Advocacy statements
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We’re announcing the 2026 Right Livelihood Laureates on September 30!
Who are the change-makers receiving the 2026 Right Livelihood Award? You can find out on Wednesday, September 30, 2026. The 2026 Right Livelihood Laureates will be announced at 6 am Stockholm time (Central European Summer Time), followed by a press conference livestreamed at 8 am. You can follow the announcement live on YouTube or on…
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Building the case for future Laureates: Inside the Research
As the Jury‘s decision to select the 2026 Right Livelihood Laureates gets closer, Ben Lyons, the latest addition to the Research Team, reveals how the case for a Laureate is built: from getting proposals to analysing profiles and contexts in an individualised manner to compile a Jury Report with almost a hundred nominations. The complexity…
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Beyond extraction: Communities in Mozambique are reclaiming the future
By Mariel Merayo Ramirez, Advocacy Officer at Right Livelihood “A luta continua.”The struggle continues. It is a phrase heard often in Mozambique. Born from the country’s liberation movement during the 1960s and 70s, it has become much more than a historical slogan. Today, it speaks to communities who continue to defend their land, rivers and…
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Reconceptualising Exile: What saves your life can also unravel it
Exile is not travel, not an opportunity, nor migration. It is not driven by choice, but by necessity. It is movement without agency, a last resort to remain free and alive. Yet the cost is profound. Through the ‘Reconceptualising Exile’ project, Right Livelihood supports human rights defenders not only to survive displacement but to rebuild…
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“Becoming an activist is not a rational thing:” A conversation with Laureate Walden Bello
When Walden Bello arrived in Stockholm in May 2026, it was to reconnect with a fellow activist from the Philippines pro-democracy movement of the 1970s and 80s, and to revisit the city where he received the Right Livelihood Award in 2003. In the decades since, he has remained a leading voice on the global left:…
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Walden Bello: The far right rose because the left abandoned working people
2003 Laureate Walden Bello sat down with Right Livelihood in Stockholm to discuss his new book “Backlash: The Global Rise of the Radical Right”. Far from concentrating blame on figures and parties like US President Donald Trump and Alternative for Germany, Walden argued the mainstream left, and its embrace of neoliberalism, created fertile ground for…
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“It is a crime against humanity:” Women Laureates call out gendered repression against activists
Women human rights and environmental defenders face escalating repression simply because of their gender and need stronger international protections to continue their work, Right Livelihood Laureates warned at a United Nations side event last week. The event, organised by Right Livelihood as part of the Women Laureates Hub and Exile Project programmes during the 62nd…
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Venezuela earthquake relief: How Cecosesola is mobilising community solidarity
One week after a powerful double earthquake struck northern Venezuela, Right Livelihood Laureate Cecosesola is helping coordinate relief efforts, demonstrating once again how community-led organisation becomes a lifeline in times of crisis. As emergency responders continue searching for survivors following the powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela on 24 June, the cooperative network Cecosesola has transformed…
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Juan Pablo Orrego Silva on Chile’s new government: “The assault is totally regressive”
Chilean ecologist and Right Livelihood Laureate Juan Pablo Orrego Silva warns that President José Antonio Kast’s first 100 days in office have accelerated a decades-long model of exploitation and degradation. Setbacks in protective legislation and permissions for extractivism mark the current environmental decisions in Chile and beyond. The first 100 days of a new administration…
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“What was taken by force”: Aminatou Haidar on Western Sahara’s vanishing hope
When asked to close their eyes and imagine home, most people would reach for a familiar recipe, song or smell. Aminatou Haidar reaches for something different. “I see the prisons, the torture, the arbitrary detentions, the daily repression — even against children, women and the elderly,” she told Right Livelihood during a recent visit to…