'Alternate Nobel Prize 2020': Belarus, Iran, US, Nicaragua Activists Awarded the Right Livelihood Award; Here Are Details About the Winners And Their Work
Washington, October 1: Activists from Belarus, Iran, Nicaragua and the United States were awarded the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes referred to as the “Alternative Nobel".A prominent Belarus opposition figure and an imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer were among the awardees.
According to an AP report, Ole von Uexkull, the head of the Swedish Right Livelihood Foundation behind the prize, said that it “highlights the increasing threats to democracy globally. It is high time that all of us supporting democracy around the world stand up and support each other.”
Here Are details about the winners and their work for which they won the award:
Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian lawyer, who has defended activists, opposition politicians and women prosecuted for removing their headscarves, was given the award “for her fearless activism, at great personal risk, to promote political freedoms and human rights in Iran.”
Bryan Stevenson, US civil rights lawyer won the award “for his inspiring endeavour to reform the US criminal justice system and advance racial reconciliation in the face of historic trauma.”
Lottie Cunningham Wren, the 61-year-old rights and environmental activist of Nicaragua won “for her ceaseless dedication to the protection of indigenous lands and communities from exploitation and plunder.”
58-year-old human rights activist Ales Bialiatski and the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Center Viasna which he heads, won “for their resolute struggle for the realization of democracy and human rights in Belarus.”
Although the Right Livelihood Award is promoted as an "Alternative Nobel Prize", it is not a Nobel prize. It does not have any organizational ties at all to the awarding institutions of the Nobel Prize or the Nobel Foundation.
