With the March 1 deadline swiftly approaching, the window to nominate for the 2024 Right Livelihood Award is closing fast! This is your opportunity to nominate individuals and organisations striving for social and environmental justice. The nomination process is open to the public— we invite you to elevate those making a significant impact through their courageous efforts. While submissions are encouraged in English, we also welcome nominations in French and Spanish via our online form. If you have questions about the nomination process, do not hesitate to contact us via email at research@rightlivelihood.org or by phone at +41 (0)22 555 0943. NOMINATE NOW
Since 1980, Right Livelihood has celebrated the courageous and the visionary with its annual awards. It’s not just an award; it’s a global recognition of those who dare to envision and take action to create long-term social change. The Right Livelihood Award defies categories. This means the Laureates work in diverse fields across the world. Spanning from journalists who have brought truth to light to entomologists safeguarding biodiversity and poets who touch hearts and minds, the Award demonstrates that impactful work can come from anyone, anywhere.
On 15 February 2024 Ben Dalton informed that the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX) has unveiled the line-ups for its five competitive sections for its 2024 edition. All films in the main Dox:Award competition are world premieres for the second successive year.
The festival has launched a new section and award for 2024, the Human:Rights award, marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A €5,000 prize sponsored by the Institute for Human Rights will be given to a film that addresses human rights issues.
The festival will also include a series of events and discussions focusing on universal rights, beginning with a photo exhibition at the Pressen venue.
“This year’s competition sharpens its focus on the most urgent issues of our time, from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to gang violence in Sweden, exploring themes of identity politics, colonialism, and the foundational struggles for democracy and the fight against climate change,” said Niklas Engstrom, artistic director of CPH:DOX.
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) announced that “Beyond Utopia,” a BAFTA-nominated and du-Pont-Columbia Award-winning film that follows the harrowing journeys of several individuals as they attempt to escape North Korea, is now available to stream on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and YouTube. Pastor Seungeun Kim, who has made it his life’s work to rescue North Koreans. Over the past 23 years, he has saved more than 1,000 people through a network of smugglers and activists. As the film depicts, Pastor Kim frequently risks his own life by joining defectors on parts of their treacherous journey to safety, a trek that spans thousands of miles through jungles and rivers. Dubbed “an astonishing, real-life geopolitical thriller” by The Hollywood Reporter and “a staggering look at the nightmare of North Korea and the brave souls who tried to escape it” by Variety, the film has already received critical acclaim. It won the Audience Award for US Documentary at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, received a du-Pont-Columbia Award, has been nominated for the 2024 British Academy Film Award for Best Documentary, and was shortlisted for the 2024 Oscar for Best Documentary. Stream “Beyond Utopia” today on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and YouTube.
Anyone may nominate a candidate for the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award. If you nominated someone in the past but they did not win, you may nominate them again.
The strongest nominations will provide a detailed account of the candidate’s work and results for displaced or stateless people, as well as three solid references to vouch for their character and impact. References should not all come from the same organization or group.
Please note that self-nominations are strongly discouraged. Current or former UNHCR employees are not eligible.
Criteria
Candidates may be individuals, groups or organizations.
Their work must have a direct and positive impact on the lives of forcibly displaced or stateless people.
Their work relates to a major displacement situation or issue.
This year they especially encourage nominations that relate to statelessness, climate, sports, solutions and inclusions but they are open to other themes.
They devote substantial time and effort to support forcibly displaced or stateless people, going above and beyond the call of duty and outside their expected role.
They have the capacity to successfully implement a suitable project with the prize money (US$100,000 for the global laureate, US$25,000 for regional winners).
Nominations are open for the Martin Ennals Award 2024! The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders honours individuals and organizations who have shown exceptional commitment to defending human rights, despite the risks involved. We are proud to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Award in 2024, in partnership with the City of Geneva, the Jury member organizations, the extended family of Laureates around the world, and our wonderful donors. To qualify for the Award 2024, the nominees must:
Be currently active in the promotion and protection of human rights
Not employ or advocate violence
Not be self-nominated
Be in need of protection
We encourage nominations of activists under 30 years of age to reflect the growing number of young persons joining the human rights movements in their countries. Post-humous nominations are not eligible.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is accepting applications for the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2024 to honour a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and, or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, and especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. Deadline: 15 February 2024
For those who missed last this year’s #RightLivelihood Award Presentation on Wednesday 29 November 2023. It puts a spotlight on the importance of reconnecting to nature and our communities, calling for the systems that unite us to be built on trust and cooperation rather than suspicion and greed. For the winners, see: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2023/09/29/right-livelihood-awards-2023/
On 29 December 2023 Akram Miknas posted a piece on gdnonline attacking the Nobel Peace Prize. It is not my role to “defend” the Peace Prize, but the misconception underlying much of the piece is such that it is worth putting the record straight:
“Wish it were feasible to revoke the Nobel Peace Prize! Especially when some individuals upon whom this supreme honour is bestowed, show, by their subsequent actions and behaviour, that they are more suited to a ‘prize’ or ‘badge’ of shame associated with war and destruction or violence and bloodshed“
The author then raises the cases of Menachem Begin, Shimon Peres, and Aung San Suu Kyi, who are seen as violators. He could have added others such as Le Duc Tho, de Klerk, Arafat and Kissinger or more recently Abiy Ahmed Ali.
…”These examples make us question the logic of bestowing the Nobel on individuals or groups for peace, when their actions are anything but peaceful! In fact, after having received this honour, they have been involved in terrible acts that have stained them with the blood of their victims.”
