[b]Nigerian, others receive Alternative Nobel Prize award[/b]s

By Ben Ezeamalu

December 8, 2010 05:58AM  


The recipients of the Right Livelihood Awards, otherwise called the Alternative Nobel Prize, were formally conferred with the honours in a ceremony in Stockholm, on Monday.

The ceremony, preceded by a press conference which held at the Swedish Parliament and presided over by Jakob von Uexkull, Founder and Co-Chair of the Award, was the climax of the announcement of the conferment of the awards to the four laureates whose activities cover human rights in the Middle East, environmental destruction through oil production, the survival of the Amazon and its people, and an inspiring example for how to overcome poverty. The recipients include a Nigerian, Nnimmo Bassey, the Executive Director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth International; Shrikrishna Upadhyay, of the organization SAPPROS; Ruchama Marton, the Founder and President of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel; and Erwin Kräutler.

Their work

Mr Bassey was honoured “for revealing the full ecological and human horrors of oil production and for his inspired work to strengthen the environmental movement in Nigeria and globally.” Erwin Krautler, from Brazil, was honoured “for a lifetime of work for the human and environmental rights of indigenous peoples and for his tireless efforts to save the Amazon forest from destruction.” Shrikrishna Upadhyay, and the organisation SAPPROS in Nepal, were recognised “for demonstrating over many years the power of community mobilisation to address the multiple causes of poverty even when threatened by political violence and instability.” Due to the loss of a family member, Mr Upadhyay was represented by Jyoti Bhattarai, his daughter, and Narendra Bahadur, the Executive Director of SAPPROS. The organisation, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, was awarded “for their indomitable spirit in working for the right to health for all people in Israel and Palestine,” and represented in Stockholm by its president and founder, Ruchama Marton.

Uniting against environmental degradation

Mr Bassey, in his statement at the press conference, urged people around the world to join hands and stand against rampaging corporate interests to defend our planet and build a sane future.” “With about 60 percent of the world’s crude oil reserves already exhausted, it is stunning to see policy makers believing they can run into eternity on less than half a tank,” he said. “As the world seeks cheap energy, someone has to pay for it. With regard to the fossil fuel sector, those paying the price for others to enjoy are the communities on whose territories oil is found, the degraded environments and of course the global atmosphere.”

While describing the extent of poverty in Asia, Mr. Bahadur insisted that ‘the poor must become subjects of development rather than objects’. “Nepal has the highest level of poverty in South Asia,” he said. “Two-thirds of our population are poor, which contributes to the persistence of conflict. Yet, Nepalese experience has shown that we can make poverty history if we trust the ingenuity of the poor. To help the poor overcome poverty, we need to adopt a holistic model of social mobilisation, which includes technology, institutional development, infrastructure, market access, and above all capacity-building to manage local resources. The poor are not the problem but part of the solution. Thus, we need to trust them.”

In a congratulatory letter by the United Nations Environment Programme, signed by its Executive Director, Achim Steiner, the agency said Mr Bassey’s “work in bringing serious environmental and human rights issues to the forefront, in particular campaign on the impacts of the oil industry in Nigeria is admirable,” adding, that, the UN agency would welcome advice from ERA on its work in Ogoniland.

The Right Livelihood Award was founded in 1980 and presented annually in the Swedish Parliament to honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing the world. It is often referred to as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize.’

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