30th Right Livelihood Awards to be announced

The Right Livelihood Award Foundation will announce its 2009 Laureates at a press conference in the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs Press Room on October 13, 2009. Marianne Andersson, Member of the Board and Jury of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation; Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director; and Sven Bergström, Chairman of the Society for the Right Livelihood Award in the Swedish Parliament, will be present to announce the new prize recipients. Jakob von Uexkull, founder of the award, will be available for interviews on the phone. 82 candidates from 46 countries were proposed for the Right Livelihood Awards this year, whereof 36 come from industrialized and 46 from "developing" countries.
 

Jakob von Uexkull about the occasion of the 30th announcement of the Right Livelihood Awards: "In 1980, it was not clear that this award would reach its 30th birthday. I am delighted that it has. Since then, the RLA has grown and so has its impact. But the global challenges we are facing have grown ever faster, so that this prize is today more needed than ever. Our recipients inspire hope and offer solutions how we can still avoid the approaching points-of-no-return threatening our common future.” Since 1980, the award has been supported by individual donors. Its aim is "to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today". The award is often referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize". It will be presented at a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament on December 9, 2009, hosted by the Society for the Right Livelihood Award in the Swedish Parliament. A press conference with the 2009 Laureates will take place the same day.

Right Livelihood Award