Lifesavers and environmentalists win Right Livelihood awards

Two women activists from Africa and two organizations were presented with this year’s Right Livelihood Award on Thursday. 

Eunice Brookman-Amissah won the award for fighting social taboos around abortion in African nations, whilst Phyllis Omido was honored for highlighting unsafe industrial practices in Kenya.

Recognition also went to Mother Nature Cambodia for its efforts at preserving the environment in the face of an authoritarian regime and corrupt businesses. 

And European organization SOS MEDITERRANEE received the award for life-saving work amid a deepening humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean Sea.

"These laureates take a stance to have a say in the affairs of their communities and those affected by harmful and corrupt policies. They care for their land and each human life connected to it: be it Indigenous communities or people risking their lives to get to safety," Ole von Uexkull, Executive Director at Right Livelihood, said in a statement. 

Founded in 1980, the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel prize) honors and supports people working to solve global problems. The award comes with long-term support to highlight and expand the laureates' work.

Eunice Brookman-Amissah

Eunice Brookman-Amissah is physician from Ghana who has played a significant role in advancing safe abortion access across Africa. 

The first laureate from Ghana won the Right Livelihood Award "for pioneering discussions on women’s reproductive rights in Africa, paving the way for liberalized abortion laws and improved safe abortion access."

Sub-Saharan Africa is the most risky region in the world for abortion access, recording 6.2 million unsafe abortions occur each year, according to the Swedish NGO. 

Brookman-Amissah’s advocacy has contributed to a 40% decline in abortion-related deaths in the region since 2000, Right Livelihood said. 

Phyllis Omido

Phyllis Omido — an environmental activist from Kenya — won for her "groundbreaking struggle" to secure land and environmental rights for local communities.

Omido, often referred to as the "Erin Brockovich of East Africa," has led the struggle for justice and the Owino Uhuru community that has battled lead poisoning ever since a battery smelting plant began operating in their village. 

Today, because of her activism, 17 toxic sites have been shuttered across Kenya, the foundation said. 

To spread awareness on environmental rights beyond Owino Uhuru, Omido has set up  a network of 120 grassroots land and environmental defenders (LEDs) across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, empowering and guiding others to protect their communities.

Mother Nature Cambodia 

Mother Nature Cambodia is a youth-led environmental rights organization that works with local communities to preserve nature and livelihoods even as the country’s regime clamps down on civil society activism.

Mother Nature Cambodia’s work includes stopping the Chinese-led construction of a hydroelectric dam which was putting an Indigenous community at risk. Eleven of the initiative’s activists have been jailed while its founder Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson and a staffer have been forced to leave the country, which Right Livelihood said was indicative of the government’s hostile stance against Mother Nature Cambodia.

The organization has been given the award for its "fearless and engaging activism" to preserve Cambodia’s natural environment "in the context of a highly restricted democratic space."

SOS MEDITERRANEE 

European maritime-humanitarian organization, SOS MEDITERRANEE, has received the award for its "life-savinghumanitarian search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea."

Operating in the world’s deadliest migration route, the organization has carried out search and rescue operations, bringing more than 38,500 people to safety since it began work in 2016, Right Livelihood said.

"I would like people to realize that the situation in the central Mediterranean Sea is still going on that there are still a lot of people fleeing Libya and Tunisia now and trying to find a safe space somewhere else and that they are risking their lives to do so," SOS Mediterranee Director General Caroline Abu Sada told DW.

"People shouldn't have to risk their lives to look for safety."

The "unwavering commitment" of SOS MEDITERRANEE to humanity has not only saved lives but kept the public, European institutions and national governments continually aware of the realities of the growing humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean Sea, the foundation added. 

Edited by: Rob Turner