…..Indeed, many of these Nobel Peace Prize laureates, are, in reality, perpetrators of war crimes. As far back as 2012 I published a piece ‘Nobel Prize is for Peace not necessarily Human Rights‘ which states that the Prize is a PEACE prize and was in certain cases awarded ‘merely’ because they stopped violating human rights. See: https://www.comminit.com/content/nobel-prize-peace-not-necessarily-human-rights
The author makes the sensible point of asking for a critical reassessment of the award selection process: “One key criterion should be that recipients must refrain from intertwining human rights advocacy with political activities. Failure to adhere to this condition should warrant the withdrawal of the award in the future. This measure ensures that the accolade is granted solely based on an individual’s commitment to human rights without any influence from political affiliations or perspectives.”
The author’s call to “to establish alternative awards that are …specifically designed to champion the causes of the vulnerable. It should recognise individuals who are committed to tirelessly working for peace, justice and the promotion of humane values within societies. These awards should gain appreciation and support from individuals and organisations dedicated to fostering positive change in oppressed communities.” is fine but hardly necessary as there are at least 200 such awards, see: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest.
It is a pleasure to join you to honour the achievements of human rights defenders across the globe. Three quarters of a century ago, in a world decimated by war, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed that: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a clarion call to act in accordance with a fundamental truth: that each of us is an equal member of a single human family.
Seventy-five years on, the world must recall that wisdom. And it must act on it. Because human rights are under attack around the world. Conflicts are raging, with appalling consequences for civilians as we are dramatically witnessing every single day with immense death and suffering in Gaza after the horrors of the 7 October attacks. Inequalities are deepening. Hunger and poverty are rising. Women’s rights are stalling, and in some cases, going into reverse. Civic space and media freedom is being rolled back.
New threats are blossoming – from catastrophic climate disasters, to artificial intelligence, which holds the potential for immense possibility, but also for immense peril. And age-old hatreds are resurging with a vengeance – from racism, to xenophobia, and religious intolerance. People are being violently targeted solely for their religion, their ethnicity or who they love.
But across the world, human rights defenders are lights in the darkness.
They are changing lives:
Fighting, educating, and holding power to account, to make human rights a living, breathing reality. This is deeply dangerous work. Last year, almost 450 human rights defenders, journalists and trade unionists were killed. Forty percent more than the previous year. Thirty-three vanished without a trace – a staggering three hundred percent increase from 2021.
In this context, today’s Human Rights Prize is all the more important. This prize has recognized the achievements of human rights defenders since 1968. It has honored luminaries such as Nelson Mandela, Malala Yusafzai and the International Committee of the Red Cross. See: https://www.trueheroesfilms.org/thedigest/awards/74A3B502-F3DF-4DDB-8D6F-672C03B4A008.
Julienne Lusenge from the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
Julio Pereyra from Uruguay;
The Amman Center for Human Rights Studies;
The Human Rights Center “Viasna”, working in Belarus;
And the Global Coalition of civil society organizations, Indigenous Peoples, social movements and local communities for “the universal recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment”.
Congratulations to you all. And thank you for everything you are doing. I would also like to pay tribute tonight to the thousands of unsung human rights defenders around the world.
Leaders of all kinds must take inspiration from you – our prize recipients today –and defend all human rights – political, civil, social, economic, and cultural.
The world needs leaders of countries, corporations, political parties, religious and civil organizations and beyond, to speak out against antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, attacks on minority Christian communities, and all forms of hate and abuse. It needs them to protect human rights defenders, and bring those who threaten them to justice.
It needs them to embrace our common norms and values, to act on them, and be guided by the spirit of humanity and dignity embodied by the Universal Declaration – to prevent conflict, protect the planet and heal divides.
And to place human rights at the front and centre of efforts to update our international institutions at the Summit of the Future next September.
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As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we need leaders of all kinds to embrace their role as human rights defenders too.
On 14 December 2023, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the 2023 Human Rights Tulip has been awarded to Hülya Gülbahar, a feminist attorney from Türkiye and founder of the Equality Watch Women’s Group (EŞİTİZ) and the Women’s Platform for Equality Türkiye (EŞİK). Minister of Foreign Affairs Hanke Bruins Slot presented the prize on 14 December at a ceremony in the Peace Palace.
In her speech, Ms Bruins Slot said: ‘Human rights are among the most important resources we have at our disposal to tackle the major problems of our time, such as war, poverty and climate change. ..The nominees for the Human Rights Tulip understand this at a profound level. Through their tireless efforts, these human rights defenders make a real difference for people and society.’
EŞİTİZ and EŞİK publish legal analyses of legislative bills and amendments on feminist and LGBTIQ+ issues, conduct awareness-raising campaigns (for example on the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence) and promote social mobilisation by the Turkish feminist movement.
‘For more than 40 years,’ Ms Bruins Slot said, ‘Hülya Gülbahar has been defending women’s rights and fighting injustice in Türkiye. She does so using her extensive legal expertise and through her influential network, comprised primarily of women, which is too extensive to ignore. And she has been very successful at it.
Other finalists
The two other finalists for the 2023 Human Rights Tulip were:
Julienne Baseke is a journalist and human rights defender who fights for women’s rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). As a journalist, Ms Baseke founded the South Kivu Women’s Media Association (AFEM), which aims to enhance women’s visibility and participation in the DRC media.
Claudelice dos Santos is a human rights and environmental activist in the Amazon region. She is the founder of the Zé Claudio e Maria Institute, whose shelter and protection house provides a safe haven for indigenous land, environmental and human rights defenders.
