Human rights and global crisis activists from Canada, Italy, Uganda, and the Marshall Islands have been named winners of the 2015 Right Livelihood Awards, the so-called ” alternative Nobels.” This year’s 3 million kronor ($358,500) award will be shared by,
- Canada’s Sheila Watt-Cloutier, cited for promoting Inuit livelihoods and culture
- Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera from Uganda, for her struggle for gay rights and sexual minorities
- Italian surgeon Gino Strada, for providing medical assistance to victims of war.
The people of the Pacific islands and their foreign minister, Tony de Brum, will receive an honorary award for what was described as their visionary and courageous legal action against nuclear powers “for failing to honor disarmament obligations.”
Points to Note
- The awards were founded in 1980 by Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull.
- Jakob Johann Baron von Uexküll (8 September 1864 – 25 July 1944) was a Baltic German biologist who worked in the fields of muscular physiology, animal behaviour studies, and the cybernetics of life.
- The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to “honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today.
- Although it is promoted as an “Alternative Nobel Prize”, it is not a Nobel prize.
Test Your GK
Name the famous American privacy activist who won the Right Livelihood Award in 2014?
