defending Palestinians in Israeli military courts. Her commitment brought threats and harassment. When she left Israel 20 years later, it was out of protest against Making a Di#erence the inhumane treatment of the Pales- tinians that she had experienced in the Success for the answers to the most urgent global courts. However, she did not give up: Right Liveli- challenges. It is a prize for people who at countless lectures in Europe and hood Award walk their talk, who have visions and the US, Felicia Langer continues her means win- make them come real against all odds. By campaign for a just peace. ning global protecting such individuals, by providing attention for international recognition and "nancial the stories of support the Right Livelihood Award outstanding people who accomplish the strengthens their impact – and inspires extraordinary: developing exemplary others to follow their path. Defending 2 Human Rights uerillas, paramilitary, government army – since the 1960s their con$ict has Gbrought death and destruction to Colombia, with ordinary people being the main victims. In 1987, after many years of su#ering from the violence brought by opposing armed groups, the peasants of the Colombian region of Carare were given four options: side with the military, side with the guerrillas, leave the region or die. But some of them chose a "fth path: !ey took their fate into their own hands and broke out from the logic of violence by refusing to side with any of the armed groups. Even after their leaders were assas- sinated, they did not back down and immediately elected new ones. Armed with an unshakeable commitment to non-violence, the ‘Association of Peasant Farm Workers of Carare’ (ATCC) started to rebuild their region. Catalyzing Change Redesigning Economics ATCC have “We can change the world for the better. Today, Egyptian cotton is to a great described Just the fact that the Right Livelihood extent pesticide-free. !is is due to how, when Award exists and whom it has honoured, the SEKEM initiative, a business they previous- has motivated many people to follow the model for the 21st century, which was ly wanted to Recipients’ examples – in their personal en- founded by Ibrahim Abouleish to meet visit a mini- vironment, regional, national or internatio- educational, cultural and environmen- stry as poor nal. !us, the Prize has contributed to more tal needs. Organic products, herbal farmers, they sustainability and justice – for humanity, remedies, educational programmes, were stopped the planet and our fellow creatures.” health care, an academy for science before they Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner and arts – at SEKEM, ecological, social could even Honorary President, Club of Rome and cultural life go hand in hand with enter the building. After they received commercial success. the Right Livelihood Award, the minister himself stood waiting on the doorsteps when they came. And this is what the Award is about: opening doors. Developing Alternatives 3 n 2002, Martin Green received the Right Livelihood Award for his dedication and Ioutstanding success in the harnessing of solar energy, the key technological challenge of our age. Since the early 1980s, a time when most people doubted the e%ciency of solar cell technology, Martin Green has shown that the challenge of creating a future based on renewable energy can be met. Since then, he has been at the forefront of the develop- ment and improvement of photovoltaic technology. It is clear that current energy policies and patterns of energy use are a major cause of global con$ict, insecurity and desta- bilisation of the climate. If it was not for people like Martin Green, who looked and worked ahead while others remained stuck in the past, we would still not know that alternative energy paths are not only possible, but e#ective, too. !e Right to Water ... … is the right to live. Finding Solutions Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke were among the "rst to realise the risks of !e Right for the consequences of our actions. !us, water privatisation. !ey decided to Livelihood the solutions the Right Livelihood Award counter the growing corporate control Award Foundation honours are not short-term of water by putting the issue onto the Foundation "xes, which pass on the real problems to agenda of NGOs, governments and honours those future generations. !e Right Livelihood people world-wide. !anks to their who "nd Award rewards those addressing the roots work, Uruguay adopted a constitu- solutions to today’s most important chal- of a global problem, not just its symp- tional amendment by referendum in lenges. It does not believe that technology toms. 2004. It declared access to water and can cure everything, but holds a more !e Foundation’s task is to "nd people sanitation to be a fundamental human balanced perception of what we need like Martin Green and to spread their right, and that, in the creation of water and what works. Right Livelihood means knowledge and support their work – for policies, social and ecological consi- that each person should follow an honest why should we continue living with prob- derations must take precedence over occupation that respects other people and lems we can solve? economic pro"ts. the natural world. It implies responsibility Six years later, in 2010, the UN Ge- neral Assembly with a majority of 122 states agreed to a resolution declaring the human right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation“. Preserving 4 Resources n 2010, the Right Livelihood Award Foundation invited all Prize Recipients to a Iconference commemorating its 30th anniversary.
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